A Slack on-call handoff you can verify.
Use this checklist when responsibility for team requests changes. It works with a manual roster or a scheduling app. No account or email address is required.
Download the plain-text checklist →
Before the handoff
- Name the next owner and exact time. Include the date and schedule timezone; ask the incoming person to acknowledge.
- Check exceptions. Is anyone covering part of the shift? Record the end time and who the underlying schedule assigns then.
- Transfer context. List unresolved requests, current impact, the next action, its owner and any deadline. Link to the source of truth rather than copying sensitive details into a broad channel.
- Check access. The incoming person needs the relevant channel, queue and runbooks. Share access through your approved process, never by pasting passwords.
At the handoff
- Inspect the actual routing group. Confirm it contains the intended current owner after the update, not just that the schedule looks right.
- Verify one new mention. In an agreed test channel, select the group from Slack’s picker and ask the recipient to confirm it in Activity. Record device alerts separately.
- Confirm responsibility. Incoming person acknowledges the open items; outgoing person records any unresolved access or delivery problem and who is fixing it.
Paste this into your handoff channel
Handoff: [date, time, timezone]
From → to: [outgoing] → [incoming]
Cover exception: [person, start, end; owner who resumes] or none
Open requests: [link · impact · next action · owner · deadline]
Watch: [known risk or upcoming change]
Runbooks / escalation: [approved links]
Verified at: [time; actual group members]
Mention result: [message link; recipient’s observation]
Accepted by: [incoming person; time]
Unresolved / next owner: [issue and person, or none]
When temporary cover ends
Check the schedule again. The person who resumes may have changed during the cover window. Repeat the membership check and acknowledgement; do not blindly restore the outgoing person. See the worked coverage timeline.
Slack’s group permissions and mention delivery rules still apply. A correct group or Activity entry is not an emergency paging guarantee. Follow your separate incident escalation process when someone must be woken or a response must be acknowledged.
Keep the checklist; automate repetitive group updates if needed
Ternly maintains a dedicated Slack group from a one-person-at-a-time rotation and finite coverage windows. It does not replace the context or acknowledgement in this checklist. You need paid Slack and permission to manage groups. The current trial is 14 days without a card, with paid checkout closed.