May 17, 2021
Running an Offshore to Onsite Handover Call
Updated September 2026: in May 2021 I described an onsite handover call where the onsite lead criticised our offshore team for working on the manager's side tasks instead of the activities they had listed. I have rewritten it into a guide to running an offshore-to-onsite handover that stays focused on what the client needs.
After the kickoff of a large opportunity, my manager gave me five new tasks within minutes, none of them on the onsite team's list. I spent the day on them. At the evening handover call, when my manager walked through what offshore had done, the onsite lead was furious: they had wanted only the activities they had listed, and those were not done.
What is the purpose of a daily handover call?
To pass work across time zones cleanly: what was finished, what is in progress, what is blocked and what the other side needs to pick up. It is not a showcase. A handover that opens with extra work nobody asked for, while the requested items are unfinished, will go badly however good the extra work is.
How do you keep offshore work aligned with onsite priorities?
- Treat the onsite list as the baseline. Anything else waits until it is done.
- When a manager adds tasks, ask where they fit against that list, and get an answer before starting.
- Share a midday status with onsite, so a drift in priorities is caught before the evening call.
How should the handover itself be structured?
Start with the onsite team's own list, item by item: done, in progress or blocked, with a one-line reason for anything not done. Only then mention additional work, briefly, framed as optional input. Share a written version before the call so the onsite lead can read it rather than hear it for the first time.
What if you are criticised for decisions that were not yours?
Do not argue on the call. Acknowledge the gap, confirm what will be done by the next handover, and take notes. Afterwards, speak to your manager privately about what happened, with the onsite list and the day's tasks side by side. If your manager directed the work, the fix has to come from them, and a factual comparison is the easiest way to make that clear.
How do you prevent a repeat?
Agree at the start of an opportunity that the onsite task list is the source of priorities for offshore, and that any additions go through the onsite lead. Put it in the kickoff notes. It protects everyone, including a manager who wants to add value, by making sure extra effort goes where the client wants it.
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