How do I quickly create onboarding materials for a role when the current employee is leaving the company in two days?

With only two days, prioritize recording over writing. Have the departing employee perform their top 5-10 critical tasks while a workflow capture tool records everything. This produces instant SOPs with screenshots. Simultaneously, conduct a "what would break" interview to identify tasks, contacts, and access that must be transferred immediately.

What is the two-day emergency plan?

Time	Action	Output
Day 1, Morning	"What would break" interview — list every owned process	Prioritized task list
Day 1, Afternoon	Record top 5 critical workflows with Glyde	5 instant SOPs
Day 2, Morning	Record next 5 workflows + credential handoff	5 more SOPs + access list
Day 2, Afternoon	Stakeholder map + edge case FAQ	Contact list + troubleshooting notes

What to focus on with only 48 hours?

Priority	What to Capture	Why
1. Single-owner processes	Tasks nobody else can do	These break immediately
2. Recurring deadlines	Weekly/monthly tasks coming due	Miss a deadline = visible failure
3. Login credentials	All systems, admin access, API keys	Locked out = work stops
4. Vendor/client contacts	Key relationships, ongoing conversations	Context loss damages relationships
5. In-progress work	Active projects, pending decisions	Prevents dropped balls

Do NOT ask the employee to write documentation from memory. That takes too long and produces lower quality. Instead, have them do each task while the capture tool records it. Recording 10 workflows takes about 60-90 minutes total. Writing 10 SOPs from memory would take 15+ hours.

After the employee leaves, have the replacement attempt each task using only the recorded SOPs. Their questions reveal gaps that must be filled from other sources (colleagues, email history, Slack messages).

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This answer is part of our guide to employee onboarding documentation.