SBAR is a format used by healthcare professionals for handing off a patient to another healthcare professional. It’s a great way to hand off work to the next stakeholder as well.

Situation: What is happening?

Background: What relevant context can you provide?

Assessment: What did you learn when you were working on the issue?

Recommendation: What do you think they should do next once you’ve handed off the work to them?

My example

Situation: My direct report’s partner has found a job in another city and so she’ll be moving soon.

Background: As part of company policy, she needs to submit a relocation request form to our People and Culture Team.

Assessment: She plans to file her taxes in her hometown this year, before moving and doesn’t want to impact her tax filing this year. She was thinking about not submitting the relocation request until after she has filed her taxes.

Recommendation: This situation goes outside my area of expertise as her manager, but I recommended that she have a conversation with the People and Culture Team soon, so that they could advise her on how to proceed so that she can still file her taxes the same way, and not leave the People Team with a short time to adjust her documents for the next pay period.

Tying it all together

By using this format, I was able to make sure that my direct report, and the person on the People Team that she needed to talk to would have the same context that I did going into the conversation. This way they can start on the same page and come to a conclusion faster, rather than having to rediscover all this context all over again. A good SBAR handoff keeps momentum going and saves everyone valuable time.