Let Senior People Leave Without Taking the Client Relationship or the Work in Progress
When a senior person leaves an agency, two things are at risk: the client who trusts them and the campaign only they understand. We help you design an exit that moves the relationship and the work to the continuing team, transfers files and platform access, settles portfolio credit openly, records the confidentiality position and keeps the door open for returning alumni. We then help you set the checklist and records up in your own system or on the GullyHR platform.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
What Leaves With the Person Who Resigns?
Agency exits go wrong in a pattern. A resignation is received, notice runs while the person is already looking elsewhere, a handover is promised and not done, and the client learns about the departure from the departing person or a competitor.
We help you make the exit a planned handover, and keep good people connected to the agency.
You may be experiencing:
- Clients who hear about a departure from the leaver before the agency has spoken to them.
- Live campaign status that exists only in the leaver's head and inbox.
- Creative working files kept on a personal drive, or in versions nobody else can open.
- Access to ad accounts, analytics and client platforms still held by someone who has left.
- Freelancer and vendor relationships known to one person.
- Arguments about portfolio use and credit, raised by the leaver only on the last day.
- No clear position on non-solicit or confidentiality, and no record of what was agreed.
What we can help with
Our Exit and Alumni Management Services for Agencies
Exit Process and Timeline
Set the steps from resignation to relieving letter: acknowledgement, notice, last working day, handover, clearance and settlement, with an owner and a date for each.
Client Introduction and Transition
Plan how clients are told, by whom and when, and how the outgoing person introduces the continuing team, so that the relationship moves in an orderly way.
Live Campaign and Work-in-progress Handover
Prepare a status format covering each live campaign: stage, next actions, deadlines, approvals pending, budget position and what the client has been told.
Files, Assets and Access Transfer
Consolidate creative files, working versions and assets, and move ownership of ad accounts, analytics and client platform access, with a record of who holds what at the end.
Freelancer, Vendor and Pipeline Handover
Document the freelancers, vendors and partners a leaver worked with, and hand over open pitches and the new-business pipeline to a named person.
Confidentiality, Non-solicit and Portfolio Position
Confirm in writing what the person has agreed regarding client confidentiality, soliciting colleagues or clients and showing work, and agree what may be shown and how it is credited.
Settlement and Letters
Sequence final settlement against clearance, and prepare relieving and experience letter formats, so that payment and documents follow a known order.
Alumni and Boomerang Process
Decide rehire eligibility criteria, keep a list of alumni on good terms and design the route by which a former employee can return.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, your engagement can include:
- An exit process map with a timeline and owners.
- A client communication and introduction plan.
- A live campaign status handover format.
- A file, asset and access transfer checklist.
- A freelancer, vendor and pipeline handover note.
- A confidentiality and portfolio position record.
- A settlement sequence and letter formats.
- An alumni register and a returning-staff route.
Step by step
How We Work
Review Recent Departures
We look at how recent exits actually went, especially those involving client-facing or creative leaders, and what was lost or recovered.
Design the Order of Events
We lay out who does what from the day of resignation, and which steps cannot happen before others, such as client contact before access changes.
Prepare the Formats
We write the handover status format, the access and file checklist and the letters, so that they can be used quickly while a team is busy.
Set Up the Workflow
We configure tasks, approvals and reminders in your system or on the GullyHR platform, so that clearance is visible to HR, finance and the account team.
Review the Next Exits
Before work starts we record how exits are handled now. We then review the next few exits with you against that baseline.
The difference
Keep the Relationship and the Work Through a Departure
A planned exit process helps your agency to:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering how long final settlements take, how many handover items are missing at the last working day and how many leavers have access revoked on time, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not. Enforceability of non-solicit, confidentiality and work-ownership terms varies, and GullyHR does not give legal advice; confirm the contractual and settlement position with a qualified professional.
- Tell clients first and introduce the continuing team.
- Know the status of every live campaign at the point of departure.
- Recover files, assets and access in a recorded way.
- Settle portfolio credit before it becomes a dispute.
- Pay final settlement in a known order after clearance.
- Keep good leavers within reach.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Agencies Where Account Leads Hold Client Trust
Move the relationship to the team before the person goes.
Creative Studios with Shared Working Files
Recover and organise work that sits across personal drives.
Agencies Facing Senior Resignations
Plan the handover when a director or head of function gives notice.
Agencies That Value Returning Alumni
Keep a list and a route for people who might come back.
How it usually shows up in marketing, advertising and creative
Exits in agencies are often abrupt. A person resigns, perhaps to a competitor or a client, and the notice period becomes a negotiation. Handover is a conversation on the last day. Live campaign status, creative files, working versions, ad accounts, analytics access and freelancer contacts are held by the individual and by their devices. The client hears about the departure from the person or from the grapevine. Non-solicit and confidentiality terms exist in contracts and are not discussed at exit. Portfolio rights, the ability to show work and credit, are sometimes agreed and sometimes argued about afterwards. Clearance covers laptop and ID but not platform access. Final settlement waits for a founder's signature. Alumni are not tracked, though many go to clients and competitors and some return.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in marketing, advertising and creative
The client learns late
Introduction to the continuing team happens after the person has gone, or not at all.
Work lives on one person's laptop
Working files, versions and campaign status are not handed over.
Platform access stays open
Ad accounts, analytics and client tools remain in the leaver's name.
Portfolio and credit are unsettled
The leaver and the agency disagree later about what can be shown.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Set notice and handover plan on resignation
A written plan with dates, owners and a list of live work. The exit process holds the format.
- 02
Introduce the client together
The outgoing person and the successor meet the client before the last day.
- 03
Hand over files and access
Files in a shared location, accounts moved to a named person and individual access removed on the last day.
- 04
Confirm the terms
Confidentiality, non-solicit and portfolio use discussed and agreed in writing.
- 05
Close finances and keep contact
Settlement within a stated period, an exit conversation by someone outside the line and an alumni list.
What to check this week
- Look at the last senior exit and see when the client was told.
- Check whether campaign files were in a shared location before the person left.
- List client platforms where former staff still have access.
- Ask what agreement exists on portfolio use.
- Find how many former staff are on an alumni list.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies depends on your establishment, your state and your sector, and it changes. This page describes a practice; it does not state a legal position.
What this looks like in marketing, advertising and creative
The parts of exit and alumni management that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Client Relationships and Creative Handover
The relationship and the work both have to stay.
What this coversHide
Client Relationships and Creative Handover
The relationship and the work both have to stay.
What this coversHideWhen a senior agency person leaves, two things are at risk: the client who trusts them and the work in progress that only they understand.
- Client introduction to the continuing team, led by the outgoing person
- Live campaign status documented with next actions
- Creative files, working versions and assets consolidated and handed over
- Access to client platforms, ad accounts and analytics transferred
- Freelancer and vendor relationships documented
- Pitch and new-business pipeline handed over
- Confidentiality and non-solicit position confirmed
- Portfolio and credit position agreed explicitly
The portfolio question is worth settling openly rather than leaving to assumption. Creative people will show work they made; agreeing what can be shown and how it is credited prevents a dispute that damages both sides.
Questions on this, in marketing, advertising and creative
Usually the agency, ahead of the leaver, with the leaver introducing the continuing team afterwards. We help you agree the order and the wording so that the client is not surprised and no opening is left for a competitor.
Settle it early, ideally during employment. At exit, we help you record what may be shown, with whose consent and how it is credited. Whether a particular restriction can be enforced is a legal question for a qualified professional.
That depends on the terms of employment and the nature of the work, so it should be confirmed with a qualified professional. We help you build the process: consolidating files, recording what exists and agreeing what is returned.
The handover plan sets out the tasks and dates inside whatever notice applies. Where a person stops working during notice, we help you decide which items must still be transferred, and by whom, before the last working day.
Yes. Former employees often return with new skills, and former freelancers can be hired permanently. We help you keep an alumni list, agree what rehire eligibility means and design how returners join, without making promises you cannot keep.
Introduce the successor early, ideally with the outgoing person present, document live work and make sure access and files have moved before the last day.
That depends on contract and client terms. Agree it in writing at exit and keep a record of the work and credit involved.
Real reasons for leaving, the state of live work, concerns about the manager or account and whether the person would come back. Use someone outside the reporting line.
Yes. Alumni become clients, partners, referrers and sometimes return. A light alumni list with a yearly message is enough.
Plan the Handover Before the Next Resignation
If a senior departure would put a client or a campaign at risk, set the process now, while nothing depends on it.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book an Exit Process Consultation
Tell us about your agency and how exits are handled today.
The general method — what exit and alumni management covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the exit and offboarding process page. What is above is the part that differs for marketing, advertising and creative.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see exit and offboarding software.
Other HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative, or another industry.