Before a marketing team member is absent, identify who should take responsibility, explain the work they will cover and check whether they have the access needed to carry it out. These are related decisions, but they are not the same decision. AIM Teams Builder — Roles & Responsibilities helps document the staffing arrangement; its cover assignments do not automatically promote users or change WordPress permissions.
That distinction is central to a useful absence plan. Naming a cover manager can make responsibility clearer, but it does not establish that the person can perform every duty associated with the absent colleague.
What AIM Teams Builder supports for absence planning
AIM Teams Builder v1.3.1 lets website administrators organise authorised staff within the AIM dashboard. Administrators can identify a person’s main manager and assistants, nominate a cover manager for periods of absence, and record responsibilities, duties for individual marketing tools, regular activities and handover notes.
These facts support a practical documentation workflow: describe the person’s usual work, nominate the cover arrangement and leave notes that explain what needs attention. The release does not establish automatic reassignment of work, absence notifications or permission changes. Plan around the supported records rather than assuming those actions happen in the background.
Prepare a cover arrangement in four steps
1. Describe the work before choosing cover
Review the staff member’s responsibilities and regular activities. A cover manager needs to understand the scope of the responsibility, not just the absent person’s title. Recommended questions include which activities need continuity, which can wait and where an assistant already supports the work.
Record tool-specific duties clearly enough that someone can distinguish responsibility for an activity from general familiarity with a marketing tool. A skill record can inform the choice of cover, but it does not prove availability or access.
2. Agree who should take responsibility
Nominate a cover manager after discussing the arrangement with the people involved. Confirm whether that person will handle the work directly, coordinate assistants or make decisions about what should wait.
Those details are recommended content for responsibilities and handover notes, not separate automation features claimed for the product. A clear agreement is more useful than a name entered without an explanation.
3. Write handover notes around the work
A useful handover should explain the practical context of the responsibility. Depending on the activity, recommended notes could address:
- Current position: what has already been completed and what remains unresolved.
- Upcoming activities: recurring work or agreed deadlines that fall during the absence.
- Supporting roles: which assistants are involved and what support they provide.
- Decision boundaries: what the team has agreed the cover manager should handle or refer elsewhere.
- Return handover: what information the returning colleague will need about work handled during the absence.
The release supports recording handover notes; it does not specify mandatory templates, reminders or checks. The quality of the notes therefore depends on the people preparing and reviewing them.
4. Check access through the appropriate administrative process
Review whether the nominated cover person already has suitable permissions for the relevant work. Do not treat the cover assignment itself as an access change. If an access adjustment is necessary, address it separately through the appropriate process rather than assuming the team record has made it happen.
Paid customer memberships and downloads remain separate from staff administration. Keep customer arrangements out of the cover workflow unless a separate, authorised process requires attention to them.
Hypothetical example: covering a recurring marketing activity
Hypothetical example: A staff member normally prepares a recurring marketing update and records their associated tool duties. Before an absence, the administrator nominates a cover manager and the team writes handover notes explaining the update’s current position, the assistant’s contribution and the remaining decisions.
The nominated person then checks whether their existing access is sufficient. If it is not, the team addresses that issue separately. The record clarifies who should take responsibility, while the access check determines whether the plan is workable. If both are addressed and the notes are current, the arrangement may make continuity easier; no such result is guaranteed by the release.
Balance useful detail with maintenance effort
Very brief notes can leave important questions unanswered. Excessively detailed notes can become difficult to maintain. Focus on the information a covering colleague needs to understand the responsibility and make the agreed decisions.
A sensible next action is to review one upcoming absence against the team overview: confirm the cover manager, update the relevant responsibilities and handover notes, and check access separately. AIM Teams Builder can provide the documented arrangement, but people still need to agree, maintain and carry it out.
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