Reboarding: The What, Why & How of Bringing People Back Post-Covid

This is a guest post by Jesse Finn. To learn more about Reboarding please join us on Thursday Nov. 19th for a live webinar with Jesse Finn, Reboarding After Covid-19: Considerations and Tips for Bringing Employees Back to Your Team. This event is pre-approved for both HRCI and SHRM credits. Click here to register.

Whether temporary furloughs due to COVID-19, other related employment separation, or even re-hiring boomerang employees, the question is, how do you effectively bring your employees back-on-board and ensure they feel safe, secure, and ready to perform?

The answer is a process called reboarding.

What is Reboarding?

Reboarding is most commonly applicable for staff members who have been away from your organization for an extended period. It is designed to re-familiarize your returning colleagues with your company, bring them up-to-speed on relevant changes, integrate them back into the culture of your workplace and empower them to get back to ‘business-as-usual’ as soon as possible.

Why is Reboarding Important?

Reboarding is sort of like starting a job all over again, it’s the very rare ‘second chance to make a first impression’. Think of it as your opportunity to re-energize your employees and make it easy for them to be passionate about working for your organization.

From a purely business perspective, reboarding has a big impact on ‘time-to-productivity’.   When your staff have been absent from their role for a long period, there is a steep learning curve to get them up-to-speed on organizational changes and back on top of whatever projects