By Almost every organization in the world has had a greater impact on its operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some organizations stopped their manufacturing, some were partially closed, and some completely closed their business. Many employees lost their job while the rest of them were sent home for weeks to do their work from home or stay idle.
As we begin to collectively flatten the curve and move past the world-wide trauma, companies are starting to think about an eventual return to work. This situation, of course, differs from country to country and industry to industry, but when all is said and done, we’ll get back to something that closely resembles “normal”.
As companies prepare to welcome back employees in the workplace, they need to ensure that they become reacclimated to the new norms and protocols. Because chances are when the employees return to work, it means a lot of catching up as the environment will be entirely different.
So, the question is, how can companies effectively bring employees back-on-board. The answer is “reboarding”.
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What is Reboarding?
Reboarding is about re-familiarizing your employees about the new cultural norms, rules, work instruction, protocols, and guidelines about how to interact with people, equipment, and space to attain success. The goal of reboarding is to connect with your employees emotionally who have gone through a lot mentally and feel unprotected. It also helps in making the employees feel more comfortable as they navigate through the process of social distancing into safe physical distancing.
How to Reboard Employees Effectively?
Reboarding after COVID-19 brings with it a unique set of challenges, including the team’s fears, anxieties, and expectations. Therefore, effective reboarding is crucial to determine the employee’s mental and emotional well-being and set up safeguards to ensure that the employees feel they are taken care of. This can be done with the help of an employee engagement app. Listed here are six ways how an employee engagement app can make your reboarding process more effective.
Go Digital
A perfect way to offer all your employees a warm welcome is to send a welcome-back video through the employee engagement app. This can create a positive impact on your company and motivate them to work for you. You can also let employees know their in-office hours, number of employees allotted for a particular day, safety guidelines to be followed, and more. Employees can also simply sign-up for their office time with the help of an employee engagement app on their smartphones.
Clear Lines of Communication
With the reboarding app, you can send a communication to your employees in a more simple, efficient manner. You can share important updates about government rules and regulations, safety precautions, company-specific policies, protocols, and more.
Safe and Convenient Collaboration
Though employees are back to work, the regular chit-chat in the office will be greatly missed. Physical distancing is the new normal of the predictable future. This is where the inbuilt chat feature of the reboarding app comes into play. This chat feature lets employees have conversations more securely and conveniently.
Group chats can also be easily created based on the location or department to let employees know about urgent updates. Important documents and guidelines can be safely shared with individual employees. The reboarding app also works as an employee training software, where the employee can have self-learning on the new safety and hygiene regulations of the company, work methods, and more.
Digital HR Services
Though workplaces are getting back to normal, schools and day-care centers are still closed. This makes parents struggle with their work timing and shift scheduling. The reboarding app lets employees connect directly with HR with all their requests and find a prompt solution.
Ask for Feedback
Getting feedback from the employees is crucial to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the current plan. However, getting feedback from the employees in a conventional way can be a complicated process during this time. Whereas a pulse survey conducted through the reboarding app can instantly let you know what your employees feel about your new reboarding strategy and how their day is going.
The feedback can be targeted to specific departments or employee groups based on specific policies or to understand the spirit of a specific team. This makes the employees feel that they have a voice in the reboarding process and makes them happy.
Make FAQ’s and Open-Ended Questions
When employees get back to work, they bring with them a lot of confusion and questions. Help them get the answers to all their questions with the help of a reboarding hub. You can ask them open-ended questions or have a FAQ session where they can find answers for the most frequently asked questions. The reboarding hub includes important information like important documents, contact details, and notifications.
The bottom line
Now is the time to act. Reboarding gives you a great opportunity to use digital solutions and create a difference for your employees and it can be your organization’s defining moment.
