Five Employee Reboarding Tips For HR Managers

The new workplace will be different from the pre-COVID environments

 
Human resources managers will need to familiarize themselves with the term “reboarding” because they’ll be hearing it a lot in the coming weeks.
 

Just as human resources professionals know that it is important to onboard new employees, it is essential to reboard employees who will be returning to workplaces. The reality is the new workplace will be very different from the pre-COVID environments. According to a survey by PwC, one in five chief financial officers said they believe their companies could resume “business as usual” within a month if the crisis ended today. However, unlike a natural disaster, where there is a beginning and end, COVID-19 will not disappear. Employers are having to implement significant changes in the workplace due to the pandemic and new social norms will be adopted. These differences run the gamut from social to physical/environmental to health and safety, to the work itself.
 
Workers will have to rethink some of the social differences as they return to work and see colleagues they haven’t seen for months. Giving colleagues a big hug? Sorry. A warm handshake? No thanks. Remember birthday celebrations? We used to encourage the guest of honor to blow all over a cake and then we’d all eat a slice. It seems positively barbaric in this age of masks and social distancing. In a Qualtrics study, which surveyed more than 2,000 Americans and asked people what needed to be true for them to feel confident to returning to the workplace, dining in restaurants and visiting public establishments, 65 percent of workers of all ages – Boomers to Gen Z – were equally uncomfortable returning to the workplace.  
 
What about the physical environment? No more employees sitting side-by-side in cramped workspaces. Social distancing might require that workspaces are spaced six feet apart. If that’s not possible, then we might have to alternate days in the office with working at home. Physical layouts may look very different. Prior to the pandemic, many employers and employees embraced modern corporate offices which included open floor plans, collaborative workspaces, and in-house coffee bars. Now human resource professionals must reimagine and reconfigure workflows and workplaces.
 
For health reasons, HR managers might need to insist employees undergo a temperature check to enter the building. Masks and other personal protective equipment might be required. Companies may need to introduce materials like counter surfaces that are less hospitable to germs. Workplaces may contain reconfigured ventilation systems to flow up from the floor rather than from the ceiling. Six feet of separation might be necessary throughout the day—not just at workstations, but breakrooms, cafeterias, restrooms, and meeting rooms. Testing and contact tracing might become part of our regular work routines.
               
And finally, there’s the work itself. After a few decades of encouraging teamwork and collaboration, now we’re enforcing physical distancing. Teamwork and collaboration are no less important, but they will take on different forms, frequently involving technology. We have learned throughout the crisis workers can be very productive working from home.

Research from Salesforce shows that 62 percent of the U.S. workforce is currently working from home and four-fifths started doing so since the onset of the pandemic. To many HR managers' surprise, U.S. employees’ productivity increased while working remotely because of few distractions, lack of long commute and overall morale improvement. In May, Twitter, followed up several other tech companies, announced that many employees will be allowed to work from home permanently. In other cases, people might only be able to come to the office on certain days and be required to work from home on other days. Plus, people might be deployed in new and different roles or asked to perform new tasks. 
               
Onboarding is about getting people acclimated to an organization’s culture, workplace, and behavioral norms. Reboarding includes all of that, plus a healthy dose of change management. Results from the Qualtrics survey shows that two out of three people aren’t comfortable going back to their workplace as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers. Most people mistakenly think that humans are not good at adapting to change. It turns out that people frequently dislike and resist change. 
 
However, people are actually quite adept at change under certain conditions: when they understand the need for change and when they have a desire to change. The Qualtrics survey also showed 69% of the respondents trust their employer to make the best decision on when they should return to work. If employers, led by the HR department, can successfully help people understand why and how companies have instituted all of the changes, employees are much more likely to buy in and successfully navigate through the new workplace. 

1. Safety First. Set up the workplace to maximize health and safety. Then make sure that everyone knows what the rules are and WHY they are in place. The Qualtrics survey showed 69% of respondents trust their employer to make the best decision on when they should return to work and 74% want their work facility to be thoroughly and regularly cleaned and disinfected.

2. Don’t Forget the Social Aspects. You do not want people to feel isolated when they are distancing. Build in social activities that are fun, but safe. Most people have an inherent desire to be part of a community. But keep in mind more than 60% of employees want the options to maintain physical distancing of at least 6 feet at work and to wear a mask.

3. Focus on Engagement. Remember, engagement drives both productivity and retention. It’s easy to see how workers might have become disengaged—from each other, the organization, and their boss—during the work-from-home months. Rebuilding engagement will take effort – HR managers should not assume employees will return with the same levels of engagement as when they left. Establishing regular meetings with employees and leadership can bolster employee trust and create buy-in from employees.

4. Culture Matters. Even organizations that successfully built strong, positive cultures will have to acknowledge that their culture may be altered or damaged by the new rules. Organizations that make a conscious effort to rebuild, repair, and maintain a strong, positive culture will gain advantages in engagement, productivity, retention, and talent attraction.

5. Don’t Forget Change Management. The COVID-19 crisis highlighted how change management capability can help companies cope with dramatic shifts in the business environment. The new decade brings with it a new approach for the speed of change. HR managers will need to tell them why and solicit their buy-in.

Mark Allen, Ph.D., is a Practitioner Lecturer of Organizational Theory and Management at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. He is an educator, speaker, consultant, and author who specializes in talent management, corporate universities, and human resources. He is the author of Aha Moments in Talent Management, The Next Generation of Corporate Universities, and The Corporate University Handbook. Follow @DoctorMarkAllen