Reboarding

Statistics show that approximately 20% of people return to work annually after extended maternity leave, parental leave, or sick leave. Additionally, around 4-5% of staff are employees returning to work after moving to another employer (according to LinkedIn), also known as boomerangs.

Does a returning employee need to be onboarded if they've already gone through onboarding? Absolutely! This is why the concept of reboarding is gaining importance, although many organisations have yet to implement a structured approach to this issue.

What is Reboarding?

Simply put, it's the onboarding of a returning employee, meaning re-preparing them for work in the organisation after a prolonged break from their duties. It's a very similar process to onboarding, but it primarily takes into account changes that have occurred in the company (or in the job role or responsibilities) and in the team since the employee last actively worked in the organisation.

Is it necessary to onboard a returning employee?

It might seem unnecessary – after all, this person has already worked for us. They know how we operate, our values, and how individual tasks are performed. They can just sit down at their desk and get to work.

In practice, however, things may have changed in your company since their departure or cessation of work. New procedures may have been implemented, new tools introduced. The list of clients and contractors may have changed. New employees may have joined, and some may have left. Perhaps even the entire organisational culture has been affected.

The extent of changes will vary between companies and often depends on the time that has passed since the employee left. However, something always happens during that time. Often, it's precisely what has happened that makes an ex-employee want to return. But even if they observed the changes happening in the company, they only had external access to them. That's why reboarding is necessary for them to see the changes from the inside.

Who is the reboarding process for?

Given that it is a re-induction of an employee back into work, reboarding is always applied when an employee returns to work at the company after a prolonged break. This most often applies to situations where an employee has left the company (or been dismissed), and then, after some time, returns to the organisation.

It's also worth considering reboarding when an employee hasn't officially left the company but hasn't been an active employee for a long time. This most often applies to periods:

• After returning from maternity or parental leave,
• After long-term sick leave,
• After an extended sabbatical,
• When an employee transfers between branches or departments,
• After significant organisational changes, mergers or acquisitions,
• When transitioning from remote work to in-office work or vice versa.

Why is Reboarding Crucial?

An effective reboarding process benefits both the employer and the returning employee:

• Accelerates the achievement of full productivity,
• Reduces the risk of employee departure during the post-return period,
• Improves engagement and motivation,
• Reduces stress associated with returning to work after a long break,
• Ensures knowledge updates on company changes and processes,
• Builds a sense of security and belonging.

Research shows that employees who underwent a well-planned reboarding achieved full efficiency 30% faster than those who did not receive such support.

What are the goals of reboarding?

The main goals of reboarding are:

• Accelerating the employee's attainment of full task-performing capability,
• Ensuring a smooth return to work,
• Updating knowledge about changes within the company,
• Removing potential obstacles to effective work resulting from a lack of knowledge about procedures,
• Reintegrating with the team, which may have undergone various transformations during the employee's absence.

For someone returning to work after a long break, remembering methods and procedures that were formerly in place but have since been abandoned can also be a problem. A new employee enters the company without such ingrained habits and learns procedures from scratch.

An employee returning to the company after a prolonged absence may try to operate "as before", which is why it's important to identify any changes that may have occurred and explain them.

How does reboarding differ from onboarding?

Although both processes share similar goals, there are significant differences between them:

In the case of reboarding, we can omit basic introductory training, focusing instead on what has changed during the employee's absence.

How to plan the reboarding process?

The basis is to identify potential gaps and create a plan for introducing new topics. Although reboarding in a company is usually shorter than onboarding, it should also be spread over 1-3 months, and its effectiveness should be checked after completion (e.g., with a post-reboarding survey). The plan should take into account both the specificity of the position and the time the employee was absent, and what happened during that period.

Employee Re-onboarding – Which Elements Can Be Omitted?

All those that have not changed since the previous period of work. For example, rules regarding the mode of work or the workplace. If the company has not changed its headquarters, another tour for the employee is not necessary; if certain systems or work rules are still identical, a knowledge refresh is sufficient.

Familiarisation with colleagues also looks somewhat different than in classic employee onboarding – especially if some people are already known to the reboarded employee.

Typical Reboarding Mistakes in Planning and Implementing Reonboarding Procedures

• Its complete absence,
• Omitting elements related to organisational culture (even if little has changed, it doesn't hurt to remind the employee of the rules, values, and goals),
• Omitting new IT systems (which the employee must assimilate to the same level as someone entering the organisation for the first time),
• Ignoring the personal aspect – introducing the employee to new people in the company,
• Overlooking the emotional and psychological aspects of returning (stress associated with readaptation),
• Lack of team support in the reintegration process,
• Overburdening the employee with a full range of responsibilities too quickly,
• Failure to consider the individual needs of the reboarded person (e.g., after returning from maternity leave or illness)
• Omitting the evaluation stage of the process's effectiveness.

It's also important to explain to new employees who our "new - old" employee is. Otherwise, rumours and misunderstandings may arise. Suspicions of nepotism, unfair treatment, "cronyism". This can be done through internal communication (e.g., a news item on the intranet) or via a welcome email from the HR department.

The Role of Technology in the Reboarding Process

Modern HR systems can significantly support the re-induction process of an employee by:

• Automating administrative tasks related to the return.
• Managing access and permissions.
• Planning training and meetings.
• Providing access to an up-to-date knowledge base.
• Monitoring adaptation progress.
• Collecting feedback.

Implementing a system to manage the reboarding process saves time and ensures consistent experiences for all returning employees. You can use the tomHRM employee onboarding application for this, which allows you to create any onboarding paths, including reboarding.

Try the system that will facilitate your employee reboarding

Create a free account

Indicators of Effective Reboarding

To measure the effectiveness of the process, it is worth tracking the following indicators:

• Time needed to achieve full productivity
• Level of satisfaction with the adaptation process
• Employee retention after reboarding (after 3, 6, and 12 months)
• Impact on overall engagement
• Number of reported adaptation problems

Is it worth implementing a reboarding procedure in your company?

Definitely yes, because according to research conducted in 2015 by the Workforce Institute\*, employers are changing their attitudes towards employees who have left the company and would like to return. While just a few years ago, over half of the surveyed companies had a policy of not re-hiring individuals who had left, today 76% of companies are open to re-employment.

Among employees, the number of people who would consider such an option is also increasing. As many as 46% of millennial employees would return to their "old stomping ground". 33% of Generation X employees would also consider this option.

Statistics show that such re-hiring is becoming more frequent. The aforementioned study indicates that 85% of recruiters have received a CV from a former employee at least once, and 40% of them have re-hired such a person.

Employee Return to the Company – Most Common Reasons

Why do employees return to a company they decided to leave? The most common reasons are:

• Disappointment with a new job,
• Growth of the former company and new opportunities it creates,
• Changes within the old company's organisational culture – especially regarding career development opportunities and new benefits that were not previously available,

Benefits of Hiring a Boomerang Employee

• 38% of managers and 33% of HR professionals emphasise that a huge benefit of hiring returning employees is that they already know the organisation and know what to expect,
• 31% of HR professionals point out that a returning employee does not need the same level of training as a new person (which can be a deceptive belief if no reboarding system is implemented),
• Hiring a former employee boosts morale among other employees. The fact that an employee wanted to return means that the company is a good place to work that is missed.

If many employees want to return to your organisation, you can turn this into an Employer Branding element, as Software Mansion did:

ZawszeWracają - YouTube

Tap to unmute

#ZawszeWracają Software Mansion

Software Mansion14.1K subscribers

Watch on

\*Employee Engagement Series, Workforce Institute Kronos Incorporated and WorkplaceTrends.com