Do You Need to Re-Onboard Your Employees?
If you, like so many of my clients, are at that stage where employees are slowly and often reluctantly returning to the office, then you may want to consider some fun ideas to re-onboard your employees.
Yes, it’s an awkward word, but re-onboarding might help employees feel more comfortable and welcomed returning to the office.
So, why not treat even veteran employees like brand new employees and make them feel just as welcome as you did when they started on day one?
Consider some of these ideas.
- Rustle up some volunteers who are willing to play mock “limo drivers” to pick them up and drive them to and from work on their first day back.
- Assign special parking spaces for the returning employees.
- Create welcome back signs (you don’t have to get fancy; a flip chart works!)
- Have returning employees wear “Hello My Name is ___” labels for the first week.
- Assign a “homecoming” mentor that helps them reintegrate back into the office routine.
- Create a fun scavenger hunt where employees must find certain objects or people (especially employees that have been recently hired) within the first week back at work.
- Hold regular reorientation tours to fill them in on any changes that have happened.
- Hold regular Monday or Friday reorientation sessions – keep them upbeat and celebratory in fashion.
- Review safety procedures, consider even holding a mock fire drill to remind returnees of your safety protocols
- Again, keep it light by reminding employees that they should probably wear pants now that we can see all of them again!
- Hold a mock fashion show with people modeling their favorite home office attire that they got accustomed to
- Hold a theme day where everyone is allowed to wear their favorite home office attire for one day
- Institute random coffee dates by putting everyone’s name in a random name generator to help people reconnect across teams and departments (you can do this with groups of 2, 3 or 4)
Whatever you do just keep it light and celebratory in nature. And don’t forget, some of your returning employees may never have had a proper onboarding to begin with, so don’t forget to use this as an opportunity to fully immerse them in your culture.
And if all your employees have been back for a while already then remember it’s never to late to hold a “It’s Never Too Late to Hold a Welcome Back Reunion” celebration!
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame speaker, trainer, and author of 8 books, Michael travels the world researching,writing, and speaking about inspiring workplace cultures and businesses that leverage their humor resources to create outrageous results! His books include The Jerk-Free Workplace: How You Can take the Lead to Create a Happier, More Inspiring Workplace,” “Hire, Inspire, and Fuel Their Fire: How to Recruit, Onboard, and Train new Employees to Live Your Culture Out Loud,” and “The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing all the Way to the Bank.”
