Reboarding Your Staff Through Covid-19

Although the furlough scheme has been extended until the end of September 2021, we know you may be eager to reboard furloughed staff and increase trading levels as soon as possible.

How to reboard staff

Reboarding takes careful planning and consideration, and often some outside perspective. That’s where we can help. We believe Covid-19 presents a unique opportunity to shape the structure of your business for a resilient and prosperous future. Our in-depth workshops are led by our Business Consulting Team and are tailored to your business needs to help ensure you realise your potential.

You can find out more about our workshops below, including how they are structured and the potential benefits to your business. 

Reboarding considerations 

For many, having to reboard furloughed staff is unchartered territory. Deciding on the best way to manage the situation is not always easy. There are things you can do to internally to support your staff – and business – through the furlough and reboarding process. We can also offer you strategic support from a completely impartial point of view challenging your thoughts in a collaborative manner and bringing our experience from elsewhere within the economy.

Who to bring back and how

Think about the new structure of your teams and the size of each area of your business; will you need to adapt your workforce, reshape your teams, or make changes to some roles, responsibilities and processes?

You will also need to plan for when and how your staff return to work, whether that be full or part-time, on-site or working remotely. Set clear objectives for the employees you’re bringing back, so that they know and agree to what is expected of them in the days, weeks and months following reboarding.

Communication and transparency 

This applies to furloughed members of your team as well as those you are reboarding. Make sure you communicate regularly with staff and keep them engaged. It is essential to keep staff up-to-date on the business and any changes you are planning to make.

Be transparent about what is happening and why, including any restructures, which team members are being reboarded and any roles that will need to change.

Listening with empathy

Try to be sensitive to your employees’ needs, listen to what they have to say and be there for them during this process. Though Covid-19 has affected most of us in some way, not everyone has had the same experience. Some of your staff might be grieving, or at a significantly higher risk of getting seriously ill if they contract the virus. Others might still be juggling work with the stress of caring responsibilities.

Buy-in from your staff can make a huge difference to business success going forward and is an essential aspect of your company culture, so listen to their needs and let them know their value.

Health and safety

How will the pandemic affect your physical workspace, as you start to reboard staff? It will be your responsibility to implement social distancing and any additional hygiene measures in offices, shops and other workspaces.

This could include things like moving desks and breaking up work areas; providing hand sanitiser and face masks; disinfecting surfaces regularly; allowing fewer customers in stores; staggered shifts; plus any industry-specific requirements.

How we can help : workshops and consultations

Our teams are running workshops with businesses across a variety of sectors. At the end of the workshop and consultation process, we deliver a comprehensive report, outlining options on future structures and improvements, including a step by step plan for implementing these. We will benchmark your company against market leaders and give you the insights and tools to help close the gap.

Contact Us

Workshop benefits include

• Clarity over how to best phase staff back into the business
• Awareness over the staffing levels of competitors and the market leaders in your sector
• A resilient workforce who are engaged and busy
• Longer-term financial strength
• Increased engagement from staff
• A cost base which is fit for your business size
• An agile workforce all working towards a common goal

The workshops are run remotely, using video conference. The project requires basic levels of data from the company and limited time-input. The process takes between 3-4 weeks to complete and the return on investment can be immediate and significant.

The workshop process

During the workshop stage of the project, we collaborate with your senior management/owners/directors to review the current organisational structure and assess pain points and inefficiencies. We also speak to different stakeholders within the business to learn about operations and challenges in various areas of the company.

This helps us understand

• The decisions you made before and during furlough
• The impact these decisions had on your business and your people
• What you have learned and how this is driving a need for change
• The changes you want to see within your business as a result

The workshop will enable you to define your strategic rationale for change and make sure that key stakeholders are on-board and committed to lead on delivering that change.

Getting your results

After the workshop and fact-finding phase of the project, we provide advice, options and support around redesigning your team setup. This is based on new ways of working, incorporating benchmarking analysis and best practice for the sector.

Implementing your strategy

We can also help you implement the change by providing project management support and/or project assurance over the following areas of delivery:

• Project mobilisation, including governance structures and planning
• Managing implementation to time, budget, quality and scope
• Accurate MI to drive decision making
• Execution of governance & controls
• Stakeholder management
• Supplier/contract management
• Tracking of cost and benefit realisation 
• Tracking of KPIs
• Lessons learned/closeout

We have extensive experience of providing these services to clients from across various industries. We will work with you to make sure any form of change you take is successfully implemented and embedded within your organisation with minimal disruption to your business operations.

WHAT company type / Service is this workshop for?

This service is best suited to companies of any sector with more than 10 employees– but “people-intensive” sectors tend to get the most out of it. Your turnover is less important.

We can help with more than onboarding

We’re here to guide you through all of the challenges that Covid-19 present. If you’d like to talk to us about more than reboarding, we can also support you with:

• Finance Outsourcing
• Cash Flow Improvement
• Exit Planning and Business Restructuring
• Statutory Audits  

Business support and advice to help you through

We’re here for you and we’re working hard to keep you informed on everything you need to know on business funding, CJRS, outsourced services and more. 

If you would like to like to get in touch about any issues impacting you at this time.

Get in touch