Feature
Do you remember your first day at a new job? The nerves, the firehose of information, the names you worried you wouldn't remember?
Traditional onboarding serves as an introduction to acclimate new hires to company culture, values and their specific roles. It's a time for companies to welcome hires and to set the foundation for retention and employee engagement. So at a time when employee engagement numbers are at record lows, companies are turning to re-onboarding as a way to re-engage existing employees.
Re-onboarding, or re-boarding — is a tactic to recreate the excitement and commitment employees felt when they started a role, a way to keep employees engaged, even as the modern workplace changes around them. It addresses things like shifts in company direction and updates in procedures to ensure staff remain aligned, informed and invested in their roles and the company’s growth.
What Is Re-Onboarding and Why Do It?
“Reboarding, or what is often called ‘re-recruiting,’ is the intentional act of restoring your talent's commitment to the company by reminding them of your purpose, how you create value, how the company does work and what promises the company makes to its talent,” explained Andre Martin, founder of Shift Space and author of the book, “Wrong Fit, Right Fit.”
The initial onboarding process is an essential step in acquainting employees with their roles, colleagues and the company. Data from Gallup shows that workers at companies with exceptional onboarding are nearly three times more satisfied — and much more likely to stick around.
Unfortunately, most companies don’t get onboarding right. Only 12% of employees in the US say their company does a good job of onboarding, while 20% said their onboarding was poor or non-existent, according to the same report.
Re-onboarding offers an opportunity to provide current employees with the training they need and crave, which could be the sticking point companies need to retain talent in an era of unpredictable talent markets.
“The cycles of reboarding have increased for everyone, as more and more talent have their heads up, looking for a better company or ‘greener grass,’” said Martin. “Re-boarding has become a ground game, a daily pursuit to retain and engage our best and brightest talent.”
Related Article: Loud or Quiet Quitting? Forget the Fad, Focus on the Human
When Is the Right Time for Re-Onboarding?
Any transition, Martin believes, is an opportunity to re-board employees. One big transition many employees are facing right now, for instance, is a return to the office space full- or part-time after working remotely.
Bev Kaye, a career expert and author of “Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go,” among other titles, said re-boarding also works for many other situations, including for a person who has left a company and is now coming back.
Other types of workplace transitions that might warrant re-onboarding include:
- Individual job changes or promotions
- Addressing performance issues and skills gaps
- Returns from long-term leave or sabbaticals
- Organizational changes like restructuring, mergers and acquisitions
- Business model transformations
- Major market shifts or disruptions
- Renewing focus on company culture and values
Best Practices for Effective Re-Onboarding
Employees have hundreds of touchpoints with a company every year — from policies to interactions with leaders to town halls and off-sites. “Each one of these moments is an opportunity to re-board talent,” Martin said. Unfortunately, few are designed to do that well, he said.
Let’s delve into some best practices for re-onboarding to get the most out of the process.
Consider the State of Mind
In the case of re-boarding for returning employees, Kaye noted that it’s essential to remember that some employees don’t want to come back — something she discusses in her Talent Q article “Let the Great Comeback Begin.”
Returning employees, she said, fall into three categories (or a combination of the three):
- Burning: These employees return with enthusiasm and are excited to be back.
- Churning: These workers return, but they’re uncertain about their commitment to the job or company.
- Yearning: These workers return, but they yearn for recognition, resolution, improvements or more independence.
To understand and meet employee needs effectively, Kaye explained, leaders need to understand where their team members fall within those groups and craft their strategies for reboarding based on that information.
Offer a Welcome & Reaffirmation
Another step specific to returning employees, said Kaye, is to welcome them back and reaffirm their value.
“I think every individual wants, really, to be welcomed back and told, ‘I’m glad to see you,’ and have that not be bullshit,” she said.
In the old days, she continued, companies told managers and employees not to bring their personal lives to work. Now, she said, the two are intermingled; “You can’t pull them apart.”
Once leadership has told their employees they’re glad to have them back, it’s time to start asking questions.
Ask Lots of Questions
Now is the time to find out what your employees want, said Kaye. For instance, employees who have been away or working remotely, she said, may have discovered new passions or learned new skills.
Conference
Oct
20
Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
Conference
Oct
27
Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
To get started, you might want to ask questions like:
- Have you developed new skills or abilities you want to be able to show?
- What challenge do you want? What challenge would make you excited?
- How can the company keep balance in your life, even when working in the office?
- What are your career goals, short- and long-term?
Related Article: Why Some Organizations Are Going All In on Employee Experience
Listen to the Answers
Don’t just ask questions, said Kaye. Listen.
“I do a lot of work with tech companies, and they’ll ask you a great question, and you’ll answer, and they’ll say, ‘Okay, here’s the next question.’ Instead of listening deeply to what you just said and going deeper, not wider.”
Once you ask a question, leaders need to listen for what she calls the “blinking word.”
Picture it like a word cloud coming out of someone’s mouth when they answer a question, she said. There’s one word you should pick out, and not move on from. “You should say, ‘What did you mean by ‘he made you crazy? Like what?’”
She says digging deeper into what someone just said tells the person you’ve heard them.
Unfortunately, Kaye added, we’re usually so anxious to get to the next question that we don’t hover over the one we just asked.
Challenges and Pitfalls of Re-Onboarding
Re-onboarding comes with two primary challenges, said Martin. The first is time.
“It takes time to re-board talent, to deeply immerse them in purpose, strategy, collective ways of working, etc. It is important for leaders to realize that time invested now will save issues of disengagement and productivity loss later.”
He pointed to the workplace problem highlighted by Gallup, where an estimated $7.8 trillion in productivity is lost due to employees who are not engaged or actively disengaged.
The second challenge, he said, is leader and manager capability.
“Few leaders are well versed in the art and science of re-boarding, building commitment, increasing engagement and creating or renewing energy. They have the desire but are often lacking the intention in the moment and the tools to help them succeed.”
This lack of capability aligns with how many employees truly feel about their bosses. In a 2022 survey of 3,000 full-time American workers by GoodHire, 83% of workers said they could do their job without their manager, while 84% said they could do their manager’s job. Additionally, only 32% believed their manager actually cared about their career progression.
Re-Onboarding to Challenge a ‘Crisis of Commitment’
The evolving nature of the workplace — and employees’ shifting needs and expectations — highlight the increasing importance of re-onboarding throughout an employee’s tenure.
Work is harder than it should be, Martin said. “We are in a crisis of commitment — a time when words like burnout, languishing, quiet quitting and disengaged are used far too often.”
But there might be a glimmer of hope.
“It feels like we are sitting at an inflection point where we have the technology, the ingenuity and just enough pain and disenchantment to break the cycle and create a better way to build and run a business,” Martin said. “We can do better, we must do better.”
