3 ways companies can engage and connect with furloughed employees

We’re seeing that engagement is lower and that people are feeling less connected. [Employers need to] consider both the social and work related needs of employees who are furloughed, and that there is an emotional and social component that they’re missing from being in the workplace. It’s not just employer-to-employee relationships that need to be maintained and rebuilt from the time when someone is on furlough to going back into the workplace, but there’s also the employee-to-employee relationship. Naturally, there could be some challenges there between employees who were furloughed and those who were not, and organizations should consider that team-building aspect upon bringing back furloughed employees, and realize that there’s going to be an adjustment period. Employers need to deliberately think through how they rebuild that team and the culture that they had before the pandemic.

It’s important to recognize that not only are [corporate emails] not personal in many cases, they’re also not feasible. In the quick-serve restaurant industry, for example, there are workers who may not even have a corporate email. So those companies may not have a way to communicate broadly to these individuals and employees who are furloughed often get their access turned off to systems and platforms. Employers have to consider that logistic, and that they have to communicate differently. We have one client whose leadership team has taken it upon themselves to reach out directly via phone to every single furloughed employee of the company for the check in. It’s demonstrating that the organization cares and that they’re willing to take highly paid resources and the value of their time spent on keeping in touch with individuals who may not feel very in touch with the organization right now.