Best Practices for engaging with your Furloughed Employees

Tobin Murphy-Coles, Head of Commercial at leading underrepresented talent specialist, MyKindaFuture, offers his advice for keeping employees engaged whilst they are furloughed.

Why is employee engagement so important?

According to research, employee disengagement costs the UK between £52-£70 billion per year in lost productivity, the highest figure of any country in Western Europe. And with the number of people on furlough reaching 8.7 million as of 31st May, keeping employees feeling engaged and motivated is currently more challenging than ever before for businesses across the country. 

Whilst discussing furloughed staff recently, a client said to me: “in an ideal world, we would cryogenically freeze employees and bring them back in a few months’ time.” What they meant by this was that they want their furloughed employees to return to the business exactly how they were when they left, without having lost any motivation or loyalty to the company.

However, with the extension to the UK government’s furlough scheme meaning that many staff members will have been away from the workplace for over six months, this will be difficult to achieve unless employers make a concerted effort to keep these workers feeling engaged and valued during their time away.

Employers that fail to keep staff who are on furlough engaged will risk a drop in motivation and productivity when they do eventually return, which could have a damaging long-term impact on the business.

Best Practices

Keeping employees feeling connected to and valued by the company is vital to the long-term success of the business, that much is clear. However, continuing to engage staff when they have been away from work for several months provides a challenge, and it must be done in a sensitive and considered way in order to avoid being perceived as tone-deaf or self-serving.

Employee Value Proposition

An important consideration when communicating with furloughed employees and looking ahead to their return is your new Employee Value Proposition (EVP). A good EVP should run through everything a business does and, if done well, it will be the reason why current employees stay, and why new talent wants to join the business. 

However, it is likely that when furloughed employees return, this proposition will have shifted as a result of the huge change that COVID-19 has brought about across all industries. So, employers must consider what the new EVP will look like and communicate this clearly and openly throughout all of their correspondence with furloughed employees in order make their transition back into the company as smooth as possible when the time comes.

Choosing Communication Channels 

Communication is key for all staff during times of uncertainty, but it is especially important for those who have been furloughed. However, the wrong type of communication can do more harm than good, so it is important to carefully consider the implications of your comms before marching on with an ineffective strategy. 

For example, whilst sending an email to a furloughed colleague’s work account to check-in may seem like the right thing to do, this could have unintended consequences, such as causing them to see other work emails that lead to concern or distress. 

Third party technology offers an excellent solution to this challenge and can be used to connect with employees in a safe and neutral place, whilst ensuring that they still feel valued and connected to the business.

Creating Content That Engages 

Encouraging employees to stay connected via a third-party online platform will allow them to engage with the content they want, at a time that suits them. Whilst the voluntary nature of these programmes means furloughed team members feel in control of the process, well positioned, helpful content will ensure that they genuinely want to engage and find value in doing so.

For example, at MyKindaFuture we redesigned a version of our employee engagement platform, Connectr, specifically to help businesses support furloughed employees during their time away from the business, and once they return. The platform allows employers to offer staff access to tailored content including learning modules, company updates, wellbeing and one-to-one mentoring schemes, all of which have been devised specifically to maintain a sense of belonging and value amongst all furloughed employees.

The Reintegration Process

With everyday life gradually returning to normal, employers must think carefully about how to support staff when they return to the business and start preparations for this as soon as possible. Whilst reintegration will not happen overnight, it is those businesses that prepare for this and support furloughed employees’ return to work with sensitivity, compassion and realism that will be rewarded with a hardworking and loyal workforce in the long run.