The employee lifecycle is complicated and replete with vacillations. More importantly, no matter what stage of their career or relationship with your organization an employee enters your company from, understanding this lifecycle and the Ladder of Learning is one of the best ways to improve employee and manager work performance, which requires understanding the difference between the most important stages: onboarding vs. reboarding. Here’s our guide:
Onboarding vs. Reboarding
There are several stages of an employee lifecycle, all of which can overwhelm employers and employees alike. Still, thoroughly understanding each phase is one of the best ways to improve work performance for leadership and employees.
What typically presents the most confusion is distinguishing between onboarding vs. reboarding. Here is our guide to both:
What is Onboarding?
Onboarding is the process of immersing new hires into a company’s culture. Onboarding ranges between a few weeks to a few months.
Over the years, organizations have reduced onboarding to rudimentary introductions, a cookie-cutter process, and paperwork. However, onboarding requires so much more, like:
- Skills-specific training
- Social gatherings
- Teaching employees how to succeed in their roles
- Empowering employees in their position
Well-conceived onboarding practices help new hires integrate and settle into their roles. These practices are indispensable ways to improve work performance for employees and leadership. Successful onboarding generally includes a:
- Welcome conversation
- Company introduction
- Policy and procedural overview
- Cultural inclusion initiative
Effective onboarding is more than a step-by-step procedure; success lies in the details. Ultimately, without a premier executive leadership coach, it is challenging to understand how to optimize this process.
What is Reboarding?
Organizations often neglect the reboarding stage of the employee lifecycle. Reboarding, also known as reskilling or upskilling, remains one of the most critical ways to improve work performance.
Generally, reboarding entails re-introducing employees to their job duties and overall role within a company and reinforcing a cohesive sense of community. There are several reasons for reskilling, none of which are limited to employees. These reasons include:
- Return to a company after leaving
- Return from medical leave
- Return from paternal or maternal leave
- Return from a sabbatical
- Return from a furlough
- Are promoted to a new position
- Transfer to a new department
Reskilling should re-familiarize returning employees with:
- Their colleagues
- Company goals
- Shifts in expectations
- Shifts in health, safety, and other policies.
Still, effective reskilling requires providing exhaustive emotional support and considerable coaching to execute, which only premier leadership training programs provide.
Onboarding vs. Reboarding: The Difference
There are several key considerations when unpacking the difference between onboarding vs. reboarding. The most significant distinguishing trait, however, is frequency.
Onboarding is a process that occurs once. However, reskilling should be a continuous effort. When employees don’t use some skills, they can atrophy and wane. Managers should be reskilling annually to guarantee alignment between employees and management.
Implementing effective onboarding and reboarding procedures and strategies is one of the most integral ways to improve work performance because it mitigates mistakes while maximizing efficiency, communication, productivity, and proficiency among employees and leadership.
Both processes serve different integral functions. Onboarding is the process of establishing constructive and productive initial relationships, while reboarding is an opportunity to reestablish meaningful connections and learn the specific needs of rehires.
Ultimately, onboarding ensures new hires can contribute and integrate, while reboarding optimizes contributions and ensures they are sustainable.
Schedule a Consultation to Learn Unrivaled Ways to Improve Work Performance at the Onboarding and Reboarding Stages
As a manager, it is your job to ensure you position your team for success. Ultimately, assessing the employee lifecycle is crucial to identifying prime opportunities to do so for employees. During this lifecycle, onboarding and reskilling are essential to improve employee and leadership performance.
Fortunately, at Consilio, we can help unpack these differences and deliver actionable strategies at each phase to optimize productivity across the board. We offer unrivaled leadership training that ensures you are capable of ensuring your team is always a fine-tuned and well-oiled machine. Schedule a consultation to learn more.
