5 key moments to create an employee re-engagement strategy

Employee engagement is not linear. There are key moments throughout an employee lifecycle where engagement wanes and motivation is low. But this doesn’t have to be the end of their employment.

A 2022 report by HR Drive listed hiring as a top priority in the industry. However, a 2022 Boston Project study reported that 86% of executives cited difficulty in recruiting. When recruiting is such a challenge, the focus must shift to retaining your best employees. Whether your company is currently focused on recruiting or retaining, you should pay special attention to key moments in the employee’s lifecycle. 

What are key moments?  Contrary to popular belief, an employee's commitment rate does not necessarily decrease over time, but rather fluctuates. Key moments are the points in this fluctuation “that have a considerable impact on the employee, be it positive or negative, depending on how the company handles them," explains Arnaud Weiss, Chief of Staff at LumApps. 

 

These key moments – a message to an employee on their first day with the company to annual review, parental leave – are closely correlated to the employee's level of commitment, before, during, and after their time with the company. Essentially, these key moments can impact your ability to retain this employee and impact their level of engagement with the company.  
 

5 Key moments that need a re-engagement strategy

Here are 5 key moments in an employee lifecycle that need a re-engagement strategy, and important steps to consider. 

1. Crossboarding

Crossboarding is the process of training current employees for new, vacant roles. Valuable employees who are ready for a new challenge can be excellent candidates for crossboarding. 

Steps to engage an employee during crossboarding: 

• Create a list of paperwork that is applicable for the new role. 
• Determine if the employee needs to return any equipment.
• Determine if the employee needs new, additional equipment. 
• Complete an “exit interview” for the current role. 
• Decide the training program for the new role. (Formal external training? Internal buddy shadowing?)

2. Preparing for leave

    Parental leave is the most common leave type that requires a planning runway and paperwork. 

    Steps to engage an employee when preparing for leave:

• Gather paperwork that the individual needs to complete before leave. (FMLA, medical insurance, etc)
• Create an instruction sheet for common tasks and access information for team tools. 
• Train someone who will be temporarily responsible for tasks during the individual’s leave. 
• Set an out of office response on email and/or voicemails. 

3. Returning from leave

If something like extended medical leave has pulled an employee from work, this is a key moment to help them re-engaging with their role and the company culture. 

Steps to engage an employee when returning from leave:

• Determine if the employee requires any new modifications. 
• Communicate expectations before the employee’s return to work date. 
• Notify the employee of any new training requirements or job responsibilities. 
• Share any updated company policies, news, or product announcements that could impact their daily work. 

4. Annual reviews

According to Gallup research, 30% of employees began searching for a new job after receiving negative feedback from a manager. 

Steps to engage an employee during annual reviews:

• Share a list of deadlines for necessary pre-review documents. 
• Send a list of what to expect during the review meeting. 
• Inquire about the employee’s professional goals for the year. 
• Make a schedule of action items following the review. 

5. Product launches

Team members may feel highly engaged during the work leading up to a product launch, but the stress could cause a dip in engagement after launch. And, other employees who aren’t involved in the launch can feel uninformed and disengaged. Here’s how you can create a flow to make those employees feel valued. 

Steps to engage an employee during high stress product launches: 

• Create a summary of the new product and impacts across the business.
• Share a schedule of timelines associated with the project.  
• Write a deployment plan that is appropriate for each team. 
• Send a congratulatory note to all involved team members. 

Creating a re-engagement strategy for each of these key moments can require a lot of work. LumApps helps you organize and automate this process with LumApps Journeys which helps you create a customized, hyper-personalized communication plan to guide employees through these key moments. 

From internal communication announcements to HR forms, and training, you can set up all of these steps in a custom journey and schedule distributions via email or push notifications. 

Focus on Key Moments to Reinvent Your Employee Experience 

This white paper explores how key moments impact the employee's level of commitment, before, during, and after their time with the company.  Download now to see how you can make a positive impact. 

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