In the name of "balancing empathy and economics,” experts are of the view that there are three main considerations while selecting the employees to hire back into the organisation, which are; current talent needs, employee sentiment and liability for discrimination in the process.

How ethical does it sound to begin to challenge the process of rehiring your furloughed staff? Being pushed off their bread and butter involuntarily due to sudden Covid outbreak, now the times are such that with offices reopening with a certain percentage, hiring too has begun on full swing.

Now, the primary factor which needs to be in top consideration is the dire need to consider a number of tactical, legal and talent factors during this process, which some are referring to as "reboarding."

With economies showing signs of recovery, organisations are actively thinking of expanding the shrunken workforce. Re-hiring or engaging laid-off employees is one option open to organisations.

In the name of "balancing empathy and economics,” experts are of the view that there are three main considerations while selecting the employees to hire back into the organisation, which are; current talent needs, employee sentiment and liability for discrimination in the process.

While talking to Raj Raghavan, SVP & Head of Human Resources, IndiGo, he narrated, “about early February, one of my former colleagues who also happens to be a furloughed employee called me through a common friend. She had heard we are back in the hiring mode and wondered when she could return. I quickly checked for her background and realized that she had done such a specialized role previously and we weren’t hiring for that skill yet. We still went ahead and hired her as I knew she had fungible talent. When she ultimately rejoined us, her new team did a very nice virtual welcome and also set up her new desk space in office. She later called me to say how happy she was to return to the ‘6e Family, a’ fact we are all very proud of.”

In March 2020, our CEO went on public and committed to all employees of no job or salary cuts. Recently, the outstanding business performance has been testimony to the high degree of employee trust and engagement we could achieve. Presently, our Employee Engagement score stands at 85 per cent, “claims Satyajit Mohanty, CHRO, Crompton Greaves.

Experts believe that the FIRST option employers should explore. This is absolute must for re-building the “contract of trust” which may have suffered during pandemic. In western world, employers should be mindful of the legal framework in addition to the motivational aspects while initiating re-hiring to avoid litigation related to discrimination laws.

Amidst number of believers, Raghavan too believes that returning furloughed employees find the environment extremely welcoming. “In several cases we have talked to existing employees and sensitized them to the return of their former colleagues. Unsurprisingly it has been a roaring welcome for those who are returning to the family.”

“I am personally a big fan of hiring employees who are exciting about working at IndiGo! What better people can we hire than whom we had furloughed. Also, this was a commitment we made to these employees when we had furloughed them in July 2020. In a way this is also about keeping up our commitment. They were the first ones we approached even as we started rehiring only when they were not ready to return, did we go out to the open market.”

Mohanty is of that view that, though, in India, there is no direct law that governs furloughs or re-hiring, it would be good to remain mindful of a few pointers while re-hiring :

1. It would be good to consider similar principle for re-hiring which was considered for putting for people for furloughs. The re-hire policy should be clearly drafted and communicated.
2. Often, the job expectations have radically changed in during the Pandemic. The pandemic also has given many employers an opportunity to re-evaluate their staffing levels and business models. Induct employees to those emerging expectations.
3. In time of furlough, the best employees perhaps stood the best chance of finding job elsewhere – don’t exclude them from the scope of re-hire.
4. Employees will naturally want to know how the recall from furlough affects their company seniority, benefits, etc. It would be good to make it very clear.
5. This is a time of high anxiety and you can’t be expected to predict every question a returning employee may have. Offer employees to chance to reach out privately with any questions and concerns.