Communicate with complete transparency

Uncharted territory such as the furlough process will generate different reactions from different people. Help employees understand why your company needs to put people on furlough, by communicating openly and honestly.

Curate and promote all furlough-related information on your intranet, and encourage staff to ask questions by allowing comments. The more open and honest you are with delivering difficult news, the more staff will feel reassured and at ease with the decisions being made.

Keep furloughed staff connected to your company

Furloughed staff can quickly feel out of the loop and that they’re not part of the company anymore. For those who live alone or are having to self-isolate, this will be especially difficult.

It’s therefore really important that furloughed staff can still connect with their manager and coworkers, so that they feel a sense of belonging and can stay up-to-date with company developments.

Use Pages to create a dedicated community area for your furloughed staff to connect with each other. 

Include HR documents or knowledge base articles that explain essential furlough key-points, so that staff can reference them at any time. Add Discuss spaces so that staff can share tips and ideas whilst not working. Creating a culture of care and support will help your employees feel less isolated whilst they’re on furlough.

Promote your wellbeing resources

If you don’t have one already, now is a good time to create an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). EAPs help businesses to support the mental health and wellbeing of their employees, and will be particularly helpful in guiding them through furlough.

Promote your EAP, or any other wellbeing resources that you have, by sharing them on your intranet news feed. Showing that you care about your staff during their time on furlough will help them transition back to work feeling valued and appreciated.