May 06, 2022
In this great resignation era, retaining employees is a higher priority with employers than usual. Due to this, the phenomenon of boomerang employees is a hot topic. According to the website Join, a boomerang employee is defined this way.
Boomerang employees are rehired workers that once left a company but after a time returned to that same company. This can be short-term, for just a few months, or longer term for several years. In general, boomerang employees originally left their job on good terms with the employer.Their leaving could be for either professional or personal reasons, and either the employee or the employer may have initially decided to end the employment. Equally, both the employer or the employee may be the first to express interest in rehiring the employee.
Today our CEO, Will Staney, was interviewed on CNN about boomerang employees. (Click here or on the image below to view it.)
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The Benefits of Re-Hiring Boomerang Employees are numerous:
- Less risk: Since you are familiar with the quality of the Boomerang's work, it is less risky to hire them verses a candidate you do not know.
- Enhanced Employer Brand: Boomerang employees are proof that people experienced with your company WANT to work there which will make it easier to recruit future candidates.
- Quicker Onboarding: Boomerangs already know the culture, the policies and processes associated with your organization and likely need less training time before they begin working.
- New Skills and Perspectives: Boomerangs may have acquired knowledge that could spark innovative approaches to how you've done business previously.
- New Loyalty: After learning the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side, boomerangs may be more loyal than ever.
We have definitely found the policy beneficial.
While there are lots of positive outcomes or benefits of rehiring former employees or boomerangs, there are some risks you should consider as well.
- Unmet Expectations: The Boomerang may expect everything to be just as it was when they left; meaning same pay and accrued vacation/PTO and that may not be in line with your HR policies. Moreover, the Boomerang might not understand or agree with corporate changes that happened in their absence. It would be to the company's advantage to address such issues before the rehire is made. If not, you may have future performance issues and/or job dissatisfaction to contend with.
- Negative Impact on Morale: As valuable as the Boomerang may be to the company, certain workers might not appreciate their presence and question why they were allowed to return, especially if the Boomerang's absence impacted them personally.
Hiring Boomerang Employees is one strategy to meet your recruitment goals and there are certainly others. If you would like to brainstorm other ways to attract, hire and retain talent for your company, let's have a conversation about it. Operators are standing by.
