Who says you can’t go home again?

If you are like most of the people when you say a goodbye to an employee and move on and never look back.

If you’re like most people, when you part ways with an employer, your instinct is to brush your hands together, move on and don’t look back.

But hold your horses. Sometimes circling back can be a win for everyone.

A boomerang employee is someone who leaves a company, works somewhere else for a while, and then comes back. It might seem atypical, but it’s becoming more frequent, largely due to how often workers change jobs nowadays.

In today’s world, employees may leave a large company to feel of life at a startup, try a new line, or go back to school for a more valuable degree. Earlier businesses used to discourage the hiring previous employees but now with the changing time, companies are calling back their top performers back.

Survey News Facts

Organizations and workers alike are coming around on boomerang employees.

• New research shows that the winds are changing favorably for boomerangs. The latest survey discloses that nearly half of HR professionals said their organization earlier had a policy against rehiring former employees — even if the employee left in good impression — but 76% said that they are more accepting of hiring boomerang employees than in the past. They’re right to do so.

Back on Board: Pros to Hire a Boomerang Employee…

Once a good egg, always a good egg? That’s not something necessarily true, but sometimes good experiences with the previous employees are good signs to rehire the former employee.

There are some great advantages to rehiring a former employee that you just can’t enjoy with other new hires. For example, former employees already know the lay of the land. The onboarding process will be easy for them, and they’ll get up to speed quickly because they already know the workings of the company and have a clear understanding of the company’s values. Recruiters are more likely to invite former achievers due to their previous performance. Forecasting how the new hire will do is less of a guessing game.

Cons to be obeyed

The fact remains that any boomerang employee left your company once already – and now they’re preparing to leave another one to come back! Employers may want to consider just how loyal the candidate is before bringing them back on board. The cost of a new hire is substantial, and losing a hire so soon is a total waste of time and money.

It’s also critical not to bring bad blood into the office. Hiring managers need to do their due diligence to make sure there are no existing issues between the boomerang employee and current employees.

It’s also important to note that boomerang employees will likely have grown professionally since they left the organization. They’ll have gained more experience and developed more contacts in the industry, both of which are good news for a company.

What role does HR tech play in nurturing and acquiring former employees?

• As the former employee steps on a new path, from present-day employee to non-candidate to submissive candidate to active candidate, keeping track of this orientation and doing the right fostering at each step is key.
• HR tech can help keep things organized. You can move the employee’s details from your HR software to a variety of applicant tracking systems. From there, you can track your team’s interactions with that person and include them in the running for good fit roles when appropriate. You can also use software to keep boomerang employees in the know on company news and updates and ease them back into the company with a customized onboarding workflow.

“In an age defined by social media and job hopping, it’s much easier for employees to search for new opportunities and equally as easy for recruiters to poach talent from competitors. This vicious competition could be contributing to the changing mindset of boomerang employees. With this boomerang trend on the rise, it’s more important than ever for organizations to create a culture that engages employees – even long after they’ve gone – and organizations should consider how the boomerang employee factor should affect their off-boarding and alumni communications strategies for top performers.”

Joyce Maroney, director, The Workforce Institute at Kronos