When seeking to build employee retention, we often view turnover as failure – but that’s not always the case. Let's explore how a strategy for rehiring former employees with the potential for boosting retention and generating high potential employees.
Employees can leave while maintaining strong positive connections to your culture and people. This leads us to the question: should we consider rehiring former employees? The Great Resignation, or the Great Reshuffle, saw waves of workers leaving their jobs during the pandemic for higher pay or what they perceived as a greener pasture on the other side of the fence. In fact, a recent survey conducted during the Great Resignation revealed that a staggering 62% of workers who made the decision to change jobs actually regretted it and expressed a strong desire to return to their previous employer. This fact highlights the deep connection and loyalty that employees can feel towards a company, even after they have chosen to explore other opportunities. The fact that such a significant percentage of people are open to the idea of returning to their former workplace further emphasizes the value of rehiring former employees, aptly called boomerangs, and the positive impact it can have on both the individual and the organization.
Moreover, it's essential to recognize that high-potential employees leave on account of life events and changes that have nothing to do with their potential. By rehiring these boomerang applicants you not only tap into their existing knowledge and skills but also significantly reduce recruiting and training costs. In fact, the cost-per-hire of boomerangs is typically one-to-two thirds the cost of hiring a new employee, making it a cost-effective and strategic decision for your organization. Following the massive shifts and unpredictability in the past few years, we're now in a time where incumbents carefully consider if applying to a company merits their investment. Targeting former employees could provide a strategic advantage— they know the business and your culture, they've weighted the costs and rewards, and bring lower onboarding costs in a financially uncertain time.
Although 20 percent of the workforce has gone back to work for a former employer, it’s natural to view rehiring boomerangs with care. They left before; and how do you choose between an applicant with some track record of success at your organization and other qualified applicants? What’s more, you may not have the whole story about why an employee left and their record of performance. This may be especially true with changes of leadership, candidates shifting careers and roles, and boomerang candidates seeking employment at a different department or location. This likely contributes to much of the concern and hesitation many companies had formal policies banning the rehire of former employees. Recent surveys of HR professionals, however, find the majority of these policies were reversed – and the stigma against boomerang applicants is quickly diminishing.
Now that we've covered the cost savings and workflow considerations, let's take a look at the reasons and psychological dynamics behind people leaving jobs. This may help us appreciate how we can best build a hiring process that both evaluates and educates boomerang candidates.
Think about the last few jobs you left. What precipitated your decision to leave? When people share the reasoning and story behind leaving a job, it most often started with a sudden event that changed how they viewed their career and employer. Researchers call these events shocks because they are quick and dramatically shift a person’s intentions to stay. Shocking events can be personal or job related: think the birth of a child, returning to school, graduating, spousal relocation, or a job offer – and can lead employees to reconsider employment.
Other shocks communicate information that affects how employees view themselves in relation to the organization or team. Take a new just-promoted manager, who while well-intentioned, lacks the self-awareness and connecting communication style of the previous leader. Their initial struggles may lead their team, who had a strong connection with the leader before, to reconsider their intentions to stay. Changes in job duties, the denial of promotions, or shifts in how the organization is perceived by the industry or public, may result in gaps between an employee’s sense of self, goals, and identity, and how they are perceived by others. The point is – shocks are going to happen, occur quickly, and are often irrelevant to performance, making boomerang applicants worthy of consideration.
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Rehires boomeranging into our teams can offer us advantages if we act to maximize them. Not only do rehires bring with them new job knowledge and skills, but they may be poised to excel and act with urgency more than their peers. They've gone over the fence and were driven to return. Although your culture and operations may have shifted, they bring a unique perspective of both your history, their experience while away, and where you are now. Leaders often find that rehired employees show a deeper understanding (and appreciation) of the company's culture and ability to bring it to life, having gained valuable insights during their time away.
Their experiences, whether in different roles or industries, can enhance their abilities and provide them with a renewed appreciation for the unique work environment your organization offers. This familiarity with your company's culture and values can lead to quicker onboarding and becoming a fully contributing member of the team faster. Including boomerangs in training and new hire programs alongside first-time employees can also spark unique learnings and innovation. So, while the grass may seem greener on the other side, the return of a boomerang applicant could prove to be a win-win situation for both the individual and your organization.
The importance of consistency in our hiring processes is something that's easy to talk about but harder to achieve. How will you make sure that all hiring managers are handling boomerang candidates consistently? While most job applications ask about prior employment with the organization, an effective screening process for potential rehires goes far beyond that question.
Let's start by talking about hiring assessments and how they can assist with evaluating rehires. Validated hiring assessments review candidates objectively, setting past decisions aside, to evaluate potential on job-related competencies. With the right training and implementation, this can give recruiters and managers confidence in the boomerang candidate's potential for the role they are seeking. This is particularly helpful if the candidate is applying for a different position than before, and to understand how the candidate meets new demands since they were last employed.
Below you'll see a helpful funnel representing the hiring process. The wideness of the funnel at the top represents the broad volume of candidates you have at the beginning of your workflow. The assessment is at a critical touchpoint: the majority of candidates are still engaged in the process, but the assessment requires little time and resource requirements from recruiters and hiring managers. It gives you a significant amount of information without much investment and also delivers the consistency we need for our hiring process to effectively select qualified candidates.
With the assessments completed, structured interview processes will further guarantee that potential in each core competency is understood. This can also provide understanding into the reasons for departure before and how the candidate has evolved. We often build structured interview processes and provide specific questions and areas for discussion exploring a candidate's prior employment and journey back to the company .
The potential of rehires could be further strengthened with tailored onboarding once (re)hired strengthening commitment and performance. This could direct their attention to key operational changes, how the culture has evolved, and even recent points of pride. Mentoring programs could pair new rehires with other former boomerangs to build connection and create a smoother early employment experience.
This approach not only helps in identifying the best fit for the role but also ensures that all applicants, including boomerang hires, understand the culture and the nature of the role. An established hiring process also ensures that candidates are consistently evaluated across the organization. On top of that, it carries the added benefit of both attracting and educating candidates, another goal that's easier said than achieved.