What is a Boomerang Employee?
A boomerang employee is a worker who leaves a company and later decides to come back.
.png)
Understanding Boomerang Employees
With more kinds of businesses and working modalities than ever, modern job seekers can find an organization that suits them. This array of choices and room for flexibility has empowered some employees to switch jobs somewhat frequently, a trend seen especially in Generation Z workers. However, just because a worker departs from your organization doesn’t mean they won’t consider rejoining you later. This kind of worker is referred to as a boomerang employee, named because, just like a boomerang, they return to you! Boomerang employees can be a valuable business asset and indicate a positive company culture.
Boomerang employees, those who leave an organization but later return, can indicate a strong employer brand and company culture.
Benefits of Boomerang Employees
While it may seem strange to rehire an ex-employee at first, they can actually be excellent additions to a team. Boomerang workers bring valuable experience and familiarity with an organization, often allowing them to integrate more quickly into organization-wide processes than new hires. They also typically return with new experiences and knowledge, having worked elsewhere for a while. For this reason, former employees are vital additions to an organization’s internal talent pool, as it can help save them time and money to hire from a shortlist of pre-approved candidates such as those you’ve previously hired.
Boomerang employees can bring a refreshed perspective to a workplace while re-acclimating quickly to a company culture compared to brand-new hires.
Challenges and Considerations of Boomerang Employees
There are many advantages to rehiring former employees; however, businesses should consider the potential challenges involved. Firstly, consider why the worker left in the first place. Did they leave on bad terms? Was there a need for alignment with the team or company culture? If they had issues with the company at the time, have the circumstances or their feelings changed? Are there new processes in place on which they must be trained? Additionally, consider whether they will be a fit for the current team. Finally, returning employees will likely have different employment expectations this time around, so be sure to communicate clearly with them throughout the hiring process.
When rehiring boomerang employees, consider their previous reasons for leaving and ensure their alignment with the current company culture and team.
Best Practices for Small Businesses
Small businesses should prioritize retention strategies from the start to increase the likelihood of getting great ex-employees working for an organization again. This means following robust employee engagement strategies, such as cultivating an inclusive company culture, encouraging growth opportunities, collecting employee feedback, and boosting well-being through various benefits and social events. Additionally, keeping positive relationships with ex-employees who left on good terms and including them in your organization’s internal talent pool are great ways to have them consider returning for future openings.
Small businesses should focus on retention and engagement to remain open to working with former employees again.
Boomerang employees who leave and later return to an organization can be a valuable asset and excellent re-addition, streamlining the hiring process. They bring familiarity with a company’s culture and methods and new experiences from their in-between employer(s). Small businesses should prioritize employee engagement, retention strategies, feedback collection, and maintaining positive relationships with current and former employees to effectively leverage this possibility of rehiring.
About the author
Casey Pontrelli
Casey Pontrelli is a multi-talented professional with a background in content creation, branding, and social media marketing. Whether writing for a newspaper, eCommerce website, B2B startup, or a marketing agency, she has taken her strong background in journalism and turned her focus to SEO and content marketing. She’s written about everything from boutiques to cars to small businesses, and enjoys most when she knows her writing has had an impact. When she’s not writing up a storm or creating attention-grabbing social media posts, Casey enjoys hanging out with her partner and three cats, Eddy, Larry, and Marcus, going on long walks in the Green Belt, and, predictably, reading.
