Boomerang Employees: Should you Rehire a Former Employee? - Arcoro

Written by Erin Sandage | Dec 10, 2024 8:00:10 AM

But as employee tenure changes (workers only stay with a job for about four years) the idea of rehiring a former employee, otherwise known as a boomerang employee, has become much more appealing – especially with construction’s labor shortages. But HR professionals should weigh the pros and cons before rehiring an employee.

What is a Boomerang Employee?

Boomerang employees are workers who leave a company and then come back to either fill their last position or a new position. Boomerang employees typically first left their jobs voluntarily, instead of being laid off, furloughed or fired. Why they initially left could point to how long they’ll stay when they return.

Boomerang employees who leave for relatively positive reasons – such as to continue their education, change careers, a move or to stay home with children, are more likely to perform the same when they return. But those who left due to negative reasons, like poor performance or bad relationship with manager or coworkers, likely won’t improve their performance when they return.

What’s more, there’s a strong chance that boomerang employees who leave the company a second time usually do so for the reasons they departed in the first place, making boomerang employees predictable, which may not necessarily be a bad thing. Many HR managers might appreciate having this type of insight about an employee.

Pros and Cons of Rehiring a Former Employee

Pros:

Reduced training costs. One of the biggest positives for hiring a boomerang employee is reduced training costs. The cost for onboarding and training a new employee is estimated to be around $4,000, due to the amount of time and resources involved in recruiting, hiring and training. Many of those costs can be eliminated when a former employee is rehired.
Prior understanding of company culture. Company culture is one of the most deciding factors of employee retention. Simply put, employees will leave a company if they don’t like its culture, and repeated turnover will cost you. According to SHRM, it can cost $8,000 to replace a worker making $40,000 a year, higher if that worker is a Millennial. Boomerang employees already know and understand your company culture, reducing the likelihood they’ll leave because of it.
Managers already know their value. There is something to be said about the devil you know. When an employee is rehired, the manager has insight into work style, expectations and personality. There is also the opportunity to evaluate them beyond references and work experience.
Provides a positive message to current employees. In an employee-centric environment, even the most loyal employee might think the grass looks greener on the other side. Regardless of what drew them away in the first place: an exciting opportunity, more money, starting a family, what brings them back says a lot about them. In some ways, coming back to a previous employer can be humbling, but if they have a new perspective about the value of working for you, it’s good for current team members, too. Current employees get the message that your company is worth coming back to.

Cons:

Overlooking better candidates. Hiring a previous worker because of the pros listed above, including cost savings, might inadvertently make you overlook a better candidate, according to LinkedIn. It’s easy to overlook other applicants when a trained employee asks to come back.
Boomerang employees may leave again. According to LinkedIn, if a boomerang employee initially left due to past issues with the company – and those issues aren’t resolved – they’re highly likely to leave again for the same reason.
Old problems still exist. Just because the employee went away for a while, doesn’t mean they are coming back a completely new person. If a potential rehire didn’t get along with co-workers or managers who are still on the team, look out. Inviting a combustive relationship back into the workforce can be bad for employee morale as well as the returning prospect.
Your company has changed. Today’s companies are throwing out old policies and crafting new ones around flexible work, hiring practices and culture. While this change is great, a boomerang employee could return to a working environment that is now foreign. If personalities resist change, the road back could be bumpy. All new employees–returning or not–need to be ready to adapt to new business expectations.

Questions to Ask Before Rehiring a Boomerang Employee

Traditional interview questions won’t quite work for former employees. LinkedIn suggests asking these questions instead:

What have you been doing since you left? This question can give you insight into previous obligations that propelled them to leave the first time, like caring for a sick relative or having a new child.
If you are currently working, why do you want to leave your employer? It’s a good idea to learn if a boomerang worker is leaving a current employer for a problem that exists at your company.
Why did you leave your position here? Don’t assume you know why an employee quit, even if a resignation letter was provided. It’s important to learn the truth so you can prevent the same issues from happening again.
Why do you want to return to this company? Make sure you find out if the employee is returning because they’re a good fit or if they simply can’t find a job elsewhere.
What salary do you have in mind? Asking for a higher salary is reasonable if the employee has gained new skills, like finishing a degree, or a significant amount of time has passed.
If we rehire you, how long do you plan to stay with this company? The savings accrued from rehiring an employee go out the window if they simply quit again.
What would make you leave the company again? If a worker left because they were unhappy with your company, they might not last long as a boomerang employee.

Don’t forget to have the boomerang employee go through onboarding again, especially as policies, processes and even workplace tools have likely changed. And talk to your current team members. Inform them about the boomerang employee’s return. Let current coworkers know the hire is a positive one as the boomerang employee can hit the ground running, picking up their extra work quickly.

Arcoro’s hiring and training tools – like the Applicant Tracking System, Onboarding and Learning Management software, streamlines the recruitment and development processes, making rehiring a former employee even more efficient and cost effective.

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