BOOMERANG SHOWS PROFESSIONAL

Nicola Thomas, talent manager at digital-marketing agency iCrossing, based in Brighton, UK, says she actively keeps tabs on past employees as a source of recruitment. Increasingly, they’re turning to ex-employees. While some workers have pined for their old employer following the Great Resignation, the subsequent hiring crisis has coincided with recruiters searching for new talent pools to fill vacancies. And, with social media, it’s easier to keep in touch with a former boss than ever before.” “So, they want to return to the role they did well in before – one they appreciate even more having spent time away. “Someone may have left an organisation and realised the grass isn't greener, or they were forced to quit for personal reasons arising from the pandemic,” adds Keller. In a 2022 survey by recruiting firm Robert Half, seen by BBC Worklife, 29% of UK business leaders reported a rise in ex-workers asking to return to their former firm. Keller says the uptick can be partly attributed to recent high job-market churn: in some cases, more turnover in general means more employees now want their old jobs back, or are interested in returning to a former employer. The speed of this phenomenon is rising, too: the average US worker who came back took 17.3 months to return to a past employer in 2021, versus 21.8 months in 2010. In the US, analysis of around 32 million LinkedIn members’ job histories shows these workers accounted for 4.3% of all hires last year, versus 2% in 2010.

In the UK, LinkedIn data, seen by BBC Worklife, shows 5% of all new hires in 2021 were former employees who returned. However, the Great Resignation has triggered a surge. This shift in mindset meant re-hiring steadily has climbed over the years. So, overlooking a great candidate, simply because they’d previously left for a better opportunity, seemed counterintuitive.” “As it became the norm to build careers across different organisations, over time, even the hiring managers themselves had changed jobs. Mass layoffs following the early 1980s recession shook up this mentality: strategically moving around the job market for career progression became more commonplace, says Keller. “Hiring managers were worried that bringing these employees back suggested they were rewarding disloyalty, that it would encourage others to leave.” “Some companies had formal policies banning rehires,” explains JR Keller, an associate professor of human-resource studies in the ILR School at Cornell University, New York. Given these employees have already left a company once, does returning to the organisation always make sense? And if companies are increasingly looking at re-hiring former workers, where does that leave the labour market going forward?ĭecades ago, companies bristled at the mere idea of re-hiring former employees, especially with the entrenched stigma against job hopping. Some companies are even encouraging it, with designated alumni networks especially made for re-hires.Īnd while heading back into a former position may be motivated by regret, in cases such as Chris’s, it is simply the logical step forward. In fact, following the Great Resignation, the number of people going back to former workplaces as returning employees is soaring. “I didn’t initially leave because I didn’t like my employer rather, I saw the chance to level up more quickly and took it.”Īlthough most people who quit a job are done with a company forever, that’s not always the case. “It’s been great: it’s like riding a bike, but a bigger, cooler one with more gadgets,” he adds. Rather than a backwards step, returning to his former workplace has advanced his career by allowing him to leverage pre-existing relationships and networks at his company while also harnessing experiences acquired elsewhere. In the months following his return, Chris says he has been able to hit the ground running in the more senior role due to his institutional knowledge.

“I was approached to return to a bigger and broader role because of the experiences I was able to gain in the two years away,” he explains. In 2022, he became a ‘boomerang employee’, returning to the same company as before, but in a stronger position than when he left. With an advanced title and higher pay, Chris was ready for a new challenge. During the following two years, he accrued deeper skills and knowledge that helped him quickly climb the career ladder. Chris, whose surname is being withheld for job-security concerns, took the job, and helmed the project. “It was a great opportunity to have an experience doing something that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.” “My current company wasn’t ready to do it yet,” says Chris, who is based in Calgary, Canada.

BOOMERANG SHOWS PROFESSIONAL

When HR professional Chris was approached by a rival energy firm to lead a new management project, he saw it as a career move he couldn’t turn down.

Boomerang shows