When the Grass Isn't Greener:
Ex-Workers Boomerang Back to Fill Key Hiring Needs

This article was written by Business & Legal Reports (BLR), a publisher of regulatory compliance and employee training materials, and appears here with their express permission. Visit their Web site at www.blr.com.

OCTOBER 2000 -- Is your company like most businesses today, scouring the landscape for qualified workers for key openings, especially in information technology jobs and skilled technician or management positions? Then perhaps it's time to stop ignoring a crop of top performers that's as near as your own backyard -- former employees who left your company for greener pastures elsewhere and who may be pining for a chance to come back home.

Workplace experts call this the "boomerang" effect, after the carved, wooden aboriginal Australian object that returns to you once you've thrown it away. Such boomerang workers were your company's onetime stars or peak performers who left your employ in recent years, most likely for faster advancement opportunities elsewhere or for more salary or other predominantly positive or personal reasons.

Former workers are a recruitment source that many companies have deliberately shied away from tapping. Often, company attitudes and policies have frowned on workers who leave; bosses and human resource managers in such companies liken the leave to divorce and hold similar feelings of betrayal and anger.

But with the continued scarcity of qualified workers, there no longer is profit in nursing bruised corporate egos. Changing workplace demographics are putting pressure on companies to woo former workers. Through 2005, according to research, the demand for relevant skills and experience will exceed supply by 20 percent -- with double that in high-demand markets.

Benefits of boomeranging

According to Gartner, a Stamford, Connecticut, information technology research and consulting firm, by 2003 some 60 percent of midsize and large companies will routinely rehire high-performing IT and business professionals to meet job demands and cut recruitment time and expense. In fact, retaining and attracting IT workers is the top workplace issue for HR managers throughout the United States.

The benefits to companies that are widening their recruitment efforts to include former workers are significant. Most immediate is regaining the services of talented staffers who already know the company's business, industry, and marketplace.

Former employees who return to the fold appreciate that the company values them so highly as to solicit their homecoming. Workplace research also indicates that returnees are among a company's most loyal employees. Finally, as competition in all business sectors remains fierce, boomerang employees keep valuable skills out of the hands of competitors.

Research paints a clear picture of what type of worker may be susceptible to rehiring: a person who worked at the company for at least five years and left to become an independent consultant or practitioner, yet felt unprepared for or disliked the challenges of going it alone.

Bringing home top performers

Companies that are actively rehiring former star employees have put into place programs to rehire the worthy. Here are their best practices:

• Keep in regular touch with former employees. Some companies add former workers' names to mailing lists (or e-mail distributions) and send them press releases, annual reports, employee newsletters, job listings, and other news. Also, consider inviting former workers to company or department picnics or holiday parties.
• Form alumni associations and develop alumni events. Maintaining personal and professional connections can build both business alliance and rehiring opportunities.
• Reinstate benefits at the level an employee was at when he or she left.
• Reinstate vacation and sabbatical tenure status.
• Conduct an upbeat exit interview. Managers should candidly express their sadness and disappointment about seeing the worker leave. And emphasize that the worker would be welcomed back at any time.
• Develop an exit questionnaire that probes reasons for leaving. Research finds that those workers who voluntarily leave have been with their company five to seven years, are in their second or third job out of college, and want challenges that their current job or employer is unable to provide them.
• Send the exit questionnnaire to the valued departed worker two weeks after he or she starts the new job. Experts say that's when doubts begin to arise that the new job and employer may not be as promising as hoped for.
• If the worker is leaving for retirement or self-employment reasons, offer part-time work. Many veteran workers cutting back their schedules or starting their own businesses will welcome such arrangements.

A word of caution

The return of prodigal sons and daughters to their onetime work families, while generally a positive move for both worker and employer, nonetheless does offer room for caution. The worker who returns to a higher-level job or higher-paying position may unintentionally hurt the morale of former co-workers. Those onetime colleagues may feel that they were penalized by staying and were passed over for promotion or more prestigious projects. Worse, they may feel that quitting is the only or best way to advance, and then act to pursue that strategy. Positioning the returning employee's skills and new position strategically, as meeting business needs, can help to ease hard feelings.