“More than one of four people who quit their job regret their decision and 42% who quit said the new job didn’t live up to their expectations” (2022 report from employment search platform Joblist). We’ve all been there. The grass seems greener somewhere else and when we leave our current position, we’re unfortunately let down by what seemed bright and shiny. We recently read this in an interview with Kristen Cavallo, CEO of MullenLowe and The Martin Agency. In the article she talks about boomerangs. Boomerangs are hires that left a company only to come back later, hence the name boomerang. She herself had this relationship with Deutsch LA. She suggests respecting employee curiosity to try new roles at other companies and not trying to pressure them to stay. It will help them learn and if you don’t burn the bridge, not only will it save your company reputation, it sets the ego aside and lets them feel comfortable. In doing so, they may boomerang back to your company in the long run. Let them know that they can find growth within the company that they are coming back to. They want to know that they can come back to familiarity but with added challenges to grow professionally.
We could not agree more with this style of leadership. Setting the ego aside to create good relationships with the people that work for you will build trust, it will create a company culture that people want to be a part of. There are benefits to rehiring an ex-employee who has left and decided that the grass was, in fact, not greener. Here are a couple reasons why hiring an employee back can be beneficial.
1. Less time for onboarding process.
2. They’re already familiar with the job, their duties and expectations.
3. They will fit back into the company culture.
4. They will have likely learned new skills while away from the job that they bring back with them.
5. It will increase their relationship between the company and the employee. Thusly, increasing loyalty.
6. They typically will outperform a new hire even if they’re less qualified.
Although we agree with this practice, there are also some things to keep in mind when rehiring an employee as well. Why did they leave in the first place? Is it something that you can ensure them to come back for? Compensation increase, title promotions. This is what we stated above. It’s important to let them know that they can grow within the company and it will entice them to validify their choice to come back. It’s also important to understand that although they have been at the company before, if they are taking a different role, the acclimation process may be slower than expected. It’s important to support them in the beginning with good training in order to prevent mistakes later down the line.
We love the idea of boomerang employees and giving people the space that they need to improve on their skill sets within their industry. Here at Locomotive, our employees are fully remote and have our full attention with whatever they need. We are mindful that they may have other professional obligations going on aside from ours. In order for them to feel comfortable we support them with every project in order to get the highest quality work for our company. We firmly believe that our flexibility with them is why we have a high retention rate. We’ve had the same team since the very beginning with only a few add ons once we started to grow. Flexibly fosters growth.
