With the economic downturn and increasing employee turnover in corporations across the globe, hiring new talent with lack of experience, industry knowledge and business acumen can prove to be quite expensive for businesses. This costs the company investment of time, efforts and nevertheless money.

Finding skilled suitable talent for the job role ain’t all. The talent has to be the best fit to blend well with the company’s cultural framework and value system.

Considering the costs-incurred by companies to hire fresh talents and time invested to train and mentor them to meet industry demands and job requirements, companies are looking at more suitable hiring avenues to minimise costs. Rehiring former employees tops the list for most hiring managers.

Findings in the survey titled, Boomerang Employees and the Organizations They Once Left, conducted in July 2015, included responses from 1,807 HR professionals, managers and employees. Nearly half of the HR professionals surveyed, claim that their organization previously had a policy against rehiring former employees even if the employee left in good standing. However, now 76 percent hiring managers state that their companies are more accepting of hiring boomerang employees.

Some reasons could have led employees to quit the company in the past, such as conflicts with coworkers, bad relationship with bosses or a more appealing job offer from another company.

While boomerang employees are commonly perceived as disloyal and most employers are reluctant to hire them back onboard; HR managers seem to be more inviting of this current hiring trend.

Noteworthy observation – when these boomerang employees decide to return and apply for a position to work with their former employer again, it simply means they enjoyed being a part of the workplace culture during their tenure with the company, want to assume leadership positions in their career and are eager to join the team.

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Such good attitude should be appreciated and employers should be more welcoming of their decisions to rehire them in the business. Instead of holding onto pessimistic views and underestimating the contribution of former employees to the team once again, it is wise decision by the company and HR managers to carefully select former employees possessing unique skillsets, experience and knowledge worthy of the job offer.

They should be given a second chance to prove their commitment and perform with scope for career progression prospects in future. Here are some benefits outlined for HR managers to consider rehiring former employees at work:

Reduced Risk

Hiring boomerang employees is less risky than hiring new ones. As they have been working for the company in the past, they are aware about the company’s workings, acquainted with the workplace culture, share a rapport with colleagues and some bosses as well.

While the new talent could face challenges adapting and understanding the company’s culture, abide by the rules and regulations, the boomerang employees are likely to be a better fit.

Skip Onboarding Efforts, Easy Integration

New hires, especially fresh graduates take time to blend and understand the company culture, they need former onboarding training to integrate their skills with workings of the team.

Conversely, former employees do not need onboarding training. They can start performing with minimal supervision and training right from day one. This could mean employers could save on training costs incurred.

Minimal Training to Start Performing Duties

Depending on how long an employee works for the company, an intensive training is not always needed, since they are experienced professionals. However in the case of new hires, training is a must to help them learn new tools and technologies to meet industry demands and challenging project requirements.

Boomerang employees need minimal training in case of any upgradation or change in expectations from the job role. They are more productive and efficient, to be working collaboratively in a team with no supervision.

More Loyalty Ensured

When employers accept to rehire former employees back on the company board, the employees tend to become more loyal, dedicated and showcase their gratefulness towards the employer for having given them a second chance, to be a part of the company culture once again.

Having worked in other offices with different people and different working culture, coming back to the old company gets these former talents, motivated to perform and excel in their standards of working with superior quality output.

Rejecting former employee for some subjective reason is unfair, as the company might lose out on potential talent in the process. However, accepting the former employees’ back on board needs a thoughtful consideration, as they can either positively or negatively influence the workplace culture to either support or disrupt workings of the team.

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