What to Consider When Rehiring Former Employees
Rehiring former employees can benefit your business—if you take the right approach. Here, we explore some of the considerations for the rehiring process, including potential positives, possible challenges, and key questions to ask before making the call and extending an offer.
Would you rehire someone who resigned if they left on good terms? If your answer is an automatic "no," you may be missing out. Rehiring former employees can be a useful strategy for growth in certain situations. Here are some of the considerations to keep in mind as you decide whether to bring someone back on board.
Potential positives of rehiring former employees
Bringing back former staff, also called "boomerang" employees, can benefit your business. Here are three potential positives.
It will likely cost you less
It takes time to fill a role. The interview and onboarding processes are resource-intensive, and you have to deal with the hidden costs of training new employees. Hiring a boomerang employee may help reduce those budget line items since you won't have to spend as much time vetting, interviewing, recruiting, and making sure they're a good culture fit.
Onboarding may be easier
Assuming your rehire hasn't been gone long, they may need less orientation time. Because previous staff know what they're signing up for, they may stay longer, making them potentially less risky and more productive.
They come with a new outlook
Boomerang employees often return with a new outlook and new skills developed during their time away, which can help them provide fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to help drive your business.
Reasons to avoid hiring a former employee
Boomerang employees can also introduce potential challenges, such as:
Hard feelings from current staff
Consider a former employee filling an open position with a higher salary than their previous role. This may cause tension, especially if other internal employees also applied for the position. While it may be hard to avoid hard feelings, you can help mitigate the impact by making the hiring process as transparent as possible.
It's worth noting that even your best efforts may not satisfy all staff. If your boomerang employee takes a more senior position and current employees become upset, it could result in voluntary resignations. Consider trying to get a sense of how your team feels before making a final decision.
Unaddressed issues
Did your boomerang employee have difficulty working with their former manager or other teammates? Are those employees still around? If so, you may have a problem.
Other common grievances include a lack of benefits, poor advancement prospects, or a lack of learning opportunities. Review your exit interview notes before bringing a former employee in for an interview, and be prepared to address the issues head-on.
Cultural mismatches
Your company's climate and culture may have changed significantly since your boomerang employee left. They may no longer be a good cultural fit, which could be disruptive and cause tension.
Address this during the interview. Communicate any changes in organizational or leadership structure. If former employees are taking on the same (or similar) roles as before, inform them of additional duties or responsibilities before making an offer.
Questions you should consider asking
Before deciding to rehire former staff, take a minute and consider asking yourself these three questions.
How reliable is your hiring process?
Reliable, repeatable hiring processes help you find the best-fit candidates. While posting advertisements on job boards and social sites is a great way to find potential recruits, this approach may also create blind spots. New solutions such as generative AI, combined with consistent human oversight, can help ensure you're finding the best candidates for the job, whether they're former employees or highly skilled newcomers.
Tools should also incorporate any internal restrictions or conditions. For example, many businesses have a 1-3 month waiting period before former staff can be rehired. Make sure you're using a solution capable of segmenting candidates by former position, job skills, and previous employment length.
What were the employee's strengths and weaknesses?
Desperation may make you gloss over some negative qualities. Or, you may have forgotten things that impressed you. Talk to former supervisors, direct and indirect, as well as coworkers, to develop a fuller profile of your potential rehire.
Here's a quick question checklist to help you get started:
- Was the former employee a good cultural fit?
- Did they take initiative?
- Did they work well with others?
- How does their team feel about them returning?
- Where did they excel?
- Where did they struggle?
Why does the employee want to return?
Employees return for different reasons, and those motivations can influence your rehiring decisions. For instance, someone who left to grow their skills at other organizations but struggled with cultural fit elsewhere may bring valuable experience back with them. On the other hand, candidates who've bounced between roles without clear progress might be seeking familiarity and rehiring in these cases should be approached with caution.
Ready, set, document
As you go through the rehiring process, document what you do, how you do it, who you speak with (internally and externally), and what you consider before making the decision. Then, use this information to improve existing policies, if you have them (which you should). Once you think your policy is in good shape, have it reviewed by a labor attorney.
A well-documented approach helps promote fairness and consistency, ensuring that returning employees follow the same background checks, orientation, and training as any new hire.
Hiring (or rehiring) and keeping the best requires greater people intelligence.
Our complimentary guide explains more.
