🕺 Making a successful comeback to your former company.
76% of HR professionals are more willing to rehire employees today than they were 5 years ago.
In today’s fierce labor market competition, companies are loading up all of their secret weapons to hire the best talents out there—including re-opening past chapters and welcoming former employees back into the company.
Though this practice is not new, there has recently been a steady incline of this trend post-pandemic as workers feel significantly less anxious to start work in a familiar environment. But does this mean people are going backwards with their progress, or is it actually more beneficial?
Why ‘boomerang employees’ exist
The phenomenon of employees leaving and then going back to their former companies is most commonly known as ‘boomerang-ing’. A study of 13.000 employees revealed that 20% of boomerang employees initially left their companies to take life-related breaks such as having a baby, moving out of town, or continuing their studies. The rest either left to get more skills and returned at a higher level, or those who had been at a company for a long time and wanted to try something else.
These motives allow companies to keep in touch with their ex-employees in order to retain them back in the near future.
For companies, losing employees and finding replacements is very costly. But in today’s era of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), it is straight up inevitable. Rehiring offers a more affordable method to recruit, hire, and train. Moreover, when employees come back, they often bring institutional knowledge from competitors which can boost company morale.
Learn more about the stats of today’s ‘boomerang’ scene in the article here.
When to drop the teaser
After parting ways for a while, when would be the right time for an employee to rejoin their ex-company? Abbie Shipp, an Employee Engagement specialist from Texas Christian University states that:
As long as your resume doesn’t show a pattern of repeatedly leaving and rejoining a company, being a boomerang employee should not carry a negative stigma it once did.
In fact, most boomerang employees have an upper hand as companies are looking to quickly fill open roles. Before taking up the offer though, there are a few things you need to tick off of your to-do list as a boomerang employee:
Consider your previous experience with the company, including why you left.
Ask yourself if you see opportunities to grow into a new role.
Use your prior knowledge and skills to do well in your new position.
Reach out to both old and new colleagues to ease the transition.
The steps above will help you determine whether it’s the right time for you to come back. Find more tips on making a hit comeback in the CNBC article here.
The grand (re)entrance
Once you’ve decided to give your former employer another go, it’s time to set everything up in your favor. While the process of assimilating to your new but familiar surroundings should feel like second nature, here are a few ideas taken from Harvard Business Review (HBR) on how to thrive as a boomerang employee:
Reintroduce yourself. As you’re coming back in a (hopefully) elevated position, you need to change the boundaries and reestablish yourself as a more senior person in the organization.
Be positive. When discussing the reason why you initially left the company in the first place, be mindful not to portray an unnecessarily negative image of the company. Make sure to not badmouth the other company you just left, too.
Reset colleagues’ expectations. Now that you’re back, you need to demonstrate that you have had new experiences and you’ve grown. The fact that you’ve been away and presumably have learned a lot in the process is an asset.
Reset your own expectations. You need to acknowledge that the context has changed and learn the new lay of the land. Be aware that there will be aspects of the culture and processes that might be new and unfamiliar.
Onboard. Go and have a series of onboarding conversations with managers and coworkers. Ask what they have tried that works and hasn’t worked, and try not to assume you know.
Network around. Resist the temptation to gravitate toward the familiar and hang out with your ‘old gang’. Instead, think about the alliances you’d need to build and the people you’d need to connect with.
Offer perspective. Find ways to contribute to the conversation without smothering it by showing off your newfangled ways. Avoid gratuitous criticisms.
Pace yourself. Be prepared to inject new ideas and make some tough decisions right away. But, don’t shortchange the learning process with your eagerness to hit the ground running.
Read more about the do’s and don’ts of being a boomerang employee + more study cases in the HBR article here.
Have you been reminiscing on the good ol’ days with your previous company? Or have you been seeing colleagues and friends making their own comebacks to their former employers?
Hopefully this week’s Monday Mavens edition gave you some insights on how to properly hit a comeback at work.
Stay tuned for more personal growth tips next week.
Cheers!