With 46% of Millennials saying they would return to a previous employer, boomerang workers prove you don’t want to burn your bridges, more than ever.
As America’s job market continues to improve, human resources managers are seeing more familiar faces in their applicant pools. Former employees who wish to return to the fold are attempting to “boomerang” back and more managers are deciding to hire them, a new survey finds.
More than eight in 10 HR professionals report receiving applications from former workers during the past five years, according to the survey commissioned by WorkplaceTrends.com and The Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc.
Additionally, 40% of those respondents said their company had rehired about half of their boomerang applicants.
While many firms once had policies against rehiring former workers – even when the split was amicable – 76% of companies now say they are more accepting of bringing back employees, the survey found.
Similarly, about two-thirds of managers say they’re willing to rehire if the circumstances are right.
Job-Hopping Millennials Open to Return
Conducted in July and published in September 2015, the survey asked 1,807 respondents nationwide about corporate culture and employee engagement. The survey targeted three primary groups: HR professionals; people managers; and full-time, non-management employees.
Only about 15% of employee respondents indicated that they had returned to a former workplace. Even so, about 40% said they would consider returning to a former place of employment.
The survey found generational differences in attitudes toward boomeranging:
- 46% of Millennials said they would consider going back to a former employer
- 33% of Gen Xers said they would entertain the notion
- 29% of Baby Boomers were open to the prospect
The higher acceptance level among Millennials may be due, in part, to that generation’s tendency to job hop, the survey noted. Millennials may also be moving on from employers too early in their careers.
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Returning Employees Bring Benefits
Boomerang candidates who left a job on good terms are likely to get a warm reception from hiring managers if they try to return to an employer: 56% of HR professionals and 51% of managers said they give higher priority to job applicants who are former employees.
The survey highlighted some of the factors that can make ex-employees attractive candidates for re-employment:
- Familiarity with an organization’s culture – 33% of HR professionals and 38% of managers identified this as a bonus in bringing back former workers
- Less need for training – about one-third of HR and management respondents noted this potentially cost-saving benefit as a perk of rehiring workers
Bringing Boomerang Workers Back into the Fold
Previous research has delved into the link between when and why an employee quits and the likelihood that he or she eventually will boomerang back to an organization.
A 2013 study – title Gone Today but Here Tomorrow: Extending the Unfolding Model of Turnover to Consider Boomerang Employees – found that boomerang employees were more likely to have left a job for personal reasons, such as attending graduate school or expanding a family.
The study, which focused on an accounting firm where 20% of the 15,000 employees were rehires, also found that boomerangs were more likely to have quit earlier during their first stint with the employer compared with workers who left but did not return.
The recent survey by The Workforce Institute and WorkplaceTrends.com found that many HR professionals have strategies for staying in touch with former high-performing workers. Among those respondents, 45% have email newsletters, 30% use recruiters, and 27% tap into alumni groups on social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook.
The rising trend of boomerang employees also serves as a timely reminder to workers contemplating a change: Don’t burn those bridges.
