Should You Rehire An Employee Who Left?

A top-performing employee leaves your company for another job offer. Maybe they were enticed by another employer offering attractive pay and impressive benefits, or perhaps it was time for them to explore something new. But months or even years passed, and now they’ve come back knocking on your door again. Turns out, the grass wasn’t as green as they’d envisioned. So do you rehire them?

Before thinking about rehiring a former employee, employers should first find out why they left the company in the first place. If they’ve resigned on bad terms, it may be unwise to rehire them.

So how do you determine whether rehiring them is the right choice? Below we compile the pros, cons, and important considerations before making the decision.

 

On the bright side: It’ll cost significantly less to retrain them

Hiring a new employee can be expensive. SHRM has estimated that the average cost per employee is around $4,700. That includes recruiting, going through the interview process, and training new employees. Rehiring a former or ‘boomerang’ employee could help minimize those budget line bits as you won't have to invest too much time in screening, interviewing, hiring, and ensuring they're a good culture fit for the company. 

 

They know the ins and outs of your company

One of the challenges of recruiting a new employee is that you’ll never know what you’ll get and how well the new hire will fit with the company until they are onboard. On the contrary, when you rehire a boomerang employee, you already know this individual and what type of employee they are. They are already familiar with their job duties and the company’s culture and may very well be acquainted with some of your other workers. Therefore, they are more likely to achieve optimal performance much sooner than a new employee.

 

They'll bring in fresher and newer perspectives

Former employees often return with newer outlooks and skills acquired during their time away or at their other job. With them providing these fresh perspectives, they can bring new innovative and creative ideas to help enhance your company’s performance and operations. 

 

Rehiring a former employee could boost team morale

When an employee returns, it demonstrates to your current employees that your company is a ‘better’ place to work at. If it wasn’t, why would they come back?

Moreover, bringing someone who is ‘well-liked’ back could build excitement or improve the mood at your workplace. Rehiring an employee who left shows your current employees that you value them.

 

Now that we’ve seen a couple of pros. Here are some important questions you should ask yourself.

Q1: Why did the employee resign?

Carefully review the worker's file to figure out the reason. Was it something to do with personal or family-related issues? Perhaps a lack of opportunity for career advancement? Whatever the reason, evaluate whether it is still likely to be a factor if you rehire the employee.

However, if they’ve left on bad terms and might still have hard feelings towards the company, you may want to consider other candidates as they might be applying just because they don’t have any better options.

 

Q2: What were his or her strengths and weaknesses?

As tempting as it may be to rehire the former employee, try to stay objective and analyze the individual’s positive and negative qualities. Communicate with former direct and indirect managers and relevant team members to create a clearer profile of your potential rehire.

 

Q3: Why does the employee want back in?

Employees might want to return if they feel they aren’t getting the career opportunities they’ve hoped for, despite being happy in your organization. Oftentimes, it’s as simple as an employee taking a new role elsewhere and discovering it is not what they were searching for, hence, the return to your company. 

On the other hand, some employees may be dissatisfied with their current position or don’t know how to contribute more to the company - leaving them the choice of moving on. Whatever the case, understanding why an employee decides to leave can help you better understand where they could fit within your company.

 

Potential challenges to consider after asking the above questions:

• Some employees may still hold a grudge against the company or certain coworkers

• Your former employee has left once, and they might do so again

• Your current employees might be upset if the former employee takes on a more senior role

• Former employees’ performance tends to remain the same after being rehired

 

So, can rehiring former employees still be a good choice?

Well, the pros seem to outweigh the cons, making former employees out to rehire great (mostly). If the potential rehire was a good fit for their previous role, you’ve already reduced the cost of screening, recruiting, onboarding, and training new employees.

 

 

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