Companies are often more interested in boomerang employees. There are many performance benefits when they return. However, former employees have very little motivation to return to a former employer. This is what a survey found, conducted among 300 HR managers and 400 office employees across Canada by Accountemps, a Robert Half company that specializes in recruitment in accounting and finance.
87% of employers would be willing to welcome a former employee back into the company. However, 70% of professionals do not envisage the likelihood of submitting their application to an organization they already worked at. The reasons for this reticence are linked to the disaffection they felt for their former professional environment. Indeed, 21% of them indicated that they did not like the duties of their position, 20% did not appreciate the professional culture and 15% did not like management. Finally, 15% mentioned a severed relationship since leaving, including 8% of their own initiative and 7% by their former company.
Rehiring a former employee nevertheless has many benefits. In addition to being a less expensive recruitment, it brings back into the company a person who already knows the professional culture, the organization’s expectations and training requirements and who also has additional skills and more experience. To benefit from this potential future enrichment, there is every interest to conduct the exit interview in a productive and courteous manner.
Leaving the door open to former employees
When publishing the results of this survey, the Accountemps recruitment company gives five tips to businesses to leave the door open to former employees and also to work on their employer image:
1. An exit interview will be an opportunity to invite comments and impressions, which will then allow the workplace environment to be improved.
2. To part with professionalism, employees should be considered as full team members until they have left, even if they quit.
3. By clearly communicating the potential for rehiring, the employer lets the former employee know that he will be welcome.
4. To give former employees the taste for returning, organizations can offer a different position in order to offer them new challenges when they eventually return.
5. Finally, it is advisable to stay in contact with former employees who have performed well in order to stay informed about their professional situation which could change.