Boomerang Employees Make a Comeback: A Data-based Approach to Rehiring Top Talent | Visier

Talent acquisition (TA) professionals continue to source talent from untapped talent pools to uncover “hidden” top talent. One overlooked talent pool is former employees—often called boomerang employees—who have the skills their former organization values, and a desire to return to their previous employer. And with many TA practitioners relying increasingly on data to inform their strategies and tactics, this paper provides data-based insights for rehiring former employees. One insight is that the average time away for employees resigning from and returning to their previous employer is 13 months. And while it can take up to 36 months or longer before a former employee is rehired, the chances of them returning drop sharply after they have been away for 16 months. These data points suggest that 13 to 16 months is a critical time frame for rehiring former employees. Given that more than a quarter of these employees were rated high performers when they left their organizations, TA teams can identify former top-performing employees within the critical rehire timeframe and re-recruit them. Since it’s important to cultivate relationships with these former employees to make it easier for them to return to the organization, I am resharing this bonus HBR article, Leave the Door Open for Employees to Return to Your Organization, that includes several practices.