Organizations hire ex-employees to save money

Two recent studies have revealed that many organizations proactively recruit and rehire former employees as a way to equalize high turnover costs and buffer against the uncertain process of socializing replacement employees.

T. Brad Harris, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois, said that the "boomerang employees" already understand the key components of the organization's work structure and culture, which makes them less risky hires than newcomers.

He further explained that these employees might also be more committed to the focal organization upon their return because, in essence, they've learned firsthand that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

It was also found that after surveying and interviewing hundreds of employees, we were able to see that boomerang employees were more likely to originally leave an organization not because of dissatisfaction with the job, but because of some personal shock, such as a pregnancy, spousal relocation or an unexpected job offer, they also found that boomerang employees, compared to non-boomerang employees, typically had shorter original tenures with the focal organizations.

The researcher advised that while evaluating potential boomerang hires, organizations should first, consider their previous performance histories at the focal organization and at their most recent employer as the research stated that re-employment performance was significantly predicted by the harmony of the original tenure, and their success during the time spent away from the focal organization and conditions of the return.

In reference to LeBron James's return to the Cleveland Cavaliers Brian Swider of Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business and one of study's co-authors said that James' performance has always been exceptional, which fits with our 'past performance predicts future performance' arguments and although LeBron's original decision to voluntarily leave Cleveland was much derided, the fact that it was clearly of his own volition might work to Cleveland's favor.

The paper is published in the summer issue of Personnel Psychology.