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posted by janrinok on Sunday July 20 2014, @03:04AM   Printer-friendly

ScienceDaily reports that:

The phenomenon of 'boomerang employees' is not unique to professional athletes, says two recent studies. Organizations of all types are beginning to recognize and embrace the value of recruiting and welcoming back former employees. From infantry soldiers to chief executives, accountants and professional basketball players, many organizations proactively recruit and rehire former employees as a way to offset high turnover costs and hedge against the uncertain process of socializing replacement employees.

"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," Harris said. "Somewhat unexpectedly, we also found that boomerang employees, compared to non-boomerang employees, typically had shorter original tenures with the focal organizations.

"The research found 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.

"Our latest research suggests that organizations should realize that not all boomerangs are created equal," Harris said. "When evaluating potential boomerang hires, organizations should first, and most obviously, consider their previous performance histories at the focal organization and at their most recent employer.

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by evilviper on Sunday July 20 2014, @04:23AM

    by evilviper (1760) on Sunday July 20 2014, @04:23AM (#71412) Homepage Journal

    Boomerang employees are created by idiotic company policies. When you institute a 3% cap on annual raises, you're really cutting the salaries of your loyal employees, year over year, if they're stupid enough to stay loyal to you.

    After a few years of that, salaries at other companies are far surpassing what they're getting, and they'd be stupid not to take it. They can even negotiate it up in the hiring process, but not so much after they're employed.

    And if the new employer has similar caps on salaries, you can always do the same thing in reverse, going back to the old company at much higher pay.

    So why are the idiotic company policies so wide-spread? The current management strategy in-vogue seems to be to copy the dynamics of start-ups, always hoping for a rockstar rather than just a valuable and reliable employee, also hoping to accidentally import good ideas from other (better) companies, and all the while, completely devaluing the actually very important asset of institutional knowledge and persistence.

    --
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by CyprusBlue on Sunday July 20 2014, @04:35AM

    by CyprusBlue (943) on Sunday July 20 2014, @04:35AM (#71414)

    Yep, they left because of a specific manager, or the lack of raises, and now came back because the manager changed again to someone better, or simply to get the salary they deserved in the first place but couldn't jump to internally.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by forkazoo on Sunday July 20 2014, @05:01PM

    by forkazoo (2561) on Sunday July 20 2014, @05:01PM (#71554)

    Yeah lack of internal advancement is a big issue. I recently-ish had a former employer try to get me to come back short term as a freelance for a month or so because they had just lost one of my former coworkers. I was basically the only freelancer in the universe that could drop in and provide continuity without training. I gave them my rate, and they laughed at me. I wasn't particularly interested in negotiating because I was pretty busy, and there were a ton of very good reasons I had left in the first place.

    For whatever reason, they thought since they had hired my for cheap when I originally made a jump in industry, that they would still be able to get me for cheap. Apparently they hadn't fully processed the fact that my not being paid enough to put up with their BS was what had originally forced me to leave. When they contacted me looking for help, they seemed to assume they could still be a dick to me, which was confusing. The way they responded to my rate was dickish to the point that it burned the bridge, and now I would be unlikely to ever work for them again at any rate.

    Hint: When you ask for help, don't stab the hand you are asking to feed you. (Mixed metaphors are fun!)

  • (Score: 1) by knorthern knight on Sunday July 20 2014, @06:59PM

    by knorthern knight (967) on Sunday July 20 2014, @06:59PM (#71578)

    Longtime loyal customers get the shaft, but the companies offer huge discounts for the first year or so to new customers who've jumped from a competitor. Same mentality.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @03:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @03:15AM (#71696)

    completely devaluing the actually very important asset of institutional knowledge and persistence
    My company is gearing up to do this. They are closing down 3 locations and having everyone move across the country. I estimate of the employees in the group they will lose 40% - 60% the majority in 2 locations. There is a reason I live in a small town. I get paid the same as my co-workers in a much larger city and have a lower cost of living. If you are going to make me move I probably will move somewhere I want to live. Not to the randomly chosen location you picked. Where houses cost 4x what I have now and renting an apartment is 2x-3x higher than what I was paying for a mortgage payment.