Boomerang Employees - Your Greatest Ambassador or Worst Mistake

“He has had more starts than Pharlap” was the way it was described to me. Someone who kept coming back to the same employer.  If you are not from Australia, Pharlap was a famous racehorse who started in a LOT of races and won nearly all of them. When a company has employees who have come back, it shows a lot about the Employee Value Proposition of the company. Often, people leave because of a new project, or they think that the grass is greener, and discover that it is not. If an employee gravitates back to a company after leaving, it shows (generally) that it is a good place to work. However, when someone is looking to return to the company, due diligence must be conducted to ensure that we are aware of the reasons behind why they left in the first place.   

Likewise, when we as individuals make the decision to return to a company, we should consider the motivations behind this. Are we just returning somewhere where we feel comfortable, where we know what we're doing? Are we taking a step back because it is easier, and we don't want to challenge ourselves? Like the folly of accepting a counteroffer, it is prudent to assess what, if anything, has changed. Otherwise, the reason you left will likely continue to cause frustration. 

There are questions that we should ask before returning to a previous employer, as an employer asks of a returning employee. A Canadian company, Workpolis, has conducted research showing that returning employees have become a lot more common in the last 10 years. There are certain industries where this behaviour would not be of a great concern, for example, project work or the construction industry, where it depends on which company has the contract that would determine where the work is. 

A company who has employees returning to them can utilise them to be their greatest ambassador.  They can highlight to current employees that the grass may not be greener. They educate them on what is good about the company, reasons to stay and why they returned. It is, however, important that they are returning for the right reasons.  I have seen situations where employees have left under very dubious circumstances only to be brought back (often not much later) with the impression that they can do whatever they like, and the company will take them back.  The importance of good record-keeping, internal reference checks and exit interviews cannot be understated and should be investigated before bringing back a boomerang employee to ensure they are who we want in the organisation.