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Boomerang hires and alumni programmes: How to win the war for talent
18 Aug 2008
There are so many reasons why employees might decide to leave a company. Many of these could be perceived as being the company's fault; perhaps the member of staff was overstretched, bored, underpaid, felt unsupported, there was a lack of career development The list goes on.
Companies that are good to work for already have strategies in place to try to avoid driving valuable employees into the arms of potential competitors; but it is not always possible to avoid this, because some motives just cannot be factored in, such as family issues.
While many managers and human resources personnel might immediately turn their thoughts to filling the vacant position and all that this process brings with it, it may pay off in the long-term to consider the future relationship with the member of staff who is leaving.
"Over 70 per cent of employers believe employees' departure from the organisation has a minor, or serious, negative effect on business performance," according to research by the
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, published in its 2007 Recruitment, Retention and Turnover survey.
The majority of the time many managers will have cause to regret the loss of this worker. They may have been with the company for a long time, have undergone expensive training and used it to good effect while progressing through the ranks, gained exceptional experience, and understand the company's aims and ambitions. It is quite a setback to lose such a worker.
Consider this: a valued employee leaves the company for what they perceive as greener pastures. They widen their perspectives on the industry, learn new skills, undergo further training and gain different experiences. In a year or two they may be ready to move job again, especially if they are ambitious and keen to get on.
It should not take a lot of persuasion to conclude that keeping in touch with former employees can be extremely useful. The normal recruitment anxieties will not apply – you know they are a competent worker, they get on well in a team and can equally work alone, and so on; and in the case of so-called boomerang or alumni recruitments, a company is not getting the same employee back: they are getting a better employee.
Last year Enterprise Rent-A-Car revealed that it had made 68 boomerang hires in the 30 months leading up to July, an average of two a week.
European HR director Donna Miller told Personnel Today: "Keeping in touch with your best employees after they leave is something far too few companies do.
"Looking after your current employees is of course priority number one, but with so many people regularly switching jobs today, making sure you get your fair share of boomerang hires is more important than ever."
StepStone Solutions group managing director Matthew Parker told HR Zone talent was any company's most precious asset.
He pointed out that talent management was vital to the future success of a company and "since organisations can no longer expect to find the best people externally, they need to be able to work far better with the talent they already have at their disposal".
This, of course, includes former employees.
So instead of wishing job leavers "all the best" with just a card and a bunch of flowers, it might be worth initiating a fail-safe strategy to keep in touch, whether it be via a Christmas card, a courtesy call once every six months, or an invitation to a company anniversary. Don't lose touch now!