Best Practices to Rehire your Former Employees

When an organisation rehire a former employee, they already know their personality and work ethic, as well as their reason for leaving the organisation. They also require less training and onboarding time.

When the organisation recruits for open positions, it might consider hiring some previous talent who left as a rehire.

Tips on Rehiring Former Employees

1. Review the Exit Interview Process

Treat them well, even when they head out the door so that they feel valued and encouraged to reapply for the vacant position in the organisation. Reviewing the exit process helps to understand the real reason behind their exit. This allows organisations to take necessary steps to review their procedures and improves their process.

The organisation must implement changes from those reviews so that the same mistakes do not arise with other employees and disrupt the flow of a harmonious workplace. They must hear suggestions from them in the exit interview process to improve the workplace.

2. State Expectations

The organisation has to set benchmarks and expectations for the rehired employee. The employer knows what was great about them, and what they needed to improve by analysing their positives and negatives. 

The hiring manager has to discover what the rehire has done during their time away, so they know what new expertise will be brought to the position.

3. Set Talent Pool

A talent pool is a set of prior employees to keep in contact with and refer to when the organisation needs a service. The talent pool is broader with qualified candidates, including reducing time to hire, improving the quality of hire and reducing the cost of hire. When an employee leaves an organisation, they can contact them anytime by way of having a talent pool.

This makes it easy for the former employee and the employer to contact each other if there is a  need of working again.

4. Make Commitment

When rehiring a former employee, be flexible about the role and pay structures with the candidates. This is an important process for organisations to agree on terms and conditions and to follow them. 

The organisation must be clear in explaining the expectations and their role in the company. Organisations are to explain to the employees the role that they will play.

5. Interviews

The rehire interview is no different from every other interview that takes place in the organisation to recruit a new candidate. Interviews play an important role in identifying the rehired employee’s objectives so that organisations can decide whether their objectives match them. The rehire interview helps the employer to understand the boomerang employee’s intentions behind the return to the organisation.

There can be circumstances where a boomerang employee might face the same pain points that would have made them leave the organisation before. The recruiter must understand what the situation was before, and avoid any kind of activities that trigger them.

The Benefits of Rehiring

1. Reduced Recruiting Cost

Recruiting new talent is an expensive and long process with costs associated with the hiring process. When onboarding, the previous talent would already be aware of the product or services that drastically reduce the training cost.

2. Efficient Onboarding

Rehiring past employees tend to be quicker than hiring a new employee. The rehired employee is already similar to the onboarding process, and the HR could easily navigate them to the organisation.

3. Increased Commitment and Performance

When rejoining the organisation, an employee has prior experience and can avoid repeating the same mistakes. So when rehired, they know the areas to improve and focus on, and have a greater chance of succeeding in the organisation.

4. High Morale

High morale in the workplace is essential for success. When a former employee is brought back to the organisation they are to be highly motivated to perform better than their previous spell at the organisation. There are also no laws prohibiting laid-off employees from joining the organisation for the second time. Those types of employees look to prove a point to themselves and the organisation of the skills that they are capable of.

5. Upgraded Skills and Experience

When rehiring a previous employee they already know the products and services, and they start upgrading with the organisation trends. The rehired employees can start to add value to the new employees. The employee is expected to know the organisation’s culture and trends, so they can quickly adapt to organisational changes, and apply their ideology to get the best results.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the factors to be taken care of while rehiring?

Make sure to ask the former employees questions about their reasons for leaving the first time. Interviewing the rehired candidate is an essential part of the hiring process to make sure these candidates still fit the culture and values of the organisation.

2. When should an organisation consider rehiring employees?

When the organisation is looking for an employee that already knows the company and their culture, and has the ability to reach the organisation’s objectives in an effective and efficient manner. The company can hire them if they feel the rehired candidate has the necessary skills. If the candidate is already exposed to doing the work, it reduces the training cost and time.  

3. Does the organisation rehire candidates who were previously terminated for poor performance?

An employee terminated for poor performance is not the ideal candidate to rehire. So, organisations do not hire these types of employees as these employees are not eligible for rehire. These could include employees involved in malicious activities.

Closing Thoughts

Rehiring employees, known as boomerang employees, is one of the efficient resources that organisations can utilise to have a reduced hiring cost and a faster onboarding process. There is always uncertainty when hiring an unknown employee for an organisation.

The organisation while planning to bring back an employee has to ensure bringing back the right talent for the role. So, the employer has to analyse and review the candidate’s exit process to highlight any potential issues prior to rehiring them.

Rehiring a former employee also helps to increase other employees’ morale by showing the current employees that the organisation is a great place to work.

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