Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Career
Should you rehire an employee who left your company?
Excerpts from article by John D. Arnold,Chad H. Van Iddekinge, Michael C. Campion, Talya N. Bauer, and Michael A. Campion, published in the Harvard Business Review
A stellar employee leaves your company for another job. Perhaps they were lured by a recruiter offering an enticing salary and impressive perks, or maybe they just wanted to try something new. But months or years later, they’re knocking on your door again. Turns out the grass wasn’t greener on the other side.
In an age when the average employee will work for more than 12 different employers during their career, and companies are grappling with a tight labour market and skill shortages, many organisations are giving consideration to these “boomerang” employees.
There are a few assumed benefits of rehiring former employees.
- First, because boomerang employees are known, some firms consider them to be less risky than first-time hires. Boomerangs also already know the job and require less training and onboarding time.
- Moreover, because they know what they’re getting into, boomerangs may be more committed this time and less likely to leave again.
- Perhaps most importantly, they may have improved thanks to the experiences they had during their time away and will bring back fresh knowledge, skills, and maturity.
Very little research has examined this staffing strategy, so we set out to see if boomerang employees were living up to those assumptions. We analysed a large dataset and here’s what we found:
1. Boomerang employees’ performance tends to remain the same after being rehired.
Boomerang employees who leave the organisation a second time tend to do so for reasons similar to their first departure’s. In other words, boomerang employee behaviour is fairly predictable based on the behaviour they exhibited during their initial tenure.
2. Both internal and external hires improve more over time than rehires.
While boomerang employees perform similarly to internal and external hires in the first year, they are outperformed after their first year on the job.
3. Boomerang employees are more likely to turn over than both internal and external hires.
This suggests that if an employee has left an organisation once, they may be willing to do so again.
We classified the reasons for initial turnover based on whether they might be a positive indicator of future job performance, a relatively neutral indicator, or a negative indicator.
We found that return performance was comparable among boomerang employees who had originally left for positive or neutral reasons. Boomerang employees whose initial turnover was for performance-related reasons did not do as well as those positive or neutral employees.
However, a boomerang is probably less risky than someone unknown because organisations can expect that boomerangs will perform similarly to the way they did before. If that performance level is acceptable, then they may be a good hire.
Boomerang employees who left for relatively positive or neutral reasons initially outperformed internal and external hires which supports the claim that boomerangs require less onboarding and may contribute more quickly than other hire types.
Factors like risk tolerance, initial turnover reasons, time horizon to performance, and need for stability are all important for organisations to consider when evaluating whether to rehire or look elsewhere. It would be interesting to know how employees who have been laid off do when they return, our data did not include layoffs, and some of our findings may not apply to that group of boomerang employees. Given what we do know so far, in general, we would recommend rehiring good performers who had previously been laid off.
Education
Reshaping education with entrepreneurial learning and lifeskills
Excerpts from article by the India Today Web Desk
Entrepreneurship education shapes young minds to master the skills of the future. With an uncertain future ahead owing to numerous reasons such as technological advancements and population growth, entrepreneurship can be seen as a significant career option for Gen-Z.
Entrepreneurship generates numerous job perspectives and contributes significantly to the economic growth of the country, because of which the young generation should be motivated to start businesses of their own. Entrepreneurial skill education will help them identify any upcoming opportunities to be successful entrepreneurs and teach them how to tackle the adversities successfully in the future.
Entrepreneurship education teaches essential life skills, prepares one to face uncertainties and emerge as a solution finder. It is difficult to learn these skills through traditional classroom studies. Let’s look at some of the benefits of entrepreneurship education, which is both impactful and engaging:
1. Critical thinking
While there is a dire need to impart this skill to young minds, it is also incredibly difficult to teach. Entrepreneurs are the ones who know how to think critically and approach a problem in a way to understand and resolve it rather than becoming overwhelmed. No matter what you’re doing, this skill is a must-have for future employers. This skill is an added advantage when you are looking at even joining a large MNC as an employee because your mindset will be of a problem solver.
2. Problem identification & solving
It is important to differentiate between problem-solving and problem identification. While a problem-solving approach may be developed with practice, the ability to identify the problem in advance and take necessary steps to deal with it differentiates a successful entrepreneur from the rest.
3. Enhances creativity
Creative people make a difference with their out-of-the-box thinking approach to a problem. Entrepreneurship molds young minds by encouraging creativity, innovation and collaboration to develop into abler individuals strong enough to face the reality of the outside world.
4. Imparts leadership
The world is always in need of a good leader and the students who are interested to make a difference will certainly succeed in paving a different pathway. As the students learn about entrepreneurship skills at a younger age, they tend to incorporate them at every turn and start thinking like a leader.
5. Prepares one for an uncertain future
The present scenario is very different than what it was a few years ago. The jobs that existed decades ago are nowhere to be found. With new technologies emerging with each passing day, the market is highly volatile. In such times, it might take some time to master a skill and put it to practice but with time it might be of no use and result in havoc in student’s careers. Education in entrepreneurship will always keep doors open for you even as the circumstances change.
6. Teaches how to deal with failure
It is very important to coach kids on how to deal with failure efficiently. Entrepreneurship education does offer the necessary exposure to handle failures and learn from one’s mistakes in one journey to success. At times, letting students learn from failures can be a good thing for healthy growth.
We live in a rapidly changing world with a generation that is equipped with more technical knowledge and advancement. The future belongs to the innovators and leaders and, therefore, it is imperative that our education system adapts accordingly.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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