Welcome returns in recruiting former employees

With good talent increasingly difficult to find, organisations are realising the advantages of recruiting past top performers.

With good local tech talent increasingly difficult to find, and organisations struggling to find the right people with the skills they need, the employer-employee relationship has shifted.

Gone are the days when switching jobs every couple of years or even changing careers more than a few times was frowned on. Today the average person changes jobs 10 to 15 times during their career.

Employees may leave a large company to experience life at a start-up, try a new industry or even go back to school for an advanced degree. In the past, companies discouraged the rehiring of former employees; now, more and more companies are looking to recruit past top performers back into their businesses.

According to research by Robert Half, 65 per cent of Australian companies have rehired a former employee, while 87 per cent are more accepting of rehiring former employees today compared with three years ago. This shows that organisations are realising the advantages of recruiting past top performers back into their business, and in turn employees are realising the benefits of returning to a previous workplace.

There are myriad benefits to welcoming back former employees: they know how the organisation works, which tends to make hiring and training less onerous, and they have an existing understanding of the company’s culture and values. They also are likely to have grown and developed since they left, gaining new experiences, connections, points of view and, potentially, customers.

The rate of change is fast, particularly in the technology sector. Companies change, they get acquired and managers leave. At Microsoft, one of the sector’s largest companies, 2200 employees have rejoined Microsoft since chief executive Satya Nadella took the reins in 2014.

At Zendesk, we understand that loyalty doesn’t go away when employees walk out the door; rather, it can stay with them throughout their careers and flourish across time as they navigate the workforce.

Employees may move around more, but they also remain much more connected to former employers through social media and alumni networks.

Maintaining face-to-face connections are just as important as virtual ones, such as inviting former employees along to events that may be relevant to their new role or general career growth, or even catching up over coffee from time to time to check in on how their progress is going and to share how things may have changed or improved in your organisation.

For example, we welcomed back a valuable member of our engineering team late last year who had left to join another organisation. The role promised to them turned out to be quite different from the reality, so they decided to rejoin the team at Zendesk and we’re happy they did.

It’s important to ensure you don’t burn bridges in both directions and that you keep the communication channels open. So the next time an employee hands in their notice, try not to take it personally. In some cases it will be unexpected and you’re likely to be frustrated thinking about what you’re going to have to do next, the extra work this means for your team and how quickly you’re go­ing to need to hire someone else.

The grass isn’t always greener, so be gracious and supportive towards that person on the way out. Keeping the door open for high-performing former employees makes strong business sense and could help your organisation in bridging the skills gap and gain a competitive advantage.

Brett Adam is managing director (Australia and New Zealand) and vice-president engineering (Asia-Pacific) at Zendesk.