Should Your Next Job Be Working for Your Old Boss?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Here's your Money Briefing for Thursday, December 16th.
What trend is driving companies to rehire former employees (boomerang workers)?
I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. They say everything old is new again. Workers in search of better pay and maybe even more flexible schedules aren't necessarily landing their next job at a new company. Some are fielding attractive job offers from their old boss at a company they used to work for.
This is perhaps the greatest example of why you should never burn your bridges when you leave a company. You know, you want your time there and how you exited to reflect well on you wherever you are.
Our workplace reporter, Catherine Dill, has been tracking these so-called boomerang employees. So what do you need to know before returning to a company you once worked for? We'll discuss after the break.
This podcast is brought to you by ReliaQuest. Cyber criminals are constantly attacking. They want your data. They want your identity. They want your innovation. ReliaQuest fortifies your business with agentic defense, AI that detects, contains, and eliminates cyber threats in minutes. It helps your security team move faster at the work that matters most to protect the business now and delivers insights to help them predict what's next. ReliaQuest, agentic defense for the enterprise. Learn more at ReliaQuest.com. That's R-E-L-I-A-Q-U-E-S-T.com.
There's a record number of job openings out there, and to try and fill them, more companies are searching for workers in an old familiar place, their roster of former employees. But does it make sense for a worker's career to go back to a former employer? Catherine Dill covers workplace issues for the WSJ, and she joins me now. Catherine, thanks so much for being with us.
How common are boomerang hires and what do LinkedIn data show about their rise?
My pleasure. So, Catherine, you know, people change jobs all the time, but this idea of boomerang workers, has it risen during this tight labor market?
It has risen. Certainly, we're seeing this as a positive potential step, both for former workers and for employers, a lot of whom are struggling to fill jobs right now. They can bring on proven workers quickly. And LinkedIn data actually shows that these returning so-called boomerang workers have increased across the companies on its platform this year. They're about 4.5% of all new hires this year. among companies on the site up from 3.9% over the same period in 2019.
Well, in a lot of cases, companies have numerous slots to fill. So how are they finding past employees?
You know, many companies, particularly large employers, maintain groups of alumni. So in some cases, that's a good pool to tap, both for hires that you might want to bring back and for referrals. So this is something that LinkedIn actually does with its own employees. It maintains this thriving LinkedIn group of former LinkedIn employees, and they have traditionally tapped that group, both for people they might want to bring back and for potential referrals. They extend referral bonuses to their alums as well.
How are employers finding and recruiting former employees (alumni networks and referrals)?
But they've really emphasized that in the last number of months. They were seeing it organically and started sort of targeting this group with encouragement for alums to return more specifically. But we also see it happening just sort of naturally among, you know, managers tapping their former networks, reaching back out to people who left years ago or who left recently or who they've worked with at another company and saying, why not come back?
Now, aside from filling an open position, what benefit do companies see in tracking down former employees?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:38
2
What trend is driving companies to rehire former employees (boomerang workers)?
0:38–2:12
3
How common are boomerang hires and what do LinkedIn data show about their rise?
2:12–3:26
4
How are employers finding and recruiting former employees (alumni networks and referrals)?
3:26–5:44
5
What advantages do companies gain by rehiring former workers?
5:44–7:41
6
How can returning employees benefit from going back to a previous employer (salary, role, and negotiating)?
7:41–7:49
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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