Have you ever moved to a new company only to feel a wave of regret as you realise the role description or culture doesn’t live up to the job ad? This phenomenon is called ‘new hire’s remorse’ and it can lead workers to boomerang back to their former employers.
A boomerang employee is a worker who voluntarily leaves an organisation and is rehired after working somewhere else. Since the great resignation, in the wake of the Covid pandemic, companies have seen a spike in boomerang hires. More than a quarter (28%) of hires made between 2019 and 2022 were of people who were returning to a former employer within 36 months of resigning, according to an analysis of enterprise companies by Harvard Business Review.
Cognizant is among the employers welcoming back boomerang employees. The technology consultancy has seen more than 14,000 people return to the organisation, following a period of working elsewhere.
“Over the past two years, we’ve seen a surge in returners,” says Kathy Diaz, chief people officer at Cognizant. “And we have a pipeline of another 20,000 people that have expressed interest in coming back.” The business currently employs 340,000 people globally.
How to encourage leavers to boomerang back
At a time when competition for talent is high and companies are struggling to fill vacancies, Cognizant has found that encouraging former employees back can be an effective recruitment strategy.
Diaz views the high number of returners as an endorsement of Cognizant’s culture. “We empower people to be entrepreneurial and innovative,” she says. “People appreciate this freedom.”
Boomerang employees can be particularly valuable to the company they bounce back to. They often bring fresh ideas and perspectives from their time working elsewhere and typically require less onboarding, as they will already be familiar with the business.
As an HR leader, I always try to preserve what people like about the company
For Cognizant, interviews with returning staff have revealed a variety of factors that have persuaded people to boomerang back. These include opportunities for career growth, social ties with former colleagues and a strong sense of autonomy. “As a head of HR, I love hearing their stories,” Diaz says.
She adds that the variety of work available at Cognizant has also helped to entice ex-employees to boomerang back. “We work across many different domains and industries, from call centres to digital and GenAI to automotive. This allows people to move around a lot and have very different careers all at the same company,” she says.
Another of Cognizant’s key differentiators, which former employees may find appealing, is the firm’s flexible-working policy, although this varies between departments. With many technology companies issuing return-to-office mandates, Cognizant’s decision to maintain its hybrid-working model is proving advantageous.
“People have said that they really appreciate the flexibility,” Diaz says. “That helps me as an HR leader because I always try to preserve what people like about the company.”
The firm’s ability to persuade former staff to boomerang back is no coincidence. For Cognizant’s many boomerang employees, its culture, flexibility and opportunities for growth are enough to prove that the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere.
Have you ever moved to a new company only to feel a wave of regret as you realise the role description or culture doesn’t live up to the job ad? This phenomenon is called 'new hire's remorse' and it can lead workers to boomerang back to their former employers.
A boomerang employee is a worker who voluntarily leaves an organisation and is rehired after working somewhere else. Since the great resignation, in the wake of the Covid pandemic, companies have seen a spike in boomerang hires. More than a quarter (28%) of hires made between 2019 and 2022 were of people who were returning to a former employer within 36 months of resigning, according to an analysis of enterprise companies by Harvard Business Review.
Cognizant is among the employers welcoming back boomerang employees. The technology consultancy has seen more than 14,000 people return to the organisation, following a period of working elsewhere.
