Mumbai: Attrition is a big headache for talent managers. Losing a high performer is expensive and finding a replacement takes time and involves cost. The workforce churn in the volatile job market has ushered a new trend – a surge in the number of employees coming back to ex-employer. Rejoining ex-employer is no more a corporate taboo for Indian employees, rather it is emerging as a medium to fast track their career and achieve desirable professional goals.
A recent survey conducted on this topic by Randstad India reflects this similar trend, which shows a radical change in the mindset of jobseekers when it comes to going back to their previous organizations. Interestingly, about 60% of the respondents give a thumps up to rejoin their previous organizations. Almost equivalent number of male and female respondents shared this view. The top four reasons indicated by the respondents for them to consider joining their former employers are increased salary (64%), a familiar environment (52%), an elevated position at work (48%) and the employer brand (39%).
Further as far as referrals are concerned, Indian employees are ready to recommend candidates to join in their previous organizations. A whopping 73% of the survey respondents also mentioned that they will definitely advise friends and family to apply for a job with any their previous organizations. The top reasons behind the rationale is brand reputation, opportunity to work with some of the best names from the industry, competitive salary and benefits, career growth opportunities, good work culture and financial stability of the company. On the other hand, respondents who mentioned that they will definitely not recommend their previous organizations to friends and family or are not sure about it (27%) indicated so, the top four reasons are as followed: work-life balance, possible incompatibility with reporting managers, office politics and lack of strong employee value propositions (EVP) in their previous organizations.
Presenting the survey insights, Dr. Moorthy K. Uppaluri, MD & CEO, Randstad India said, “From an employer’s perspective, the trend of returning employees is definitely a positive one though it will increase the competition for job seekers. On a strategic point of view, returning employees are real assets to organizations as they tend to have higher loyalty, they get up to speed quicker as it is easier for the employer to integrate them back to the organization’s workstyle, culture, systems and processes.”
Dr. Uppaluri further added, “Welcoming your returning high performers is definitely a good move, provided it is done strategically with a clearly defined rehiring policy in place to make sure that only the best and the right talent is inducted back into the organization.”
81% of the survey respondents belonged to the age group of 25-35 years, 17% aged less than 25 years and 2% above 35 years old. 55% of the survey respondents had 1-2 job changes and 26% had 3-4 job changes in their career. The survey findings also highlighted that only a very small percentage of the survey respondents (24%) are part of any of their previous employer alumni programs.
