Recruitment

Bring Back the Boomerang

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When one hears the word “boomerang,” the first thought that comes to mind is usually an Australian hunting tool, or a toy. The interesting thing about a boomerang is that it always comes back.

Now the word “boomerang” has been used to conceptualize ideas about returning children and returning employees. “Boomerang kids” are children that come back home to live with their parents after a period of independence. Similarly, “boomerang employees” are employees that come back to a workplace they left to work somewhere else for a period of time.

For many employers, the thought of bringing back a former employee is abhorrent; the immediate reaction is to think of the former employee as being disloyal for leaving in the first place. Research, however, is saying that there is value in re-hiring employees that have left an organization.

According to research by Robert Half, a company that has been providing recruitment and staffing solutions for over 70 years, 94% of senior managers would re-hire former employees, and 52% of former employees would consider returning to their previous workplaces. These are interesting statistics that HR professionals should consider.

In addition to the research above, another study out of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School and Texas A&M University found the following list of advantages that resulted from re-hiring former employees:

  1. Boomerang employees save costs and allow a company to recoup some of its investment in recruiting, training, and developing new staff.
  2. Boomerang employees bring new perspectives acquired in other work environments, some of which may have come from working for a close competitor.
  3. Boomerang employees bring more social capital back to the firm.
  4. Boomerang employees tend to be more loyal upon their return than those who have never left.

While there is research that supports the value of boomerang employees, there may be some risks to consider as well. These risks are outlined in an article in the HR Daily Advisor: the employee may not be a good fit for the organization, they may be a job-hopper, or there may be an unresolved issue with them that was not adequately addressed or resolved in the past.

These potential risks must be weighed against the possible benefits of re-hiring a former employee. In a time of low unemployment, which North America is currently experiencing, HR departments may want to align with the thoughts of 94% of senior managers, and consider developing a formal boomerang re-hiring program.

Discussion Questions:

Your HR Department has decided to consider developing a formal boomerang re-hiring program:

  1. What would be the first step in that program?
  2. How would you stay in touch with former employees?
  3. Develop a set of specific interview questions that you would ask to assess the prospect of re-hiring an employee. How would these questions differ from interview questions for a new candidate?

The Joy of Talent Management

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For an overview of the importance and impact that recruitment has on any organization, a recent interview with Patty McCord provides both inspiration and motivation.

Click here to read the interview.

Ms. McCord speaks to the very real perception that the recruitment aspect of the Human Resources function can be (and often is) relegated to a ‘workmanlike’ status.  It is, after all, a process-based series of steps that puts a candidate through multiple sets of assessments and events in order to determine whether or not the employer should hire them. If the Human Resources practitioner approaches recruitment from that perspective, it can be perceived as a tedious set of tasks for both the practitioner and the candidate.  The result may be the same, the candidate gets hired or not, but the value and the joy of the process is missed by everyone involved.

Recruitment is only the beginning of the talent management journey. It is, as Ms. McCord notes, the first step to ensuring employee retention is perceived as a mission linked to organizational success. If an organization is committed to being great, then they must hire and retain great people. That gives purpose and passion for every step and every process that the Human Resources practitioner is involved in.

It also makes the decision easier to not have people who are not so great. When a candidate joins an organization, they do so under a specific set of circumstances and understandings which start to change almost immediately. First, their role changes from candidate to employee. For both the employee and the employer, expectations become more clear, duties and responsibilities expand or contract, working relationships develop in both positive and potentially negative ways.

When there is a clear approach to employee development as part of a positive talent management strategy, the employee is able to accept and adapt to these changes in a constructive way. If there is no strategy in place, the employee’s experience is disjointed and, in many cases, unhappiness sets in.  The employer must decide whether or not the retention of unhappy employees is good for the organization. If it is not good, then the right decision is to relieve everyone of their unhappiness and end the employment relationship.

The ending of the employment relationship comes back to the beginning — recruiting with purpose and passion as the mission for organizational success.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Based on your reading of the article, identify three key effects that successful recruitment has on organizational success.
  2. How do organizational values shape or influence the hiring decision?
  3. If you were able to implement some of the suggested staffing strategies, which one would you pick? Explain your rationale.

 

Ebbs and Flows

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What goes up, must come down.

Canadian employment and/or unemployment rates follow the natural patterns of changes to local and national economies. From a recruitment perspective, paying attention to these external barometers takes time and effort. The challenge is to decipher which way the economy is moving, and then to make corresponding Human Resources decisions.

To use some recent examples, in the spring of 2017, Human Resources headlines highlighted a hiring boom due to significant job increases in the Canadian services and manufacturing sectors.

Click here to read the article.

By mid-summer of 2017, headlines were announcing a hiring slowdown and linking it with historically low unemployment rates across the country.

Click here to read an economic perspective on the drop in jobless rates.

From a Human Resources perspective, all of these scenarios provide us with data-based information in order to make strategic plans and decisions that go beyond the need for recruitment. If the industry or sector that we serve is going through a high employment phase, it means that jobs are being created. Employees are being hired and all of that links back to contributing positively to the economic climate. This also means a highly competitive and busy time for the Human Resources recruitment function.

When there is a low employment phase, meaning that there are no new jobs available, this is not always projected as a positive thing because there is no new economic growth. However, we must remember that the push for new jobs created a few months ago resulted in a flooding of the market. Those vacancies were filled, providing stability in employment for individuals and organizations across the country.

While this may mean a slowdown of work for the recruitment side of human resources, it means that the human resources focus shifts to retention and support strategies for those newly hired employees. No matter what happens in the cycle of fluctuating economic and employment patters, the Human Resources function must adapt and flow with the provision of support where and when it is needed most.

We just need to wait and watch for the tides to turn.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why should Human Resources practitioners concern themselves with employment rates in Canada?
  2. How would you establish a Human Resources department to handle fluctuating recruitment needs?
  3. What industries do you think are impacted the most by changes to the Canadian economy?

The Giggers: Part 1

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The New Gig Economy

We have the Baby Boomers, the Gen Xers, the Millennials and now we might just have a new term which all generations of workplace employees may find themselves in.

It is the rise of the “Giggers.”  What is a Gigger, you ask? Well, it is someone who works in the Gig Economy. What is a Gig economy? According to the online Cambridge Dictionary, the Gig Economy is defined as: “A way of working that is based on people having temporary jobs or doing separate pieces of work each paid separately, rather than working for an employer.“

Click here to read the online Cambridge Dictionary.

According to Faith Popcorn, who is a futurist, and her Fast Company article, the new “Gig Economy” is on the rise.

Click here to read a more detailed outlook for future employment trends.

These trends will have a major impact on HR departments, including:

  • On demand hiring
  • Temporary assignments for senior executive positions
  • New virtual reality collaboration software
  • Professional networking opportunities will be expanded

These recruitment and hiring trends are here to stay and will continue to expand in 2017. Is HR ready to handle the Gig?

Discussion Questions

  1. The Fast Company article outlines four new trends of the Gig economy. Pick one and create a presentation on how your HR department could develop and address new HR processes to help implement the trend.