Should You Rehire a Former Employee?

In today’s competitive hiring climate, you may consider rehiring a former employee. Also called a boomerang employee, this type of candidate may be more attractive than other candidates. You already know their work style, performance level, and fit with company culture. Although knowing whom you’re hiring may seem advantageous over bringing aboard an entirely new person, the former employee might be bringing along baggage that could affect their performance. In this case, you’d be better off hiring a brand-new person.

Consider these points when deciding whether to hire a boomerang employee.

Potential Cost Savings

You might spend less money rehiring a former employee. You won’t need to invest as much time vetting and interviewing them. Plus, you already know whether the person is a good culture fit. Since the former employee understands your products/services, policies, and processes, they need less time for onboarding. They may bring additional skills, experience, and ideas that require less training to perform their job duties. Because boomerang employees tend to stay longer, they’re typically more engaged and productive than a brand-new hire would be.

Issues to Consider Before Rehiring

Before deciding whether to rehire a former employee, consider the circumstances surrounding their exit. Why did they leave? Was it personal or family-related, lack of room for advancement, or an educational opportunity? Whatever the reason, it may be a factor if you rehire the former employee. What were their strengths and weaknesses? Along with reviewing the person’s file, talk with former managers and coworkers to gain insight into the person. There may be outstanding accomplishments or adverse personal qualities to consider. Why does the former employee want to return? They may have had time to develop new skills that can benefit your organization. Or, the person could be between jobs

Keys to Successful Rehiring

If you decide to rehire a former employee, follow your standard interview and hiring process. Ensure the person has the knowledge, skills, and experience required for the position. Ask interview questions as you would for any other candidate. Find out why the former employee left their most recent employer, why they want to return to your organization, and how they can benefit your team.

Consider Rehiring a Former Employee

Bringing aboard a boomerang employee may be in your best interest. Since they already understand your company culture, processes, procedures, and offerings, they need less time to acclimate. A former employee’s new skills, knowledge, and experience can add value to your team. Before rehiring, think about whether the person left on good terms, what their strengths and weaknesses were, and why they want to return.

If you need help recruiting accounting and finance candidates, turn to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. As your trusted partner, we can find direct-hire, temporary, temp-to-hire, or contract workers who will excel with your organization. We also provide resume screening, background checking, and testing. Let us know how we can help you today.

How to Handle Hiring and Candidate Onboarding Virtually – Now and in the Future

Companies have used technology to conduct virtual interviews for a decade or more. With COVID-19 changing the work world, we are seeing the interview process, candidate onboarding, and new employee engagement go virtual in the last month. If your organization has been doing virtual interviewing sporadically, it is time to invest in the technology that will keep your recruiting and hiring processes going today and possibly as the preferred method to the more traditional process.

Charles Hipps of OLEEO recently shared the results of a recent informal poll of 70 Talent Acquisition leaders on the effect of COVID-19 on their recruiting:

  • 25% said COVID-19 had not impacted recruiting plans
  • 61% said it had slowed their pace of recruiting
  • 14% said they had paused recruiting

As social distancing becomes the norm, the multi-visit interview process is out. Now we are seeing recruitment “job fairs” via webinars, assessments and training, signing of hiring paperwork, and employee onboarding and introduction to the team – all conducted virtually.

Where to Find Candidates?

With unemployment quickly climbing, you would think that the candidate pool would be filled with job seekers. That might not be true, especially if candidates are unable to either work from home or perform a job in the public. Or, your typical criteria for a position is altered due to the current pandemic.

The first place to look is to tap into your current talent network, including current and past employees, friends, and family. Also, consider candidates who weren’t a perfect fit in the past whose skills are in line with your current needs.

One key aspect of virtual hiring and work-from-home practices is to ensure that the candidates you are interviewing will adapt easily to this new norm. Recruiting Daily advises to make the virtual interview process as comfortable as possible, advise candidates to be appropriately dressed and not to read from scripted answers, watch body language and vocal inflection, as well as non-verbal cues. Some companies are developing pre-interview questions that the candidate answers by recording, and then submit a video. This is just one way to automate the screening process before conducting the online interview.

“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

Hipps noted that “In today’s highly changeable economic environment, it’s time to rethink or even forget traditional recruiting tactics, and to adapt new techniques to turn difficulty into opportunity. This is a defining moment for talent acquisition teams.”

Our recruiting experts are available to assist you in all your hiring needs. Calls us today to discuss how to adapt your processes to hire the candidates that will fit well in this new normal.

4 Best Questions to Ask Professional References

To better understand whether a candidate may be an excellent fit for a role, you need to talk with their professional references. Because these people worked with the candidate, they can attest to the candidate’s work ethic, hard and soft skills, achievements, strengths, and other pertinent information. You can gain insight into projects they worked on, how they interacted with team members, and whether they would excel with your organization.

Here are four questions to ask a candidate’s professional references.

How Would You Describe the Candidate’s Reliability and Dependability?

Find out how strong the candidate’s reliability, dependability, and related soft skills are. Determine whether they prioritized activities, maintained a consistent schedule, and were relied on as a source of accurate information. Discover how well the candidate collaborated, made themselves available for help, and followed through with commitments.

What Was One of the Candidate’s Most Memorable Accomplishments While Working with You?

Determine which achievement made the candidate stand out for a previous employer. Perhaps the candidate took the initiative on a project or showed leadership in finishing an activity. Find out what the outcome was and how it benefitted the company.

Which Type of Work Environment Do You Think the Candidate Would Be Most Likely to Thrive in, and Why?

Uncover whether the candidate would thrive in your work environment. If the reference discusses an environment different from yours, talk further with the candidate about your culture. Assess whether they’d be comfortable working in an environment different from what they’re used to. If not, consider other candidates who may be a better fit.

Which Skills Would You Have Liked to See the Candidate Develop to Reach Their Full Potential?

Discover gaps in the candidate’s skill set that are relevant to the position. Ask whether the reference believes the candidate may be willing to develop the necessary skills. If so, use this information to help create a plan for the candidate’s professional development. If prior development of the missing skills is required for the role, consider looking for a more qualified candidate.

Always Check References

Always check a candidate’s professional references. Know whether their hard and soft skills will help them excel in the role and your organization. Be certain that the candidate’s previous accomplishments can be built on to attain successful outcomes for your company as well.

For help filling your accounting and finance roles, reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We’ll identify six candidates for an opening, then narrow it down to three candidates for your interview and selection process. You choose which candidate to hire. Get started with us today.