12 Simple Actions Capable Of Improving Recruiting Results

Over the past decade I’ve engaged with several hundred organizations around the world. Based on my observations in dealing with each of them, the following 12 actions categorized by recruiting lifecycle stage are proven to produce results quickly.

Attracting Talent

1. Make your job postings exciting – many recruiters pull job descriptions from internal systems that were written long ago for purposes other than marketing an opportunity and are to put it simply, dull. Recruiters should rewrite them so that they sell the exciting aspects of the job and give applicants an idea of how they will be able to influence the future. At the very least, they should be tested against competitors’ descriptions to ensure they are more compelling.
2. Encourage referrals – it has been true for a number of years that the highest quality hires come from employee referrals, and the widespread growth of social media makes it even easier for employees to identify and build relationships with top talent. Unfortunately, employees are not trained recruiters, so if you want them to be effective at building/mining their networks, you will need to advise them of what practices work best. Also remember: nothing kills a referral program more than a slow response to referrals, so review and respond to each within 24-72 hours.
3. Revisit previous high quality candidates — often times you can save tremendous resources by simply revisiting the stars that got away. Reach out to candidates who voluntarily dropped out of the process, turned down an offer, or who were finalists in a field where a super candidate ended up getting the job. Times change, and it’s not uncommon for candidates to regret decisions. Also look at bringing back former star employees who have left your firm.
4. Ask references for referrals — in addition to harnessing the power of employee referrals, you should ask the references of top candidates and new hires to provide you with one or two additional names of top people who they know.
5. Target innovators — innovators may contribute more to profitability than top performers, so tout in advertisements that you’re looking for innovators and then revisit your screening approach to ensure that potential innovators are not screened out by overly rigid and antiquated competency profiles that do little more than maintain the status quo. Make sure ample time is allocated in the interview process to both sell your organization’s ability to innovate and probe the candidates’ ability to be innovative. Because innovators can be vocally intolerant of outdated practices, educate your hiring managers to expect a degree of different behavior from them during the interview.

Assessing Talent

1. Add real problems to interviews — although there is some value in talking about the past, interviews can be dramatically more valuable when they focus on real problems new hires will face if they join the organization. Don’t give them a puzzle or a theoretical situation. Give them a real difficult problem that only the best could solve. Remember, even if you don’t hire them, you can take advantage of the ideas candidates supplied (consider it free consulting).
2. Make interviews more feasible — people who are currently working have difficulty scheduling and attending multiple interviews, without placing their existing job in jeopardy. Make it more feasible by making changes to accommodate their schedule. Consider dedicating at least one night or weekend day a month to allow individuals with scheduling issues to interview outside of work hours or using video interviews that don’t require travel. Second, consider instituting a policy where all interviews are completed in a single day.

Engaging/Selling Talent

1. Ask candidates for their job acceptance criteria — selling top-quality candidates is always difficult, but you can make it much easier if you start out by asking candidates to identify the key factors they will consider when evaluating an offer. In addition, have them outline deal-breaking factors that would cause them to drop out of the process or not consider an offer. Tailor your assessment/selling approach around these factors.
2. Use mobile — effective communication is an important part of recruiting, so you want to identify and use the communication channels that are favored by top candidates. The very best these days rely heavily on smart mobile devices, so you need to learn how to effectively communicate on channels that are commonly used on such devices, including texting, micro-blogging, and social networking applications. Videos can be more powerful than words, so consider making and sharing a personalized video that actually shows the exciting aspects of your firm that can be viewed on a mobile device.
3. Help managers sell your firm — unfortunately, most managers do a poor job selling the company to potential recruits. Rather than trying to build up their sales skills, survey your key employees to identify the specific factors that make your firm superior to competitors and compile a list hiring managers can use to better position the opportunity.

Miscellaneous

1. Reduce spend on low-impact actions — although you may have a tradition of using newspaper ads, job fairs, and large job boards, they often produce only mediocre candidates and have a relatively high cost. More effective tools to consider as alternatives include referrals that you proactively seek out from your top performers, using LinkedIn, and recruiting at the monthly events of local professional organizations and clubs.
2. Target key individuals for retention — high turnover puts a strain on recruiting resources, so lighten your future load by proactively identifying a handful of high impact employees who might be at risk of leaving and who would be very difficult to replace. Work with their managers to identify the job elements and factors that excite them and keep them happy, as well as the factors that might cause them to consider leaving. Then work with their manager to ensure that they are continually provided with an ideal job, following a retention plan that is tailored to each individual.

Final Thoughts

If you frequently listen to consultants and vendors, you could get the impression that the only way to dramatically improve recruiting results is by spending millions of dollars on sophisticated solutions. While most high-dollar solutions are valid in some cases, they aren’t in all. Simple actions taken by individual recruiters and hiring managers can also produce dramatic almost immediate results, without requiring a stratospheric budget.

Economic downturns, mergers, and acquisitions all place pressure on organizations to curb labor costs. No time in the last decade has that tenet been more apparent than right now.

Layoffs, large or small, force organizations to cut loose the talent in which they have invested salary and training dollars. While talent released during a layoff today may seem like little more than an expense, tomorrow it could be the difference between success and failure.

World-class organizations need to develop a process that will allow the organization to quickly and easily “re-recruit” alumni with proven track records of success when economic conditions warrant hiring.

The solution that makes re-recruiting possible is a corporate alumni program. Alumni programs allow you to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with former employees who may someday provide significant value again, providing you with an excuse to remain in contact and a mechanism to recruit them back quickly when needed.

Because so much great talent is being released into the labor market right now, it is a great time to either start a formal program or upgrade your existing corporate alumni or “boomerang” program.

Corporate Alumni Programs Can Also Increase Revenues

While the primary reason organizations develop alumni programs is recruiting-related, lots of research demonstrates that investing in corporate alumni programs increases the sales lead generation and deal closing capability of the organization.

As many sales professionals are seeing their jobs evaporate today, it makes perfect sense to partner with sales leaders to build a program that is designed to support both the recruiting and sales organizations mutually.

Leveraging sales professionals who have been let go as lead generators, brand builders, and in some cases, as customers provides added capability to the organization in a time of budget cuts and hiring freezes.

If you treat them right, former employees (i.e., corporate alumni) can be converted into “ambassadors” for your organization. Despite being laid-off, odds are that a significant number of former employees remain loyal and committed to your organization.

If you proactively build and maintain a relationship with them after they leave, they will continue to “talk up your firm” and maybe even become a customer when they land in a new role.

Program Goals and Benefits

Well-designed corporate alumni programs can benefit the organization in many ways. Some of the possible goals of corporate alumni programs include:

HR-related goals:

• To improve the quality of hires by rehiring top performers and innovators (boomerang rehires are low-cost, typically have higher retention rates and reach minimum productivity much more quickly than most external hires).
• To increase the number and the quality of employee referrals by expanding the program to include alumni.
• To strengthen the employer brand image throughout the industry.
• To increase retention rates among current employees by developing a stronger positive image.
• To increase the number of mentors available to current employees.

Business-related goals:

• To generate direct sales by making alumni customers.
• To increase the number of leads generated (customer referrals).
• To capture ideas and innovations from alumni.
• To get product assessment help.
• To get benchmarking help and to learn about industry best practices.
• To gather competitive intelligence.
• To get help from alumni in building strategic partnerships.

What Differentiates Great Programs From Average?

Firms like McKinsey and Microsoft were pioneers in formalizing relationships with their former employees. Other firms, like Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Booz Allen, and Bain, join the pioneers in operating successful corporate alumni programs with features that set them miles apart from the typical alumni program.

After years of research, I’ve identified 14 factors that clearly differentiate great programs. Whether you’re starting your own, upgrading your current program, or considering using a vendor to operate your program, it is important to incorporate these key differentiators:

1. A strong business case. The most important differentiator is the perception of the program as a business initiative, not just another HR fad. Establishing the program as a business initiative requires that it be supported and budgeted by leaders because a clear connection has been made between operating a successful program and increased revenue/profit. At the best firms, the program manager works with the CFO’s office both to demonstrate the ROI of the program in terms of “dollar impact.” That means that the dollar value of bringing back top performers and the economic impact of having your former employees act as “brand and product ambassadors” has been quantified. In fact, at least one firm has made the argument that the corporate alumni program should be housed in business development rather than recruiting.
2. It prioritizes alumni and treats them differently. While most programs treat all corporate alumni equally, the very best prioritize their alumni based on their future value to the organization. For example, if both Homer Simpson and Tiger Woods were both corporate alumni, it would not make sense to treat them both equally because one you would want to return and the other you wouldn’t. Obviously, Tiger would be more influential and well-connected and thus he could more effectively spread the word about the firm and its products. Target top performers, individuals with key skills, and innovators as potential boomerang rehires.
3. They use technology. The days of running corporate alumni programs off of Excel spreadsheets are gone. The best firms and vendors use either customer-relationship management software or emerging social networking tools to keep track of alumni and effectively maintain the relationship. Alumni are contacted periodically with personalized information based on their individual needs and expectations. Web-based “alerts” are utilized to keep up with the activities and accomplishments of alumni.
4. Dual goals of recruiting and development. The very best corporate alumni programs have a dual focus. While almost all programs focus on rehiring alumni, the very best also commit major resources into building an alumni network for business development purposes. The second focus is impactful because not every former employee can or would want to return but they can all help make referrals and positively spread the word. This business development component is especially important in tight-knit industries where most employees stay within the industry throughout their career.
5. They utilize social networks. It’s been true for a long time that social networks are effective mechanisms for building and maintaining relationships. As a result, most corporate alumni programs leverage either public social networks or build private social networks to expand the scope of their program. The best programs leverage both, just as great recruiting organizations use multiple channels to reach target talent.
6. They use metrics to continually improve. Traditionally, these programs were allowed to operate because they made logical sense. However, in a fast-changing world, the best programs have learned to use metrics to drive continuous improvement. The shift to “fact-based decisions” means that program emphasis and resources are continually shifted toward areas with a higher impact.
7. Above 10% rehire rate. The very best programs produce exceptional results, which means that between 10% and 20% of all hires should be boomerangs. A significant percentage of business leads and sales should also be directly traced to your corporate alumni network.
8. 100% electronic capability. Although face-to-face meetings are still necessary, the very best programs have the capability of working 24/7 around the world. That means that every key program element must be Web-based. Legacy paper-based systems are simply too slow and expensive.
9. A dedicated alumni webpage. The very best alumni programs feature a webpage designed exclusively for corporate alumni. It might include forums, FAQs, blogs, learning wikis, podcasts, videos, and an alumni directory that can be sorted by name, location, and interests.
10. It has a diversity and a global component. The best programs understand that diverse alumni and those with international backgrounds have needs that might differ from the average. As a result, they offer a range of information and options that can be tailored to fit individual needs.
11. It utilizes a broad definition of alumni. In traditional programs, participants were exclusively full-time employees who voluntarily left. However, the best programs realize that there are a wide range of individuals who can act as firm ambassadors, so consider including laid-off workers; retired workers; former part-timers; contractors; interns; applicants who declined the position; and spouses of former employees.
12. An onboarding component. Firms that want to excel begin educating employees during orientation about the firm’s expectation that this is a “lifelong” relationship. They build on that expectation by involving current employees with alumni. And should they leave the firm they participate in a “welcome interview” that welcomes them to the next phase of their relationship with the firm.
13. A dedicated staff. The best firms have a dedicated staff that allows for continuity and allows the firm’s program to become a competitive advantage.
14. Proactively improve the reasons for leaving. Rather than paying lip service to the under-lying causes that convinced some of the top employees to leave (bad managers; a lack of challenge/growth), the best programs confront these issues head on. So postpone exit interviews until well after separation. This way, you can identify the real cause of turnover, develop a formal process to minimize future turnover, and remove obstacles that may inhibit former employees from returning.

Final Thoughts

It’s unfortunate that the current economic climate is forcing firms to release so many valuable employees.

However, you can look at this as an opportunity to turn “lemons into lemonade” if you can maintain their interest in returning and if while they’re away, they continue to drive business to your firm.

Due to advances in technology and social networking, the cost of operating alumni programs is low while the ROI of alumni programs is higher than ever. Instead of considering those who have been forced to leave your firm as value-less, and those who opt to leave as traitors, simply look at departures not as a goodbye, but rather, as an “I will see you later.”

Free Webcast on Excelling at Corporate Alumni Relations
Dr. John Sullivan will deliver a free webcast detailing how organizations can excel at engaging corporate alumni on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET. Those interested in attending can learn more here.

The reasons are simple: with the current economy driving revenues down dramatically, many senior executives are examining how to plan ahead in order to increase their firms’ capabilities, reduce costs, and survive the economic chaos likely to continue for some time.

Organizations need an effective talent management plan that will allow them to “explode out of the box” at the first sight of economic recovery, yet one that doesn’t threaten economic sustainability in the short term.

While most in talent management are continuing to react with stale cost containment approaches developed decades ago, strategic talent managers are stepping forward with robust workforce planning solutions and new work models that account for the significant changes in both how people work and live that have occurred in the last 20 years.

If you are interested in doing more than talking about being strategic, here are some recommended action steps to help improve your organization’s workforce planning.

What the Heck is Workforce Planning?

It might seem like a simple question, but there is little to no agreement among HR and talent management professionals as to what constitutes workforce planning. To some, it’s mostly an administrative activity that reports on historical changes to headcount and forecasts likely changes based on historical trends (i.e., headcount planning).

To others, it is a more strategic effort designed to forecast talent needs, talent supply, and the ability of existing HR programs and activities to align the two.

The more strategic variant looks at both internal and external trends and predicts what will be needed to recruit, develop and redeploy “just the right amount” of talent to meet specified business needs. The definition of workforce planning I prefer is:

“Workforce planning is an integrated and forward looking process that is designed to predict (what, when, how much) will likely happen in talent management and then to provide action plans that will cause managers to act in the prescribed way. As a result of the planning process, managers will be able to avoid or mitigate people problems, take advantage of talent opportunities and to improve the “talent pipeline,” so that your organization will have the needed “people capabilities” required to meet your business goals and to build a competitive advantage over other firms.”

Goals of Workforce Planning

Once again, not everyone agrees on what workforce planning is, but generally speaking, there are eight major goals for workforce planning that everyone should agree make sense. These goals relate to an organizational capability to:

1. Reduce labor costs rapidly without negatively impacting productivity.
2. Identify and prepare leaders and managers for future openings.
3. Fill “sudden vacancies” in key roles immediately with capable talent.
4. Maintain a flexible contingent workforce.
5. Proactively move talent internally to maximize the return on talent.
6. Target retention activities on key talent.
7. Identify mechanisms to rapidly hire needed talent.
8. Increase the overall productivity of the workforce.

Key Programs within Workforce Planning

There is no standard array of programs that define every organizations’ workforce planning effort. No matter what you end up doing, your programs will largely fall into one of two areas.

The first area focuses on increasing organizational capability through talent, and common programs in each area include:

• Forecasting the future needs, talent availability, and potential talent problems.
• Succession planning and leadership development.
• Forecasted recruiting plans.
• Workforce innovation management.
• Retention planning.
• Immediate “backfill” planning (To fill sudden openings in key positions).
• Internal re-deployment and “right job” placement planning.
• Merger and acquisition integration plans.

The second area focuses on decreasing labor costs, and common programs in each area include:

• Contingency/contract labor workforce planning.
• Workforce outsource planning.
• Reduction in force planning.

Benchmark Firms

In my experience, these are the firms to study:

• Microsoft
• KLA Tencor
• Valero
• WellPoint
• U.S. Marines
• Google
• Eli Lilly
• Qualcomm
• Intel
• GE
• P&G
• Booz Allen
• Toyota
• NASA
• Starbucks

Workforce Actions That ‘Fit’ the Current Environment

The most effective workforce plans are not developed over a long period and then implemented all at once. Instead, while some plans are being developed, talent management leaders simultaneously take action to resolve immediate needs.

If your company is struggling in the current economic environment, five of the key action steps that you should consider immediately are listed below.

Action Step I – Labor cost containment/headcount reduction

I am not alone in forecasting the fact that the decrease in revenues that businesses are facing will continue for at least another year. Whether that actually happens or not, it’s always a good idea to prepare for the “worst-case scenario” and hope that your plan is not needed.

Start with position prioritization, a process that identifies which key positions, key individuals, and key skill sets will have the most business impact during the next two years. Once you prioritize, you can then focus on retention, redeployment, and development efforts on the most impactful positions.

A related step is to develop a process to effectively identify and “control” all forms of labor costs throughout the organization (that includes full-time employees, part-timers, contractors, consultants, strategic partner labor, and outsourced labor).

The next step involves developing the capability of reducing “labor costs” and headcount in the lower priority positions. That might include “mock layoffs” and designating lower priority positions as “contingent labor” positions. Other options to consider include labor wage arbitrage (moving labor to lower-cost areas) or outsourcing with contracts that allow you to rapidly reduce outsourcing costs as your needs decrease.

Action Step II – Increase the internal movement of key employees

As business needs change, it’s important to develop processes that don’t leave the internal movement of talent into the “right job” to chance (as most internal job posting system’s do). I recommend that you develop a proactive redeployment process and plan to move your top performers and highly skilled individuals out of less essential business units and into units and jobs where they can have a greater impact.

The goal is to make sure that you don’t have a “Michael Jordan” playing “baseball” within your organization, when his impact would be significantly greater if he was proactively moved into “basketball.”

The right job can be defined as having your top performers and highly skilled individuals:

• Doing what they do best;
• With the right skill set for the job and business unit;
• With the right tools, resources, and motivators;
• With the right manager; and
• With the right teammates.

Action Step III – Increase the retention of key employees

Most organizations literally “forget” about retention during tough economic times because they assume that their employees will put security over external opportunity.

Unfortunately, that would be a mistake because the seeds for foundation of top performer turnover begin long before they decide to leave the firm. “How you treat your current employees now,” will directly impact their willingness to stay later on when the economy turns around. If your firm has been using hiring freezes, pay cuts, furloughs and layoffs recently, your key employees are likely to be frustrated and overworked. It’s also true that some firms have learned to continue hiring while simultaneously releasing employees.

This “churn” means that recruiters in some industries, firms and regions are still targeting your very best.

The best retention plans first identify the things that excite and frustrate your key workers and then provide a plan for increasing their level of excitement, challenge, learning, and opportunity within the firm.

The last but most important action step is to develop a “bad manager identification program” because bad managers are the number one cause of employee turnover. [For more information on setting up a Bad Manager Identification Program, click here.]

Action Step IV – Reinvigorate your succession plan

If your firm has undergone layoffs, hiring freezes, and reductions in college hiring, you are likely setting up your organization for a future “talent pool gap.” What this means is that by failing to hire and develop talent over a period of even a few years, there simply won’t be enough available talent to fill future management leadership positions when growth begins. This will slow promotions because there just isn’t anyone internally to replace them. This will make the predicted “leadership gap” even worse.

The best course of action is adopt your own “churn” approach to maintain some minimal level of hiring and development to minimize the possibility of any future internal talent pool gap. A related option is to implement a talent SWAP approach, where you continually “troll” for top talent and then replace bottom and average performers only when you find an exceptional replacement.

Action Step V – Prepare to “explode out of the box”

The final action step is to develop a plan that enables your firm to have sufficient talent to enable it to “explode out of the box” the minute that your firm’s revenues begin to turn around. That means retaining your very best recruiters on staff and having them focus on developing Web 2.0 recruiting tools. It’s equally important to maintain the two most-impactful recruiting programs, employee referrals, and employment branding.

Develop a “boomerang” program that tracks and maintains a relationship with the very best employees you must release. The goal is to be able to almost immediately rehire some of the proven talent that you lost.

Final Thoughts

The basic premise of workforce planning is that it’s better to be prepared than surprised. It might seem counter-intuitive to try to plan during times where uncertainty is so high, but that would be a mistake.

During times of turmoil, almost any forecasting and planning will produce higher business impacts than reacting to unforeseen events without a plan. Fortunately, if you’re personally interested in workforce planning, you’re likely to find that no one actually has the formal authority to “own it” at the present time, so you can seize the opportunity and become known as the person who can see around corners. During turbulent times, you will find that no one will be considered more valuable than someone who is not “surprised” by the future!

Free Workforce Planning Handbook: If you are interested in reading in-depth about workforce planning, I have compiled a number of articles into “The Workforce Planning Handbook,” a 240+ page electronic book which is available at no cost for evaluation purposes at www.drjohnssullivan.com. Once registered and logged in, click on “Publications,” then click on “Draft Books.” It’s free to download.

Steps in Building a World-Class Boomerang/Alumni Program

There is no standard format for a corporate alumni program, but there are a number of essential steps that you should consider when implementing a program if you intend on being successful. They include:

Program Start-up Steps

• Assign an individual or team to be accountable for the boomerang/alumni programs.
• Build a business case to both executives and, more importantly, hiring managers. This is critical because if hiring managers don’t see the economic value to them, they just won’t participate in the effort. It’s important in any discussion with managers to remind them of the potential value that former employees can add upon their return. Be able to quickly articulate in less than a minute the selling points, and provide actual examples of increased business results that others have experienced.
• Involve recruiters in developing boomerang processes. It’s important to involve them and get their buy-in, or they may resist processing boomerang candidates. (Be aware that there is always some illogical resistance on the part of recruiters, because they think recruiting boomerangs is too easy.)
• Benchmark other programs to identify their critical success and failure factors.
• Consider working with outsource firms that have already established alumni program templates.
• Develop a formal written program plan with budget and success milestones. Review the plan against the checklists in this article. Make sure that the individuals involved are measured and rewarded for their successes. Wherever possible, get a senior manager from outside of HR to sponsor and champion the program.
• Run the program design by your legal team for privacy-related issues.
• If your organization is global, involve international offices and program design features that work around the world.
• Develop a process to continually review past layoff lists and voluntary terminations to see who would add value given the increased resources of your present firm. Start with top performers.
• Develop a program to pre-identify key individuals who are at risk of leaving, so that you can take steps to keep them. This way, you will not need to make them part of your boomerang program.
• Develop a set of metrics to assess programs results. Include ROI, quality of hire, speed of hire, retention rates, candidate and manager satisfaction, and business impacts the boomerangs have made.

Steps to Take as Key Employees Are Leaving

The most important elements of any boomerang/alumni program occur not post-separation, but rather during the separation process. It is imperative to let key individuals know that just because they are separating now, they are welcome back. Specifically:

• Tell targeted individuals during their exit interviews that you might want them back. Immediately start rerecruiting top performers during their last week and during the exit interview. Ask them to formally join your alumni network during the exit interview process.
• Conduct post-exit interviews six months after separation to find out the reasons why individuals left and under what circumstances they might consider coming back.
• If necessary, change the exit process to capture individuals’ permanent addresses (email), and ask their permission to keep in touch with them by email.
• Revise the exit interview process to ensure that top performers leave happy and will not bad-mouth the firm after they leave. If they leave happy without any major grudges or frustration, they are more likely to consider returning.

Continuous Process Steps

Once the program plan has been approved, here are some action steps that you must continuously take:

• Develop an electronic alumni newsletter and distribute it at least once a month to keep alumni informed about company products, initiatives, and successes.
• Make every employee aware of the program and the reasons for it in standard corporate communications. Make it clear during orientation that you have a community and that former employees will always be treated with respect. Tell employees they should never want to leave, but if they do, you’ll hope that they’ll consider returning in the future.
• Make a list of your targets and where they hang out. Then frequent those places and events in hopes of a chance meeting. Once a week, visit restaurants and bars in the vicinity of the company in order to renew contacts.
• Go out of the way to make positive comments about these individuals’ contributions to your firm at conferences and to colleagues that work at the same firm. You can bet that the positive information and praise will get back to them.
• Periodically make benchmark calls or send emails to former colleagues. Ask about their best practices and what things they are working on.
• When you get a boomerang to return, ask him the names of the best people at his former firm and get his help in recruiting them.
• Take extra effort to track those who went to start-ups, since so many fail. Realize that these individuals might have higher values because most individuals who went to a start-up are risk takers, entrepreneurs, and technology wizards.
• Make boomerangs a target in your referral program, and make it clear during your presentations and in your marketing that they are highly-prized targets. Consider giving an extra bonus for boomerangs.
• Periodically send former colleagues copies of articles and information that they can use in their current jobs.
• Occasionally email former colleagues with technical questions, or solicit their opinions on some of your advanced work.
• Identify job openings at your firm and then email them to the appropriate corporate alumni.
• Invite targeted boomerangs to attend company events and assign individuals to rerecruit them.
• Seek out boomerangs at trade and industry events.
• Develop a compelling story to reach targeted boomerangs that convinces them of the benefits of returning. In addition, make a list any potential negatives they might perceive and counter each of them.
• Put boomerangs in your tickler file to remind yourself to contact them at least twice a year.
• Put them on your firm’s advisory groups or as external consultants on your hiring committees. Consider periodically asking them for their advice on key company problems.
• Develop mechanisms to celebrate the return of boomerangs.

Steps in Building the Relationship With Alumni

Remember that even if former employees don’t come back, they can add great benefits to your organization. It’s important to keep in contact with alumni that might never return to your firm, as well as those who have a reasonable probability. This means that you must build a continuing alumni relationship with every key individual and manager who was not fired from your organization. Some of the actions you should take include:

• Develop relationship “maintenance tools.” Consider an email newsletter, product discounts, referral bonuses, and offers for free training to keep up communications and relationships.
• Tell them they can earn referral bonuses just like current employees for referring individuals to your firm.

Conclusion

I don’t know how many times I have heard top performers express the desire to return to a former employer, but opt not to because they feel they are not welcome back. If you are not making your former employees welcome, you are losing out on good people for pride and principle. Instead, it’s essential that you make them a key part of your overall sourcing and recruiting strategy. Your role is to make them feel more like they are going on a sabbatical (which will some day end), rather than actually leaving your firm forever!

Boomerang recruitment is a high ROI activity, primarily because the cost per hire is very low and little time or effort must be invested in getting to know the candidate. While boomerangs make great hires, they also empower or embolden retention efforts by exposing employees at risk of attrition to first-hand accounts of life outside the organization and the selling points of what brought them back. Boomerangs are highly valuable to an organization not just because they bring back great stories, but also because they bring a fresh perspective, yet one capable of embedding years of history. By stepping out of the organization, there is a good chance that boomerangs have learned new skills and strategies that are applicable or valuable in redesigning and improving your approaches. They can also bring back valuable information about how a competitor does business and the strengths and weaknesses inherent to their approach. Having been exposed to an organization doing something successful a different way, boomerangs can recognize what is better about your approach and what can be improved. In short, these are A++ candidates who deserve special treatment.

Beware of Antiquated Thinking!

Hiring boomerangs can be political. A number of managers hold the antiquated notion that boomerangs are traitors and should not be allowed to return. This notion is silly because the job world has changed, and the number of employees who remain loyal to a single organization throughout their lifetimes is both extremely limited and suspect in nature. It is also illogical to assume in an era where specific skills are increasingly more valuable on a project versus a long-term basis that separation from an organization has anything to do with loyalty. Individuals with the most valuable skills are constantly offered opportunities, and should a valued employee accept one, it is as much the manager?s fault for failing to retain the employee as it is the employee’s fault for taking advantage of market conditions. In addition, managers should not assume that just because someone doesn?t leave an organization that they are loyal. It could simply mean he or she has few or no opportunities! Managers need to get over it; rehiring former employees is quite common in sports and no one ever holds a grudge there.

Best Practice Firms

Although the hiring of boomerangs using a formal process is not widespread, there are several firms that have implemented boomerang programs. Consulting firms like McKinsey, Ernst & Young, Bain & Co, and Deloitte have long nurtured the relationship between the firm and its alumni. Other firms like HP and Gensler (who have been written-up for having boomerang rates as high as 12%) have also been successful in building alumni programs and re-recruiting boomerangs. However, the best practice leader in leveraging this approach based on my observations is management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. It has gone the extra step and dedicated resources to a unique team known as the “comeback kids” that has proven very successful in getting former employees to return.

Reasons for Hiring Boomerangs or Corporate Alumni

There are numerous reasons why you should develop a formal effort to re-recruit top employees who left your firm. Some of them include:

• Fast hire. Boomerangs offer an opportunity to acquire a top person quickly (the search and the assessment take little time).
• Known skills. Because they are former employees with years of performance appraisals, you know in advance what skills and competencies you are obtaining.
• Up to speed quickly. Because they know the organization and its culture, they are likely to get up to speed faster than traditional new hires who have to learn an entirely new set of politics, culture, and processes.
• Low failure rate. They have a lower chance of failing because they have already adapted to the culture and you already know their performance capabilities and their ability to produce results (especially if they quit your firm recently).
• Browngrassers. You might find that after seeing the “color of the grass” on the other side that they are desirable because they will not likely leave again. The added benefit alluded to earlier is that they can help in the retention effort because they can tell stories to others about life on the outside.
• Competitive intelligence. They can provide competitive intelligence, new ideas, and a fresh perspective from their previous firms.
• A chain reaction. They often bring back other alumni with them when they come, especially after the message spreads that you are welcoming back those who left.
• Building community. Alumni programs help build a sense of a long-term community among employees because even when you leave, employees know they can maintain a relationship with the firm.
• PR value. A high return rate might improve image and secure good PR in the industry and community.

Other Benefits

Even if the target people do not return, maintaining the relationship may bring many other benefits that include:

• Increased probability that they will purchase goods or services from your organization.
• Referral of potential customers.
• Increased probability of building strategic alliances with their new organization.
• Referral of potential new hires.

Targets to Approach

Boomerang programs should not target every former employee. If, for example, Homer Simpson quits, count your blessings, and let him go. In addition, anyone who was fired or forced out should not be on the priority list, unless of course whoever forced him or her out has been forced out himself! Do not put a limit on the number of years that a former employee can be gone, but those who have left within the last two years are the most likely to understand your culture and situation. Some categories of former employees to target should include:

• Top performers who voluntarily left.
• Top performers who were in key positions.
• Top performers with key skills, contacts, or experience.
• Retirees who may not have found retirement to be all it was cracked up to be.
• Top finalists who accepted another job. These people can be called in the first week of their new jobs and after three months in order to see if they made a mistake (buyer’s remorse). This might seem silly, but if you think about it, how many jobs have you taken where you realize the first day that it was a mistake?
• Long-term consultants or contractors. Although they technically were not employees, if you had individuals who performed well for a long period time, you might consider bringing them back as contractors again or even as employees.
• Promising interns who failed to return.

Expect Some Initial Resistance

Don’t expect every ex-employee to respond positively on your initial call. You might find some resistance on the part of former employees because they think that you hate them for leaving. As a result, it’s critical that you start any conversation with a potential boomerang with the statement “we understand why you left and we hold no animosity toward you.” There’s also another factor to consider. Because the number one reason individuals quit a job is because their managers are jerks, realize upfront that you need to tell all individuals who left for that reason that their former managers/adversaries are either no longer there or that they will not have any contact with them. It turns out that quite a few former employees will return because they love the firm, but very few will return in any proximity to the manager who caused them enough grief to force them out.

Other Possible Problems with Boomerang Efforts

As with all recruiting programs, boomerang programs have some possible problems that include:

• Former employees having a “dream memory” of the firm (or it could have changed), and as a result, they will become disenchanted upon return.
• Current employees becoming jealous or resentful when boomerangs are hired back at significantly higher pay or job level than similar individuals who remained with the firm.
• Boomerangs might come back to retire in the job.
• A long period away could result in the boomerang having changed so much that you need to reassess him or her before any offer to return is made.
• Sometimes layoffs or partings were so negative, the best you can do is neutralize their feelings but they will never return.
• Firms don’t want to build the perception that they are desperate.
• It requires a long-term view and a vision of sales and learning as well as recruiting. Most recruiters (and some managers) do not share that broad vision.
• Proving the benefits (like the increased image (perception of corporate alumni toward their former firm) and the decrease in bad mouthing) may be difficult to do if your HR or recruiting department is weak in the metrics area.
• Traditional HR people often fail to realize that in boom times, the scope of whom they reconsider may need to expand to include even average performers who left.

Next week In part two of this series, I will discuss the steps required to build a world-class boomerang/alumni program.