{"id":10864,"date":"2026-08-15T10:08:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=10864"},"modified":"2026-08-15T10:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:09:23","slug":"boomeranging-is-back-why-employers-are-thrilled-to-bring-back-former-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=10864","title":{"rendered":"Boomeranging is back: Why employers are thrilled to bring back former workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Five months ago, Courtney Bentley returned to work as the managing director of partnerships at Op-Ed Project, where she worked from 2012 to 2017.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“When I started at The Op-Ed project, it was an incredible landing spot for a young person,” Bentley said. “It was a fairly new organization. I was eager to learn a lot and grow. And I did. But I had reached this point where I felt like I had learned as much as I could.”<\/p>\n

So she took a break to explore what else she could do, spending the next nine years in different industries and companies including The Obama Foundation and a small tech firm. But she started to feel pulled back to the mission of the Op-Ed Project, which offers training and mentoring programs for underrepresented experts, including women, to develop their writing and communication skills.<\/p>\n

Now Bentley is one of many workers heading back from what they thought were greener pastures. Returning to work for a former employer, known as boomeranging, is gaining traction.<\/p>\n

Last month, the\u00a0news\u00a0<\/a>that Ford Motor Co. has been bringing back many former employees in engineering quality control put a spotlight on the trend.<\/p>\n

“Employers are increasingly recognizing that rehiring former employees isn’t looking backward \u2014 it’s a smart way to move forward,” Robin Erickson, head of human capital research at The Conference Board, told Yahoo Finance.<\/p>\n

“In an environment where hiring remains expensive and finding the right talent is challenging, boomerang employees offer something that’s hard to replicate: proven performance, institutional knowledge, and a much shorter path to productivity.”<\/p>\n

They’re also returning with new skills and outside perspectives, while already understanding the organization’s culture and how to get work done, she added.<\/p>\n