Dive Brief:
- As the applicant market continues to shrink, businesses are looking for creative solutions. Boston Consulting Group suggests that many employers may be overlooking two talent pools ripe for the picking: company alumni and workforce returnees. Former employees who left the company in good standing understand the culture of the organization and can be an easy hire, it said. Likewise, sourcing those who are rejoining the workforce after a break can allow businesses to tap into a talented candidate pool.
- BCG reports that 43% of highly qualified women who have children will leave their careers temporarily at some point: sourcing these workers and others can provide businesses with trained and experienced candidates, the organization said.
- BCG noted that hiring and training a new staff member can cost several months' worth of their annual salary. Instead, hiring alumni who know the business' standards and protocols could shrink those costs. The reports suggest that businesses maintain connections with talented employees who leave the company.
Dive Insight:
Recruiters have been searching high and low, making use of untapped talent pools to keep their hiring pipeline flowing and to improve efforts at diversifying their workforces.
And some have been looking to alumni and returnees, as BCG suggests. Some have formalized the process, designing returnships. Whether working with an outside intern-type programmer to ease former full-timers back into the workforce, or creating an internal program, employers are making use of returnees perhaps more than ever before.
Similarly, employers are rethinking their strategies when it comes to exit interviews, stay interviews and even retirement, hoping to find the answer to reducing turnover. Collaborating with the masses of boomers planning to leave the workforce, some businesses are hoping for phased retirements, rather than sudden exits or plans for future work as a consultant or part-time employee.
