Boomerang employees have long been regarded highly in the workplace.  They are effective both because they’re familiar with the people and processes of the organization, so can get up to speed faster than a completely new hire, but have also gained some often invaluable experience and contacts in another organization.

Research from Cornell attempts to understand when boomerang employees are most effective.  The study compared the job experiences of nearly 11,000 hew hires and over 2,000 boomerangs at an American healthcare company over a seven-year period.

The analysis found that boomerangs typically paid off, with the rehires performing better than the new hires, albeit with both groups themselves outperformed by internal hires. Boomerangs were especially effective in jobs that required a high level of administrative coordination, such as project management, and in jobs where strong interpersonal skills were required.

Performance gains

The data showed a clear gap in performance in these roles, with the authors arguing that this is probably because of the organizational knowledge gained in their first time at the organization. This tacit knowledge helps them to understand how the organization functions and the key relationships required to get things done.

It should be said, of course, that these benefits can diminish when boomerangs have been away from the organization for some time, so should not be taken as given. Their impact was accentuated, however, by being teamed up with veteran employees or managers.

The researchers found that boomerangs were more likely to be readily accepted, especially in situations that had not changed much since they were last at the organization or in situations that were not threatening to the status quo of the firm.

This performance gain made boomerang employees also more likely to be promoted, but interestingly, they were also more likely to be fired. The researchers suggest this may be due to the reduced slack afforded boomerang employees, who are expected to hit the ground running in a way new hires are perhaps not.