Latest research from employee benefits provider Unum UK has found that 1 in 5 (19 per cent) UK workers have returned to a previous employer within the past five years or plan to in the near future, in what’s being dubbed as the ‘boomerang’ employee phenomenon.
Work culture and better employee benefits were cited by 36 per cent of respondents as a reason for returning to a previous employer. This mirrors Unum’s previous research findings from ‘The Big Quit’, which discovered that 40 per cent of UK employees would be attracted to a new employer with a better benefits package.
Among the surveyed boomerang employees, work/life balance was a reason behind more than a third of employees returning (34 per cent) – indicating the importance workers now put on juggling their personal and professional lives since the pandemic forced so many to adapt to home working.
These findings might be viewed by some employers as a welcome relief during a particularly challenging time, as of February 2022 there were a record 1.3 million vacancies in the UK.
87 per cent of boomerang employees surveyed said they would boomerang again in the future – 33 per cent of whom would do so for a higher salary closely followed by 28 per cent who would move for a better benefits package.
As well as work culture and better benefits, among those who said they boomeranged to a previous employer, or plan to, some of the other reasons for returning were:
• Offer of promotion (21 per cent)
• Flexible/Hybrid working options (19 per cent)
• Better environment, social and governance (ESG) commitments (14 per cent)
35 per cent of respondents who said they boomeranged within the last 5 years, or plan to, were from London – a stark contrast to 8 per cent in the East of England. Whilst many may think of the UK’s capital as a city full of new opportunities, those employers based there are attracting back their lost talent at a higher rate than other areas of the country.
“Our research found that 1 in 5 employees have returned to a previous employer or plans to in the future,” said Glenn Thompson, chief distribution officer at Unum UK. “But interestingly, although the offering of better salary or promotions are important in employees’ decisions, it’s the combination of culture, benefits and work/life balance that are proving crucial to employees’ choice to stay, leave or boomerang.”
With a very tight labour market – 1.3 million vacancies as of February 2022 – Thompson says employers must understand these factors and offer what employees need to be tempted back, given rehiring an old employee can potentially be more efficient than training someone who’s brand new to the business.
