A survey of more than 17,000 outplacement candidates conducted by Right Management between June, 2008, and June, 2009, found that 18 percent of displaced employees who landed new positions using Right’s outplacement services were rehired by their former employer.
This is good news for cut employees, but it also is a sign of wasted time and effort, says Lynn Brown, market vice president at Right, which has a branch at 155 Village Boulevard.
“Companies need to consider longer-term workforce needs to avoid redundant firing and hiring, which can add to costs and erode workforce performance,” she says. In some instances, she says, organizations are realizing that they have cut too deep and are bringing people back in consulting roles or for project work. Or organizations are growing or divesting in specific areas. “Former employees have the organizational knowledge and skills to jump back into roles quickly to get the job done,” she says.
Brown recommends that employers consider redeployment rather than letting employees go. “It’s a way of leveraging the skills and talents of existing employees and reassigning them to new roles within the organization,” she says.
Right has found that only half of all employers offer redeployment before layoffs, Brown says — a path that can prove shortsighted. “With redeployment, employees are no longer passive objects of workforce restructuring but active partners in the organization’s drive for strategic change,” she says. “It should be a staple component of an organization’s workforce management strategy.”
