Your old company might want to hire you back

When Ahmed Mousa wanted to return to the tech patient Deel, he texted CEO Alex Bouaziz a selfie of the 2 of them pinch different colleague.

"hey! fresh and afloat committed. erstwhile tin we recreate this photo?" Mousa wrote to Bouaziz.

The cofounder quickly replied, penning successful part: "Which team"

Roughly 48 hours aft that exchange, Mousa, who'd spent astir 5 years astatine the HR and payroll platform, was talking pinch a Deel recruiter astir the specifications of his return, astir 4 months aft he left.

He had go a "boomerang" employee. Mousa is not alone. Rehires astatine Deel much than doubled betwixt 2024 and 2026, the institution said.

Nationally, 3.4% of caller hires successful the US were boomerangs by the extremity of 2025, up from 3.1% 2 years earlier, according to the latest figures from Revelio Labs, which analyzes employment data.

Why immoderate companies want their exes back

Finding a job remains reliable for galore table workers. Returning to a erstwhile employer tin connection an advantage: Job seekers already person a history and connections wrong the organization.

That wrong way tin beryllium peculiarly adjuvant astatine a institution for illustration Deel, which has much than 7,000 labor globally and said it drew 1.3 cardinal occupation applicants successful 2025. The afloat distant institution projects it will deed 2 cardinal applicants this year.

Despite that immense applicant pool, Bouaziz said erstwhile labor who were beardown performers and near connected bully position tin beryllium evident candidates.

"They understand the company," he said. "They person the correct narration wrong of the institution to make immoderate things hap faster."

Those workers tin besides show Deel why they near and whether the institution could make changes to reside immoderate issues, Bouaziz said.

Not everyone gets a return ticket

While galore CEOs spot worth successful boomerang employees, they aren't needfully eager to invited backmost anyone who knocks.

"What I don't for illustration are job-bouncers," said Fred Voccola, the president and CEO of AI package institution Simpro Group. Still, he said he's happy to rehire personification who behaved honorably and didn't effort to "burn the location down erstwhile they left."

Simpro Group and Deel aren't the only companies that person made a constituent of welcoming backmost erstwhile workers. In 2023, Salesforce wooed erstwhile labor by handing retired stuffed animals wearing T-shirts featuring a boomerang image. That aforesaid year, CEO Marc Benioff gave a shout-out to returning workers for helping the institution execute its profit-margin goals sooner than expected.

Voccola said group sometimes time off because "the institution conscionable can't connection the personification what they request for their career."

He sees a imaginable semipermanent payoff successful letting bully labor leave, and past circling back. "They're going to spell location else, study immoderate caller skills, and you'll beryllium damn judge I'm calling them successful a twelvemonth to travel back," Voccola said. "That's the measurement you build lasting companies."

Bouaziz draws lines, too. Someone who near Deel aft only a fewer months aliases went consecutive to a competitor mightiness person a harder clip returning.

"Obviously, we cannot return backmost everyone. We thin to attraction connected the highest performers," Bouaziz said.

The way backmost tin beryllium harder for erstwhile labor who didn't time off by choice. Bouaziz said he's received dozens of messages complete the years from group who'd been fired for mediocre capacity aliases different reasons and wanted different chance.

He typically passes those requests on to hiring managers. While a rehire is unlikely, Bouaziz said their willingness to inquire is simply a affirmative motion astir Deel's culture.

An added use of boomerangs

Bouaziz said boomerangs tin power really labor who ne'er near consciousness astir the company. Employees sometimes inquire returning colleagues why they came back, he said, and proceeding their answers tin reenforce their ain decision to stay.

"Sometimes you don't cognize what you're missing unless you don't person it anymore," Bouaziz said.

Mousa, 34, wasn't looking to time off Deel erstwhile a startup that had courted him for months made a compelling offer. He had friends location and could gain acold much — an important information arsenic the begetter of 2 young children.

"It felt irresponsible not to spell return a look," he said.

After a mates of months, Mousa near the startup and completed activity tests astatine a fewer different companies, though thing felt right.

Eventually, he started reasoning astir returning to Deel, wherever his relative besides works. For a mates of days, he couldn't bring himself to inquire because he felt embarrassed.

Then Mousa fired disconnected the selfie to Bouaziz.

Mousa's wife, meanwhile, wasn't amazed by the full episode.

When he near Deel, he said she told him, "You cognize you're going to spell back, right?"