When an employee gives notice, most agency owners see it as the end of a relationship. They shouldn’t. Smart owners see it as the beginning of a potentially valuable ongoing alumni relationship.
And sometimes it’s the start of an even better second chapter together.
Boomerang hires — employees who leave your agency and later return — are far more common in the agency world than most owners realize. But they don’t happen by accident. They happen because you treated someone well during their entire lifecycle with your business, including the exit.
I have been a boomerang hire, and I have made boomerang hires. So I have a fair bit of perspective on this topic.
Here’s why boomerang hires deserve more attention, and what you need to do to make them possible.
Why boomerang hires make business sense
The typical hiring process is expensive and risky. You spend time recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding someone who may or may not work out. Even when they do, it takes months before they’re truly productive and understand your clients, your processes, and your quirks.
A boomerang hire eliminates most of that uncertainty. You already know this person’s strengths and weaknesses and don’t need to guess based on an hour or two of conversation.
They already know your clients and your approach. The learning curve is dramatically shorter. The cultural fit has already been tested. You’re not gambling on potential but rather rehiring known performance.
They’re also coming back with new experience and perspective. Whatever they learned while they were gone becomes an asset to your agency.
If they worked at a larger firm, they might bring back better processes or systems thinking. If they worked in-house at a client, they understand the client-side perspective better. If they worked at a competitor, well, you probably just learned something about how that competitor operates.
Most importantly, boomerang employees tend to appreciate what they have. They left, they learned what else is out there, and they chose to come back. That kind of informed commitment is worth a lot more than someone who’s never tested the market.
When boomerang hires make the most sense
Not every former employee should come back, and not every departure sets up a good boomerang scenario.
They tend to work best when the employee left on good terms for legitimate reasons (career growth, better title, significant pay increase, opportunity to work in-house). These are rational departures that don’t reflect poorly on your agency.
Someone who left because they couldn’t stand working with you probably isn’t a great boomerang candidate.
Presumably any boomerang hire you consider was a strong performer when they were with you. There’s no point in rehiring someone who was mediocre the first time around. The grass isn’t always greener, but it also doesn’t turn a mediocre employee into a great one. (It does, however, give them more seasoning and experience, so you should take that into account.)
Usually (though not always) the more time that passes after the employee’s departure, the better. A boomerang hire who comes back after three months probably just made a mistake. Someone who comes back after a year or two has actually gained experience and perspective. There’s a difference between buyer’s remorse and informed choice.
It’s important that you actually have a role that fits them. Don’t force it. If someone was your account director and you’ve restructured, and now you’d have to squeeze them into a coordinator role, that’s not going to work. Boomerang hires should make business sense, not just emotional sense.
How to set yourself up for boomerang success
The seeds of a good boomerang hire are planted long before someone ever comes back. In fact, they’re planted before they even leave.
Start by treating employees well during their entire tenure. The best retention strategy is also the best boomerang strategy. If someone leaves with resentment or frustration, they’re not coming back. If they leave feeling valued and appreciated, they might.
When they give notice — especially if they’re going to a competitor or client — resist the urge to take it personally. Don’t make it weird. Don’t harbor ill will. Schedule an exit interview and actually listen to the feedback. Use their departure as a chance to learn, not to sulk or resent.
Celebrate their departure. I mean this literally. Have a going-away gathering. Acknowledge their contributions. Recognize that this is usually a career milestone for them. This feels counterintuitive when someone is leaving, but remember: you only get one chance to make a last impression. Make it a good one.
Hold the door open, don’t slam it behind them in frustration. Collect their equipment, handle the paperwork, remind them of their obligations around non-disclosure, but do all of it professionally and gracefully. Express genuine appreciation for their time with you. The way you handle someone’s last day tells them everything they need to know about whether they’d ever want to come back.
Then, actually stay in touch. Your alumni network is a business asset. Former employees can refer clients. They can refer new hires. And yes, sometimes they come back themselves. But none of that happens if you disappear from each other’s lives the moment they walk out the door.
This doesn’t mean you need to have lunch together every quarter. It means congratulating them on LinkedIn when they get promoted. Reaching out when you see an article relevant to their work. Small touches that keep the relationship alive.
When someone wants to come back
If a former employee reaches out about returning, treat it like any other prospective hire, but with better information. You know their strengths and weaknesses already, so be honest with yourself about whether those weaknesses are ones you can work with again.
Have a candid conversation about what’s changed since they left. What did they learn? What are they looking for this time around? What would need to be different for it to work? And on your side, what’s changed at the agency? Make sure you’re both walking into this with eyes open.
Negotiate from a position of mutual knowledge. You both know what the job really entails. No one is selling anyone on an unrealistic version of the role. This is a huge advantage, but only if you actually use it to set realistic expectations.
And if you do rehire them, resist the urge to rush the onboarding. Yes, they know your agency. But things have changed. Clients have evolved. Processes have been updated. Team dynamics are different. Give them the time and structure to actually reintegrate successfully.
The bottom line on boomerangs
Boomerang hires aren’t a recruitment strategy. They’re a byproduct of treating people well and maintaining relationships after they leave. You can’t manufacture them, but you can absolutely create the conditions that make them possible.
Most agency owners spend a lot of energy trying to prevent good people from leaving. That energy is better spent building an agency that good people want to return to. The difference is subtle but important. One is about control. The other is about building something genuinely worth coming back to.
Departures will happen. They’re normal, especially in today’s job market. The question is whether you’re positioning your agency so that when good people leave and realize what they had, they know the door is still open.
Because the best revenge for losing a good employee isn’t bitterness. It’s building an agency so strong that they eventually want to come back.
Turn ideas into action
Schedule exit interviews for all departures. Have an open, human conversation with questions about what worked, what didn’t, and what they wish had been different. Actually listen to the answers and look for patterns across multiple exits.
Set up a simple alumni touchpoint system. Create a spreadsheet or other list of former employees, note key things like birthdays, and set a calendar reminder to reach out 2-3 times per year with genuine check-ins, not sales pitches.
Audit your departure process. Review the last three employee departures and honestly assess: did you hold the door open or slam it shut? Fix the parts of your process that would prevent a boomerang hire from ever wanting to return.