What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back? A bad recruiting strategy.

That’s if we’re talking about “boomerang employees,” or US workers who return to a former employer. Boomeranging became a workplace trend in 2022 and 2023, as some workers said they regretted job-hopping during the Great Resignation. While the term may not be in the limelight anymore—Google searches for “boomerang employee” and similar phrases peaked in 2022—data from multiple labor market analytics platforms supplied to HR Brew suggests that boomerang employees, as a trend, are sticking around.

In today’s cooling labor market, boomerang employees can be a boon for recruiters with limited bandwidth and budgets because those returning can require less time and money to recruit and onboard.

“Boomerang employees become really easy to hire in that environment. I don’t need to put you through 13 interviews and a case study, test for culture fit, and all that stuff,” Bob Goodwin, president of Career Club, told HR Brew. “It’s a very streamlined hire in a process that normally has tons of friction.”

Keep reading here.—PM

But to make that future a reality, a simpler, faster, and more human approach to hiring needs to happen today.

Don’t miss Indeed FutureWorks this Sept. 26 to hear unique perspectives on better hiring from the likes of Trevor Noah (yes, you read that right), Indra Nooyi (former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo), and other thought leaders in the space.

Throughout the deeply educational and interactive event, you’ll learn how to apply skills-first hiring to reach and retain untapped talent pools, discover new AI tools to help you solve your current challenges, and much more.

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On Wednesday, Salesforce unveiled Career Connect, an AI-powered internal talent marketplace.

The platform can help Salesforce employees gain job experience and skills and find new career opportunities within the company, Lori Castillo Martinez, EVP of talent growth and development at Salesforce, said in a press conference last week. Salesforce also hopes the platform can provide it with more visibility into what skills are needed at the organization, and where extra training or upskilling is needed.

How it works. Internal candidates create a profile on the platform, which draws from their job history to gather the skills they currently have. The platform then suggests a whole range of opportunities for the candidate, including new roles, temporary assignments, and learning opportunities. All of the roles suggested to employees are opportunities they can take on immediately using their relevant or transferable skills. If an employee chooses to apply for a position, they’ll be directed to Salesforce’s internal application system.

Early signs of success. Salesforce saw initial success with the platform following a three-month pilot conducted earlier this year with around 1,200 global employees across its customer success, employee success (HR), and business technology teams.

Keep reading here.—PM

Jamie Gildersleeve, like most other HR professionals she knows, didn’t dream of pursuing a career in the people function when she was young.

“If you ask[ed] me as a high school senior, I was joining the Coast Guard after school. I was going to jump out of helicopters; you would have found me in Cuba somewhere,” Gildersleeve, who now is director of HR at Pittsburgh-based Mascaro Construction, told HR Brew.

After deciding to take some business courses in college, she developed an affinity for HR, and set her sights on the field. After holding multiple HR roles at firms including at financial services giant PNC and construction company Steelsmith, she joined Mascaro in 2019. Gildersleeve and her HR and workforce development manager currently oversee a workforce of around 800.

She said construction is an industry that is experiencing a similar phenomenon as HR, adding that kids don’t necessarily dream of having a career in the field. While Gen Zers are increasingly turning to trades jobs, there’s still a shortage of these roles, which is only expected to worsen as more skilled trades professionals retire in the coming years. That means HR pros in the industry have had to rethink attracting and retaining talent.

Keep reading here.—PM

Don’t let data spook you. It’s powerful information that can help you optimize organizational success for the long haul. Join Gallagher’s two-part webinar series, where subject matter experts will help you understand current HR market trends, effective data collection methods, top drivers for improving employee recruitment, and more. Register for the Sept. 18 event here.

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