Your organization’s former employees can be an excellent source of future hires. Re-hiring used to be universally frowned upon. However, demographers report that younger generations tend to change jobs more than their predecessors did. So, leaving a job should not be viewed as the sea change it was in generations of greater employer-employee loyalty. Nevertheless, there are important questions in any potential re-hire:

1. Will the former employee’s knowledge of your business help now? One of the greatest potential advantages of re-hiring is the former employee’s ability to hit the ground running and make immediate contributions. It may be important, however, to consider changes that have taken place in your organization since the former employee’s departure. If the major players with whom the former employee worked have changed, the former employee’s advantages over others may be diminished. If the business overall has taken a new direction, the former employee may be a hindrance to further change if he or she expects things to be like they were.

2. Will the former employee’s knowledge of his or her role help now? Like the first consideration, the former employee’s knowledge of his or her role with your organization should generally be a huge advantage over someone who has not held that role previously. He or she will know how to do the job with no initial training and can begin making an impact immediately. However, suppose the former employee left in the first place because the role was changing. If the role’s responsibilities continued to morph during his absence, the former employee could be seriously out of sync by the time he or she comes back to work for you.

3. Does the former employee bring valuable knowledge or experience from the outside? Having a former employee return to your organization after work experience somewhere else has been compared to having him or her get an MBA. He or she comes back with other training, exposure to new ideas, and a different way of doing things. He or she may also have important knowledge of how the competition does things better or worse than your organization. This factor may again work in favor of a re-hire. Of course, if the former employee has worked for a competitor, it must be determined whether he is subject to a non-compete or non-solicitation agreement and, if so, what practical limitations will be imposed on any future employment as a result.

4. Would a re-hire be in the best HR interests of your organization? Did the employee leave not just for a different job but a different career? If so, he or she may be inclined to leave again to perceived greener pastures. Did the employee leave because he or she was discontented? It is possible that the employee may be more content upon returning, having recognized that things weren’t so bad at your organization after all. However, if the employee caused discontent, or had performance or conduct problems, recruitment experts tend to agree that those tendencies will resurface the second time around.

5. Where do you fit into all of this? It is critical to make and retain appropriate Human Resources records to help you and future Human Resources leaders make the judgments required to determine whether a re-hire is a good decision. At a minimum, this includes conducting a sufficiently thorough exit interview to determine if there were issues leading to the employee’s departure which would be difficult to surmount in a later re-hire. Some experts also suggest a post-exit interview at about six months into the departed employee’s new job. By then, the grass may not be so green at the new employer.

In especially tight labor markets, Human Resources should also consider whether it makes sense to implement more assertive strategies. Some Human Resources consultants suggest an active program of staying in touch with departing employees with a view to facilitating recruitment for re-hire if circumstances warrant. Others even espouse maintaining something like an alumni association to keep in touch with talented individuals, including possibly inviting them to certain corporate functions to keep broad ties with the organization strong. Given shifting workplace demographics, keeping up with an employer’s “alumni” may become an increasingly important role for Human Resources.