More companies maintain ties with former employees
When employees leave businesses, some managers carry a “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” mentality.
But research shows other managers are abandoning that notion and instead continuing to network with their former employees − which can, at times, be mutually beneficial even after their departure.
“It is a mindset shift of thinking differently about when people leave and maintaining those relationships, and even to the point of potentially celebrating employee exits because there can be value in continuing those relationships after people leave,” said Erin Makarius, Ph.D., Management Department chair and associate management professor at the University of Akron.
Makarius and Alison Dachner, Ph.D., associate management professor at John Carroll University, write about “boomerangs,” or returning former employees, as well as ex-employees who can become customers or vendors or provide referrals.
Since 2021, Makarius and Dachner have published four articles, two of which have other co-authors, in four separate publications on what they call the “alumni-organization relationship.”
By “alumni,” they mean employees who have left organizations.
“A lot of companies just start with a LinkedIn network or something — it’s just this way to keep track of their alumni and manage that process a little bit more,” Makarius said. “One of the values we found in doing that is because if companies aren’t doing it, alumni are doing it themselves in some cases. So, there’s this opportunity that could be lost if the company’s not the one managing that relationship.”
Local corporate ‘alumna’ returns
Tiffiney Channell left her employer in March 2023 and returned that October, less than seven months later.
Channell was working for staffing agency Great Work Employment for nearly four years before her departure from there. She started as staffing supervisor in June 2019 and was branch manager of the business’s Canton office when she left last March.
But when an opportunity arose for Channell to work remotely in the medical field as a credentialing coordinator, she said she took the leap.
“At the time there was a lot of buzz around working from home and I thought this would be a good move,” Channell said via email. “However, I quickly learned that remote work was not the best choice for me. I truly enjoy interacting with my colleagues and meeting/working in person. I didn’t realize how motivating it is to have other people to work with until I didn’t have it.”
When Channell returned to Great Work in October, it was as an Akronbased corporate office manager.
Great Work focuses on employing hundreds of temp workers at a time. The agency also has 25 full-time staff members between its seven Northeast Ohio offices to provide temp services, and Channell is one of them.
Company President Tia Ramlow said that in 2023, Great Work probably had the most resignations out of any year in its 32-year history.
“I think that was just a trend across the country where people decided that they were going to move on for whatever reason,” Ramlow said. “And we’ve had multiple; [but] we keep lines of communication.”
Ramlow said many of the agency’s employees have had the mindset that “the grass is greener” in another job, and that doesn’t always turn out to be the case.
She said it appears more employers are opening up to the idea of bringing back former employees who left in good standing — and not trying to talk employees into staying when they resign, which can backfire.
“I think the employers are saying, ‘You know what? We’re not going to counter, we’re not going to do all these things to try to keep them,’ because if someone’s in their brain that they have to move on, it’s usually better that they do,” Ramlow said. “But sometimes they do realize that what they had was good. To bring them back, you’re not retraining them, and that’s a plus for us.”
As Channell continues her career at Great Work, she offered up some words of advice for career success: “Define your career goal and go after it,” “take initiative” and “never burn a bridge.”
Local law firm works to understand employees’ reasons for leaving
Multiple employees who have left Northeast Ohio law firm Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs have returned or joined one of the firm’s clients as inhouse counsel, said Caytie Matti, Buckingham’s director of human resources and talent success.
Attorneys, a legal assistant and a paralegal are among the people who left and came back to Buckingham, which has offices in Akron, Canton and Cleveland, Matti said.
Buckingham hosts exit interviews to
learn more about employees’ decisions to leave.
“One of them lasted two hours, to be honest,” Matti said. “And I’ll just sit and listen as long as somebody wants to talk, to tell me about their experience and what they think could be different or better.”
Buckingham also hosts stay interviews for associate attorneys and nonequity partners with questions about what could be improved, she said.
Most of the employees the firm has hired over the past five years have stayed, she said.
When employees leave Buckingham, Matti said, “we try to do all we can to make the transition smooth for them.”
In situations where successful Buckingham lawyers have gone on to work directly for the firm’s clients, she said both sides have maintained positive relationships and open lines of communication.
“That’s probably why the companies wanted them, because they were great attorneys here [and they thought] that they would be great as in-house counsel,” Matti said.
Major coffee chain expands alumni network
Another company aiming to take a cordial approach to employee offboarding is Starbucks, which has 10 stores in Akron and 23 in Summit County. Anyone who formerly worked for the coffee chain, including in roles such as a barista, shift supervisor or store or district manager, can register to join the coffee chain’s alumni network.
More than 43,000 ex-Starbucks employees — or as the company calls them, “partners” — have joined the Starbucks Alumni Community since its 2021 founding, said Vida Killian, director of the community. Those alums have various career roles at many institutions; Killian listed, for example, “nurses and educators and CEOs and nonprofits and students.”
Even if employees were fired or laid off, she said, they can join the network.
The main upside of the alumni network for Starbucks is brand ambassadorship and advocacy, Killian said.
The benefit to former employees, she said, is a community that supports their careers and allows them to network with others who have moved from Starbucks into new career roles. The community
has hosted events online, including on LinkedIn, and in person.
“I think what’s really interesting right now is if you look at LinkedIn and people’s profiles and summaries, they will say, ‘ex-Starbucks, ex-Google, ex-Amazon, ex-Microsoft,’ whatever it is, as a personal branding. And there’s a reputation that goes along with that,” Killian said. “And I find that really fascinating as a personal branding aspect, and that is a company opportunity to say, ‘If you’re proud that you worked for us, what can we do to continue that relationship at some level?’”
Alumni members can also nominate nonprofits to receive Neighborhood Grants from The Starbucks Foundation that range from $1,000 to $10,000. The foundation has issued $255,000 in grants to 233 nonprofits across 39 states because of alumni nominations, Killian said.
Starbucks launched its Neighborhood Grants program in 2019 and has awarded $15 million via 10,000 grants to organizations in U.S. and Canadian communities, according to the company’s website.
“The program has been going on for years, and last year, we extended it to include alumni,” Killian said. “So, it’s one example of stay connected to the company, continue to give back to your community, which is something we believe in.”
Killian said retail and food companies shouldn’t be the only kinds of businesses creating alumni networks and maintaining positive relationships with exiting employees.
“I think it is time for all companies to think of, ‘What’s the value of their employee life cycle beyond the onboarding to offboarding window?’” Killian said.
A message for businesses: ‘That person’s still in your ecosystem’
One of Makarius’ and Dachner’s most recent academic papers on worker offboarding and alumni looks at how organizations’ approaches to employee exits and communication with ex-employees influences those professionals’ attitudes. Then, they write, those attitudes unfold into actions that can serve businesses — or not.
The researchers write in the paper that an employee left one organization “on bad terms and was so bitter months later that they wrote a horrible warning email to an incoming job candidate, potentially sabotaging the organization’s search.”
“That person’s still in your ecosystem, and social media and technology make it such that they’re not far away even if they’re away,” Dachner said.
The researchers, alongside Rhett Brymer, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati management assistant professor, published that paper, “You Say Goodbye, and I Say Hello: The Alumni–Organization Relationship and Post-Separation Value,” in the Academy of Management Review in August 2023.
Some managers have found that former employees working as clients and bringing in customers have served their organizations better than they did when they were employees, Dachner said.
When former employees transition into client or customer roles, Dachner said it can be a “better-as-friends” situation, using a term associated with romantic breakups.
“And you may miss out on opportunities, if you’re not managing it, that you could have people who would have been better as friends,” Makarius added. “But without continuing the relationship with them, you don’t see the value in that relationship.”