Pros and Cons of Rehiring Former Employees – What Should You Do?

Are you considering rehiring an employee that was terminated in the past? If so, you might have a ton of questions and concerns. Even if the worker was let go due to company layoffs, you’re still reeling as to whether or not it’s a good idea.

There are pros and cons to every situation and rehiring is no different. Thinking about the candidate, weighing options of hiring someone new, and then thinking about the pros and cons of rehiring, in general, is key when making your decision.

Pros of rehiring former employees

Hiring someone after they’ve been terminated, no matter what the reason may be, is less time-consuming, overall, than hiring someone outside the company. You can expect they know what it takes to work there.

They’ll also be familiar with the process and won’t need to be trained. This is all a plus when hiring. The hiring process and training takes a great deal of time to accomplish. You could skip much of that with a rehire.

Cons of rehiring former employees

It’s impossible to know exactly what the person you terminated is thinking. Are they still holding a grudge from last time? Will they promise to improve but slack off again down the road? These are all things you must consider.

Over the course of the next several blog posts, we are going to go into detail about the pros and cons of rehiring. Hopefully, you’ll be able to find your answer while reading over all the information we offer you.

Have things changed? While people can change, they often don’t. You might find that after you rehire, they’ll go against everything they said in the interview and revert right back to step one. You’ll be left with a person that hasn’t improved and is still underperforming. This is a big risk that many employers refuse to take.

It’s also possible that someone will have hard feelings about this and take it out on various people within the company. Whether it’s the candidate, manager, colleagues, or other workers, hard feelings are not easy to work with. They bring about conflict and eventually, termination for someone involved.

If you’re offering someone their old position back that was a consistent slacker, you might also have opened the door for trouble. Co-workers know when they have to pick up another’s slack. They’ll be irritated that you’ve let them back in or they’ll assume that slacking is acceptable.

There are also legal reasons why rehiring isn’t a great idea. FMLA and pensions aren’t easy in this situation. While it’s not always a reason to not hire the former worker, it is a big process that can take up time.

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