Organizations that have made formal commitments to this strategy maintain alumni networks that allow former employees to see job postings, network with former co-workers, and fund substantial referral bonus programs.

Others take a more informal approach, hosting social events for former employees, keeping them on mailing lists for company publications, or inviting them to company-sponsored activities.

Workplace experts call such employees “boomerangs,” and maintain that hiring them back usually is a savvy recruiting move. It’s a very smart, enlightened policy, according to a workforce consulting company. It means that you are taking advantage of the knowledge capital that was built up and you’ve lost in the past.

There was a time, not so long ago, when once you left a company to work for a competitor you were considered disloyal, and you were not allowed to return. But times have changed; although some would argue that rehiring a former employee can negatively affect the morale of the loyal employees who stuck around, others have found great value in pursuing former employees.

First, the employer saves training costs and gains an infusion of competitive intelligence. More importantly, the employer regains a staff member who understands the organization’s culture, has a more enlightened commitment to the organization, and a richer perspective for having worked elsewhere in the interim.

With all of this and a broader knowledge of the market, the boomerang employee also can be invaluable as a workplace mentor to new workers.