Turning Over Employee Turnover: A Review on Employee Alumni and Rehiring

Purpose:This paper explores how organisations can cope with high employee turnover. This paper aims to highlight potential benefits of maintaining a network of employee alumni and rehiring former employees. Finally, this paper also introduces the concept of recoverability to define the potential of employee alumni to be rehired.Approach:This paper reviewed the latest literature on employee alumni and rehiring. This paper does not discuss the potential antecedents of employee turnover, instead focuses on a coping mechanism for the consequence. Findings:This paper challenges the assumption that former employees can no longer contribute to the organisation after their resignation. Additionally, this paper disputes the premise of employee turnover finality by exploring employee rehiring as a potential solution to recoup lost human capital. Finally, this paper identifies an apparent lack of human resources management literature on employee rehiring. Research Implication:This paper discusses scientific and practical implications and future research directions on employee alumni and rehiring. Originality:This paper highlights how organisations can cope with the high rate of employee turnover, instead of attempting to minimise it. This paper also extends the definition of functional turnover by introducing the potential of employee rehiring and recoverability of lost human capital.