An employee who resigns is not necessarily gone for good, no matter how final that resignation might feel to a manager on the day it actually happens. Some of the strongest, fastest onboarding hires available to any business are people who once left for genuinely good reasons and would happily return if the right opportunity and the right approach came along at precisely the right time.
Why Some Companies Get This Wrong
Businesses that treat a resignation as a purely negative event tend to close the door far too quickly on a relationship that could have easily continued. Sometimes this happens because a departure feels personal, even when the underlying reason was entirely reasonable, such as a partner relocating or a genuinely rare opportunity elsewhere. Other times, it simply reflects a lack of process, no clear plan for staying in touch, no natural moment to check in later, and no genuine expectation that the relationship might ever matter again. Small, deliberate changes to how an exit is handled can prevent this door from closing unnecessarily.
The Quiet Value of Staying in Touch
Former employees already understand a company’s culture, systems, and unwritten expectations, meaning they require considerably less onboarding time than someone starting completely from scratch. Many also left on good terms, having simply pursued a different opportunity rather than out of any deeper dissatisfaction, which makes them naturally receptive to a respectful, well-timed conversation about returning to a team they already understand.
What a Returning Employee Actually Brings
Someone returning after gaining fresh experience elsewhere often brings back genuinely new skills and outside perspective, layered on top of institutional knowledge they never fully lost in the first place. Jenny Barbour treats this combination as a genuine asset rather than an afterthought, since it is remarkably difficult to replicate through external hiring alone, however talented a completely new candidate might otherwise be on paper.
Keeping the Door Respectfully Open
Businesses focused on software development recruitment increasingly encourage maintaining genuine, respectful relationships with departing staff, treating every exit as a potential future return rather than a permanent goodbye. A warm, professional farewell process, paired with the occasional friendly check-in down the track, keeps that door meaningfully open without ever feeling pushy or presumptuous to the person who has already moved on with their career.
Building a Genuine Alumni Network
Companies that treat former employees as an ongoing talent pool, rather than forgetting about them the moment they walk out the door, often find a reliable and surprisingly efficient source of future hires hiding in plain sight. A structured alumni network, even a fairly informal one built around occasional friendly contact, can quietly become one of the most valuable recruiting channels a business has ever had quiet access to, often costing far less than any external advertising campaign ever could.
Writing off a former employee permanently means closing a door that, with a little patience and genuine goodwill, frequently turns out to be well worth reopening some months or even years down the track.
