New research has identified a trend of ‘boomerang employees’ returning to previous jobs as the UK labour market stabilises – with half (47%) of people considering returning to a past role.
Conducted by YouGov on behalf of ScottishPower, the survey suggested that the grass isn’t always greener when it comes to changing jobs, with two thirds (63%) of those who regret leaving a job confessing their new role isn’t what they expected it to be.
Just over a third (34%) said they miss the people they worked with.
With a shift in attitudes to employment since the pandemic, almost a quarter (23%) of people have changed jobs in that last three years.
The research took in 2,000 UK adults during mid-May, finding that a further 28% were looking for a new challenge, as only half (52%) of Brits feel like they’re making a difference in their current job.
Sarah McNulty, HR director at ScottishPower, said: “These new findings show there’s no issue in making a comeback at an old employer - a surprising number of people are returning to their former workplace, either slotting back into their old job or using the skills they’ve picked up in the time since leaving to take on a new challenge.
“In the last three years the workplace has changed fundamentally, we now have greater flexibility in how and where we work, so it makes sense that people are looking back at old jobs with a fresh perspective.
“Priorities have also shifted, with more and more employees now seeking out roles that let them make a difference.”
ScottishPower is welcoming former employees back as part of its biggest ever recruitment drive, with up to 1,000 green jobs on offer as part of the company’s £10bn investment into the UK.
The roles range from accountants and project managers to ecologists and engineers.
One ‘boomerang employee’ who left ScottishPower to try out pastures new, before deciding to return, is former graduate trainee Lesley Henderson.
She recently re-joined ScottishPower as a senior manager after taking 12 years away from the business and stated: “It’s natural to want to try something new, particularly in the early stages of your career when you’re keen to see what else is out there.
“I left my previous role in ScottishPower’s internal audit team over a decade ago, since then, I’ve worked for a range of organisations, lived overseas and even went back to university to get my MBA.
“All of this experience allowed me to build up a range of different skills and I recently decided to put them into practice, making the move back to ScottishPower in a new strategy position.”
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