Hire Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Alumni. Ambassadors. Advocates. These are some of the words that you can use to describe people who once worked at your company-and who still work for your company. Laurie Dreyer-Hadley, 37, vice president of human resources at Gensler, wants to add another term to your vocabulary: "boomerang rate." She defines it as the percentage of your current employees who have returned to your company after spending some time away.

"Boomerangs are our most loyal employees," says Dreyer-Hadley. "They've inspected the grass on the other side of the fence, and found it not so green."

Gensler's current boomerang rate is a remarkable 12%. Dreyer-Hadley says the presence of these once-and-current employees has helped to stabilize the firm-even as it has more than doubled in size, to 1,400 people, over the past three years. In 1997, gross revenues were $170 million, up by more than 30% from 1996. With offices in 16 cities around the world, Gensler services a blue-chip client list that includes General Motors, Federal Express, the Gap, and Xerox. "Boomerangs understand and appreciate the environment here," Dreyer-Hadley says. "And when they return, they become the standard-bearers for our culture."

Bruce Campbell, 54, now a vice president in Gensler's Los Angeles office, was the firm's first designated boomerang. He left in 1979 to join a friend in a business that designed small residential and commercial projects. Eventually, though, he realized that he missed the resources of a larger organization and the challenges of working on a large scale.

So in 1981, he returned to Gensler. "I discovered that I loved being a player on a large team," Campbell says. "The time away helped me figure out what I liked best about this profession."

Shortly after Campbell's return, at an office Christmas party, Gensler employees participated in an anonymous gift exchange. A new employee drew Campbell's name from a hat. After learning that Campbell had worked for the firm before, the newcomer gave him a boomerang; painted on it were the dates of Campbell's first tenure at Gensler-and the date of his return.

"I hung it up on my wall," recalls Campbell. "And I liked it so much that when others in our Los Angeles office would leave and then come back, I'd get them boomerangs. Eventually, when people would leave, they'd often say, "Maybe I'll be a boomerang someday." Then [Gensler President] Ed Friedrichs suggested that we give out boomerangs nationwide. Today we do it worldwide."

Former employees who return to Gensler now get an official company boomerang as well as a letter from Campbell, whose signature identifies him as "President of the Gensler Boomerang Club." The letter reads: "All Gensler Boomerangs enjoy a very special relationship with each other and with the firm. They're our prodigals returned, the old dogs who teach all the tricks to the new pups, the elite corps that we rely on and are delighted to welcome back. This boomerang is a token of our thanks-a frivolous reminder of the serious value we place on our association."

By embracing its boomerangs, Gensler manages to solve a growing problem-one that involves the increasingly difficult arithmetic of talent. "There are only so many good people out there," Arthur Gensler says. "If you cross off the ones who have already worked for you-well, that's very limiting."

But there are other benefits as well. Because boomerangs have done a previous tour of duty with the firm, they can hit the ground running when they return. "My time gets freed up when we bring in boomerangs," says R. K. Stewart. "I don't have to spend much time articulating the process to them. We can focus on content. Boomerangs understand the value we place on sharing information. They understand that we emphasize client service rather than the ego of the designer. They also understand more mundane things like paychecks, policies about continuing education, and time slips. There's very little ramp-up time."

Boomerangs also bring a wealth of new ideas to Gensler. "They keep our culture from getting stale," says Stewart. "They promote cross-pollination, introducing us to new building materials, new contractors, new processes." As an example, Stewart cites an office assistant who left Gensler, got an architecture degree during her eight-year absence, and then returned to the firm, where she now manages multimillion-dollar projects.

"To embrace the boomerang mentality, you need a certain amount of confidence," concludes Stewart. "You need to feel that people are going to want to come back. Sure, the organization is hurt when somebody leaves. But the joke here is 'You'll be back; we'll just let someone else use your desk for a while?' This isn't 'Goodbye.' It's just 'See you later.'"

Scott Kirsner kirsner@worldnet.att.net, a Boston-based business and technology writer, contributes regularly to Fast Company.