Long story short: Want to hire in 2022? Here’s how to do it

As hiring managers stare down the barrel at an unprecedented number of job openings, many are reaching out to former employees who may have been laid off during COVID or left voluntarily as a way to fill employment gaps now. These boomerang employees can be an asset — if the company is willing to do the work to lure them back.

“There is a big emphasis on the employee experience, of being a values-driven, motivated company who is making hard decisions for the right reasons, and employees remember that,” says Elaine Yang, who leads the human resource business partner team at Lever, a recruiting software platform. “If there’s an employer that they’ve worked with in the past, who does embody that and has raised the bar in that regard, we have seen employees come back.”