The Boomerang Effect

The Boomerang Effect

Returning Team Members at Encompass

At Encompass we’ve always been pretty honest and direct about our culture. We have three values - Go Big, Figure it Out, and Use the Team. That should tell you something! Not everyone will understand or appreciate our culture–but those who do, typically love it. Maybe that’s why our average tenure far exceeds that of most tech companies.

Though we hire people all throughout the life cycle of their careers, we hire many people relatively early in their careers. They know that when they join us, they’ll be given opportunities to learn, grow and potentially step into leadership roles earlier than they might elsewhere. It’s also no secret that we work hard to support our customers, expand our product, and genuinely like working with each other.

One thing we realized early on is that motivated, driven employees–exactly our favorite kind of people–are always looking for new opportunities and more growth. We endeavor to provide those opportunities here with promotions, challenging projects, and new rungs on our career ladders. Sometimes though, the next opportunity for an amazing employee is outside our door. A key tenet of our culture has been supporting our colleagues as they grow and making sure our paths continue to cross in meaningful ways. This manifests itself in champagne toasts to wish departing employees well as they take their career journey outside Encompass. It shows up in Encompass alumni that join us for holiday parties and summer celebrations. It shows up in how we maintain meaningful connections, even after they’ve moved onto other things.

But even better is when that next opportunity leads incredible people BACK to Encompass. We love to welcome back high-performing employees, who we affectionately refer to as “boomerangs.” Sometimes they’ve grown in ways that create new opportunities at Encompass. Sometimes we’ve grown and it’s created better opportunities for them with us. Sometimes the grass wasn’t really greener. For whatever reasons, the last year has been a banner year of “boomerang” employees who have explored other opportunities and returned home to Encompass.

It’s reaffirming to hear why these people chose to take their next career step with Encompass again. One returning employee shared, “For better or worse, working at Encompass was a much more engaging job than what I left to do...I like the mental stimulation and challenges that the job presents and it was exciting to get back into it.” Similarly a boomerang manager shared, “I was getting bored solving the same problems over again. Encompass has new exciting challenges to work through…I’m loving it.” Another recent returnee says, “The number one thing that brought me back to Encompass is the people. After spending 5 years with Encompass in 2015-2020, I had developed some great relationships with my colleagues, and our customers, and really missed working with many of them. The amount of talent at Encompass is amazing, and I truly believe in order to better yourself, you need to surround yourself with awesome people.”

The boomerang effect is beneficial to both sides of the employee - employer relationship. As an employer we keep the bridges intact, the door open–all the cliches flowing but it works. Having an employee choose to come back is an infusion of positive energy, a chance to ramp up quickly with full context and job ready skills, and it makes everyone more confident in their career choices. From the employee standpoint, employees are more likely to stay when they know there are options and they aren’t trapped; they know they aren’t burning bridges by trying something new–they are supported in their growth no matter where or what that looks like.

Boomeranging isn’t for everyone–we are just as selective on rehiring as we are on initial hiring and we expect a returning employee to bring new insights and perspectives and ideas to the table. But when it works it is a boost to productivity, morale, and cohesion. Welcome back to Bobby L., Barry VB., Darren M., Mike W. Meghan B., Alan S., Anthony R. , Casey S. and Brad R. we are looking forward to 2022 together with you on the team!