There are two sides to the issue of employee movement - the employer's and the employees.
Recent studies and discussions have focused on the growing trend by larger companies to pick up trained personnel from smaller firms. Sometimes, these firms are suppliers and the employee is made known to the big corporation through the interaction generated by the relationship.
On the other side, many employees are moving to the larger company for better pay, higher benefits and the opportunity to advance career-wise.
Smaller firms have long recognized this paradigm but in recent years, as larger corporations have cut staff, the problem was in abeyance.
Indeed, over the past seven years, almost all job growth has been in the small business sector.
For the first time, economists and government agencies are starting to see a new trend, with larger corporations beginning to pick up staff.
Most small businesses managers wish their employees well and move on. However, there is a big difference between a small company and a large corporation and some experts are detecting an interesting phenomenon.
Many employees want to come back.
According to the New York Times, this trend to return to a previous employer is beginning to show up with greater frequency.
Regardless of the ultimate outcome, it is important to keep a civility in the separation process.
Smaller Companies Have Options
Often, it is in the power for a smaller company to keep against a larger corporation to keep a valued employee.
The first decision the company must make is do they want to keep the employee.
Many smaller companies, with flat leadership levels often get rid of an employee the minute they hear he or she is considering leaving. This attitude often works against keeping good employees in the long run.
With greater opportunities available, this approach leaves employees with little options but to find a job, announce he or she is leaving and then getting out as quickly as possible.
By being more open, smaller companies can have a window of opportunity to make that employee change his or her mind.
What A Company Can Do
There are things a small company can do to keep an employee.
As reported in the Bergen Record, employers can restructure the position, give the individual time off to think about the change, or even enable them to telecommute.
The key, according to experts is to "make the employee feel wanted and move quickly to make that clear.
This was the advice of Leigh Branham, a human-resource consultant in Overland Park, Kan.
Others suggest making it to the departing employee that he or she can come back.
That is what is happening in a number of cases, reported to this publication.
"We told our marketing executive that she could come back when she joined a client of ours," said one distribution company executive.
"What we thought would happen did happen," he went on. "She was just not cut out for the more structured environment they had over there. When she wanted to return, we welcomed her with open arms.
Need For Care
Small firms need to be careful about such moves however, in terms of the employees that stayed behind.
One firm took back a particularly aggressive finance manager and was faced with a near-rebellion from his staff.
In this instance, there were heretofore-unknown issues involving this manager's people skills. It turned out that the reason he wanted to return was because those problems surfaced quickly at the larger corporation.
One manager reported that he was incensed that an employee went to a competitor and was doubly angered by that individual's request to return.
"If they go to a competitor, it is important to make it clear, that a return path is not open to them," said one expert.
With the employment landscape changing, small firms need to be flexible, careful and more open with their employees.