Analyzing The Role of Boomerang Employees in The Beauty and Wellness Industry

Abstract

Boomerang employees are individuals who leave an organization and later return to it. The phenomenon has become increasingly relevant as careers have grown more mobile and organizations increasingly recognize former employees as part of a wider talent pool. This article examines the role of boomerang employees in the beauty and wellness industry through an extended literature review and a practical human-resource framework. The literature indicates that returning employees can possess a distinctive combination of organization-specific knowledge and experience gained outside the organization, which may support faster coordination, customer continuity and knowledge transfer. At the same time, published studies do not establish that boomerang employees are universally superior to internal or external hires. Their outcomes depend on the reason for departure, previous performance, external learning, organizational fit, reintegration and expectations after re-entry. The article connects this literature with the Indian beauty and wellness sector, where a 2023 skill-gap study projected employment of approximately 15.8 million people in 2024, 20.3 million in 2027 and 26.3 million in 2030. A Boomerang Rehire Suitability Model (BRSM) comprising eight assessment dimensions is proposed. Because this article does not contain primary employee-level data, no artificial model-accuracy percentage is claimed; instead, a complete validation framework using accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score and longitudinal retention is presented. The study concludes that boomerang employment can be treated as a strategic talent-management option when it is supported by evidence-based assessment and structured reintegration.