Companies seeking laid-off workers back face a gender gap in willingness to return. A Zety survey found 39 percent of women would work for their former employer again, compared with 53 percent of men.
The employment platform surveyed 1,000 workers laid off within the past two years. Across all respondents, 46 percent said they would return despite having recently lost their jobs.
Employers Want Laid-Off Workers Back
A growing number of companies that cut headcounts over the last couple of years are hiring former workers again. These returning staff members are sometimes called “boomerang employees,” according to Inc.’s survey coverage.
Some employers are calling back workers after artificial intelligence task automation or other decisions left businesses insufficiently staffed. The survey suggests those recruitment efforts meet different responses from women and men.
The reported willingness to return differed by 14 points between women and men. Inc. connects women’s stronger reluctance partly to how employers treated them during dismissal.
The survey concerns recently laid-off workers, rather than employees who voluntarily left their jobs. Its return-to-work question asked whether respondents would work for their former employer again.
That distinction places the findings in the context of employers trying to rebuild staffing after cuts. The responses describe willingness to return, rather than the number who actually accepted another job.
Women More Often Reported Unfair Treatment
Around 61 percent of women regarded neither the reasons given for their layoffs nor the conditions as even-handed and honest. The corresponding figure among men was 56 percent.
Those responses concern workers’ perceptions of their dismissal. They do not establish that every respondent experienced the same circumstances, even when cuts affected a whole company.
“Layoffs may be company-wide decisions, but employees don’t necessarily experience their effects the same way,” a Zety report on the findings noted.
The report continued: “The gaps between men and women add another dimension to understanding what the process looks like at an individual level.”
For businesses seeking laid-off workers back, the findings place treatment during departure alongside recruitment needs. Inc. says employers may want to consider these differences to avoid future recruitment difficulties.
Her Forward’s related coverage examines support for women returning to work. That story concerns a separate initiative, rather than the employers or respondents in this survey.
Severance Was Missing For Most Women Surveyed
Inc. describes the absence of severance as a lack of support from employers eliminating jobs. That experience affected most respondents of both genders, with women reporting it more frequently than men in the survey.
The survey also found 66 percent of women received no severance when their employers eliminated their jobs. Among men, 60 percent reported receiving no severance.
Inc. identifies that lack of support as another consideration shaping reluctance to return. The findings therefore cover both respondents’ views of fairness and the support received during layoffs.
Women were less willing than men to return, more likely to describe unfair treatment, and more likely to report no severance. Each measure addresses a different part of the experience.
Related reporting considers workplace support for women and women leaving established businesses. Those articles describe different settings and do not supply additional findings about Zety’s respondents.
Inc. also reports that several studies in recent years found women faced considerably higher risks when headcount cuts occurred. It describes those broader employment risks as another part of women’s experience beyond the conditions of their most recent layoffs.
Companies seeking laid-off workers back are approaching people who already experienced a dismissal there. Zety’s findings point employers toward the conditions of that departure when considering another recruitment attempt.
Frequently asked questions
How many laid-off workers did Zety survey?
Zety surveyed 1,000 workers who had been laid off within the past two years.
How willing were women to return to former employers?
The survey found 39 percent of women would return, compared with 53 percent of men.
What did respondents say about severance payments?
No severance was reported by 66 percent of women and 60 percent of men surveyed.
What did the survey find about perceived fairness?
Around 61 percent of women and 56 percent of men regarded neither their layoff reasons nor conditions as even-handed and honest.
