The occurrence of boomerang hiring in which employees are rehired by firms in which they previously left willingly has gained significantly more prominence in business circles in the last ten years due to a variety of factors including labor market conditions, escalating cost of recruiting, and social change regarding movement from one job to another. Nevertheless, there is still relatively inconclusive literature on whether boomerang hires are a more advantageous route of recruiting talent compared to regular external recruits. The current study aims to fill this gap by undertaking an extensive mixed methods study involving cross sectional survey of 1,248 employees working at 82 corporate organizations in five countries, longitudinal three year performance evaluation of 618 boomerang and external recruits, interviews with 46 human resource managers and returning employees, and analysis of 58 empirical studies conducted between 2010 and 2024. Quantitative results show that boomerangs score higher than external new hires in terms of productivity, managerial evaluations, and 24-month retention rates, reaching their productive capacity much faster and at a more efficient onboarding process expense, although underperforming tenured workers on virtually all accounts. Sector-specific analysis shows that technology and financial service companies enjoy the highest performance premiums for bringing back boomerangs, whereas the benefit declines when technical skills update is necessary for the job. The qualitative results have revealed five pathways of translating organizational knowledge into performance gains for boomerangs, as well as three risk factors inherent to such a hiring practice, which include role regression assumptions and social network re-integration problems. A Boomerang Talent Strategy Framework is suggested based on three core elements of re-hiring architecture: alumni management, structured reentry process, and performance differentiators audit.