John Wakeford of Hitchenor Wakeford, the executive search group, warns:

Colleagues will question your loyalty if you have already left once … Also, businesses change quickly and more often than not it will be a completely different organisation from the one you left.

Other reasons not to return to a former employer include:

- Loss of face – there is often a perception of ‘not being able to cut it elsewhere’;

- concerns about the reasons you left in the first place.  Have those really been resolved?

Stephen Seymour of HR consultancy The Urquhart Partnership suggests you should catch up with former colleagues to informally assess what shape the business is in.  He adds:

Treat your new job in your old workplace as a new challenge and don’t slip back into old habits and familiarity straightaway. This is your chance to make, not a first impression, but a lasting one so work hard in your new role and redevelop a bond with your new work colleagues.

When all said and done, how many returning execs have managed to pull off a Steve Jobs?  Not many.  Proceed with caution is clearly wise advice.

For over 22 years the awards have celebrated businesses and individuals who have demonstrated outstanding success as a result of investment in training.

Entry forms are available online at www.nationaltrainingawards.com and the closing date is Friday 25 April 2008.

Nearly two thirds of managers (63%) say they have very little time to think and just over half (53%) find it hard to put aside time for any strategic planning.

As if the failure to plan for the longer term isn’t worrying enough, the completion of day-to-day tasks is also in jeopardy.  Daily distractions mean that 71% admit that finishing tasks is a battle with 50% holding ‘meeting overload’ and preparation to blame for this. 

The report also raises concerns about the importance attached to managing staff effectively.  Despite 81% of organisations struggling to recruit the best candidates, only 1 in 3 of the 1,175 respondents to the survey claim that internal talent management is important to their employer.

The independent survey of employees, employers and third parties who had made use of the Acas help line during 2006 found that the service had helped avert as many as 16,000 employment tribunals.  With figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development estimating an average cost to employers of £7,484 for each tribunal, the saving to business of avoiding this number of tribunals could be as much as £120 million.

The survey showed that almost a quarter (23%) of employees had been considering making an employment tribunal claim before calling, but of this percentage, almost a third (30%) decided against pursuing a claim as a result of the information provided.

In addition, almost half of the employers who responded said that their call to the help line had prompted them to update or improve existing policies at their workplace, and 45% reported that their call had motivated them to implement new policies.

Any business that has experienced an employment tribunal will know how stressful, time-consuming and potentially costly it can be.  Acas is therefore encouraging businesses to take a prevention rather than cure approach, by identifying HR issues early and acting more swiftly to diffuse potentially negative situations.