Priority #1: Build Your Company Alumni Network
The fight for talent never wanes: in good economies or bad, the best people are always in demand. And if you are regularly mining your company alumni for new hires, you are way ahead of the pack.
Your big, medium or small company’s ability to create advocates who refer candidates, recommend you as an employer and reinforce the value of being an employee at your organization will increasingly be a strategic measure in business. In an increasingly connected world, we are all maintaining dozens of communication and information webs that we influence and which, in turn, influence us. Being present in our former employees’ information webs can be a low-effort, short-term investment that yields tremendous long-term benefits. A company alumni program is the cornerstone of these relationships.
If you’re not connected to your former employees, you’re working too hard to find new ones.
In fact, in a study by Conenza, measuring the influence of different formal, informal, owned, and platform-driven communities, people looking or being recruited for work “trust the voice of your alumni more than LinkedIn, Glassdoor, or Facebook.” Owning your own process and creating your own platform—automated or not—will be the single more important thing companies of any size can do to improve their bottom line. According to research by Boston Consulting Group, LinkedIn, and Conenza Research, a robust alumni community yields “40% higher retention, 50% more applicants, 50% savings in recruiting,” and an amazing 2.4 multiple in revenue growth.
Every company, no matter what size, should have a company alumni program they lead and actively manage. If you don’t have one, make building one a priority now.
5 Steps to Take Now To Build A Company Alumni Program
Create Private Online Company Alumni Group. Create a private online networking platform for your company alumni. If your company doesn’t have the resources to build its own, consider using Conenza or SAP’s robust platforms. Or use a Private Facebook Group since most of your alumni are probably already on Facebook. I don’t recommend LinkedIn for a corporate-run company alumni private group at this time; it’s better suited to “alumni” groups run by former employees.
Post regularly in the Online Group
If on Facebook, allow your alumni group members to post stories, questions, and events. Turn on authorization controls, and approve most posts.
Post company news, stories, and blog posts.
Post new and open positions. Offer the same or half bonus that you offer current employees recruiting to alumni. Your recruiting costs will go down.
If an alumni member achieves something of note, post that announcement with their picture.
Professional Development. Offer alumni versions of company training sessions. If you have a regular online training or information sharing session, offer a company alumni version too. If you don’t want to host a webinar or video chat, record the presentation and post the video on the online platform.
Consider creating a SlideShare channel for the alumni group and post training and industry updates there, cross-posting them into the online group.
If you have a corporate book club, offer your alumni the books at a discounted rate. At the very least share the book list and any accompanying materials.
Alumni Email Newsletter. Add your company alumni to your company’s email marketing campaign program. Create a “alumni version” of your emails and send to alumni only, and put an invitation to join the online group at the bottom of each email.
Snail mail. If your company alumni group is fewer than one hundred people and you are confident that you have accurate contact information, use regular mail once or twice a year with appropriate notes or information. Also, consider sending a birthday card to former employees during their birth month. If your company sends a holiday or end-of-the-year card, add your former employees to your mailing list. As you hear about former employees’ achievements or life milestones, send a note of congratulations. In our digital world, paper stands out, and the little bit of extra effort it takes to write a card and put it in the mail makes an impact.
Today, young employees and old plan on building careers that span functions, place, and companies. Indeed, many Millennials believe they will have five or six careers – different functions and industries – before they retire late in life. The people who you’ve hired once are your best resource for potential partners, contractors, recruiters, customers, and employees again. A company alumni program is the most important building block you can put in place to help ensure a sustainable business.
* This is adapted from Chapter 9 of The Boomerang Principle: Inspire Lifetime Loyalty From Your Employees