Though incredibly beneficial for the company’s recruitment practices and even the sales and closing capability, Alumni Programs are still the most underrated way of creating and maintaining relationships with your talent network. Even when researching the program through Google, there are only headlines regarding “corporate alumni programs” with no word about other companies leveraging their alumni. But why do other smaller companies neglect the benefits of maintaining relationships with former employees by building an alumni program?
Struggling to attract and hire high-quality talent, companies turn to numerous creative ways to dig out the passive talent from around the globe. But, at the same time, the same companies fail to recognize the value of talent that already knows the company, its products or services, and used to walk its office hallways — the former employees! And while big multinational organizations (such as McKinsey, Accenture, or Microsoft) recognized the benefits of creating a community of former employees, other smaller companies are still rarely focusing on similar programs.
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However, not only does this group of talent know your company, but you also know them, their skills, talents, strengths and even weaknesses. On top of that, you don’t have to be a corporation to have the right budget for forming a similar program.
So how come companies still neglect the development of Alumni Programs, and how to start changing things around to improve your recruitment?
Building relationships with former employees via Alumni Programs
It is no secret that today, people change jobs more frequently than ever before. More specifically, Tony Audino, a Founder of Microsoft Alumni Network, stated back in 2018 that “More than 20 percent of workers change roles every year” while further predicting that the amount of disruption in the workforce will only increase in the upcoming years.
And, we have to admit, he was right. The market has never been tighter and more candidate-centric than it is today. More specifically, Google reports that their Search queries for “job application” have risen by 100% since 2020.
However, The Alumni Enterprise recently reported that an astonishing 72% of past employees would return to the company they used to work for! Additionally, the same source says that 24% of employees who turnover end up regretting their decision to leave.
With that being said, creating a well functional Alumni Program to stay in touch with your former employees makes a lot of sense when attracting talent in today’s competitive job market.
Benefits of Company Alumni Program for recruitment
As the VP of Global Talent at LinkedIn, Nina McQueen said:
“Your company probably spent a lot of money recruiting talent, so don’t let those employees just walk out the door on their last day. The cost of investing in alumni is much less than you think, and the returns are much greater than you might think. The days of lifetime employment might be over, but remember, relationships will always matter.”
Building and maintaining relationships with former employees is beneficial for the company from both the HR perspective and the company’s financial aspect. Therefore, there is a range of benefits associated with the creation of the program. Here are the two major benefits of maintaining relationships with former employees and building alumni program:
- Saving time and money spent on recruitment
- A valuable source of referrals
If you want to learn more about the benefits of investing your time and resources in building Alumni Program, and how to develop one, make sure to check out the full article → Leveraging Corporate Alumni Program: The Value of Building Relationships with Former Employees