In a recent Recruiting Daily Advisor article, Paula Santonocito uncovered the untapped talent pool that corporate alumni programs can offer. While corporate alumni programs are a great way to recruit talent, the programs work better when the focus isn’t solely on recruiting, according to a new survey released by EnterpriseAlumni—a corporate alumni platform.
According to the 2018 Corporate Alumni Survey—which identifies the opportunities and value drivers that engage and create a successful corporate alumni community—recruiting and talent acquisition are generally the primary business cases cited to create and engage an alumni program; however, its true value is far wider reaching.
Survey respondents cited extended learning, mentoring, and social responsibility programs, for example, as critical to program success and profoundly beneficial to alumni. This, alongside engaging alumni for contingent work and coinnovation, help drive a rewarding and successful alumni community, uniting five generations, from graduate intern to retiree.
Amazon Warriors Help Hire More Veterans
Market leaders, like McKinsey & Company, have long led the way embedding its alumni program at the heart of its business, which has translated into a competitive advantage. According to the McKinsey alumni website, over 15,000 organizations feature previous McKinsey employees, with one in five former workers starting their own ventures and over 450 alumni leading $1 billion enterprises.
Amazon has leveraged its alumni community to amplify its Amazon Warriors affinity group to support those who have served in the military forces and help meet its commitment to hire 25,000 more veterans by 2021. These are examples of “Alumni first”; delivering relevant content and offering real professional and personal value.
The EnterpriseAlumni survey also uncovers similar findings to Josh Bersin’s “HR Technology in 2018: Ten Disruptions Ahead,” which recognized that without an alumni program, companies cannot have a complete employee engagement strategy.
Work Is More than Just Work
“As the battle for talent escalates and the way companies engage their employees continues to evolve, highlighting the importance of alumni and the value of empathy driven relationships is critical. Let talent know that your organization is not only a great place to work but also a great place to secure a lifetime of support for your professional and personal goals. Work is about more than just work,” says James Sinclair, principal of EnterpriseAlumni.
Accordingly, alumni are interested in having a relationship with their former organizations around more than “coming back to work.” More key findings include:
- Project-Based Work: Returning to a former employer to work on a specific project.
- Employee Resource Groups: Alumni want to continue supporting corporate efforts toward sustainability and value driven practices that align with personal affiliations.
- Corporate Social Responsibility: Alumni can amplify and support customer service representatives’ efforts to ensure environmental, social, and economic benefits for all.
- Joint Innovation and Partnerships: Alumni become innovators in their field and want to share this knowledge with former colleagues and peers.
In the book The Alliance, Reid Hoffman affirms these findings by sharing why creating a corporate alumni network strengthens talent brands: “Establishing a corporate alumni network, which requires relatively little investment, is the next logical step in maintaining a relationship of mutual trust, mutual investment, and mutual benefit in an era where lifetime employment is no longer the norm.”