The secret to a successful alumni program is engagement. We've compiled the best corporate alumni engagement strategies that are proven to be successful.
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Building lifelong relationships with former employees has a significant impact on various aspects of today's business, including talent acquisition, employer branding, and overall company growth.
And that makes the role of corporate alumni relations more vital than ever. Companies are looking for ways to improve their alumni communications to further benefit their recruitment, retention and business development efforts.
Improving alumni communications requires a strong corporate alumni engagement strategy. A good engagement strategy stems from understanding who your former employees are and how the network can benefit them the most.
This article outlines the 10 best practices to help your organization harness the full potential of its alumni networks. With these practices, you'll be well on your way to excelling in corporate alumni engagement.
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Corporate alumni networks can only be successful if they are engaging alumni. Engagement involves maintaining strong connections with former employees, recognizing them as an invaluable resource even after they've moved on from the organization. The real beauty of this practice lies in its ability to save companies both time and money.
By nurturing alumni relationships, businesses can tap into a pool of highly experienced, familiar faces, facilitating quicker rehiring when positions open up. They also establish a direct channel for alumni to refer qualified candidates for job openings, new business opportunities, and partnerships. The recruitment and business development opportunities that can be acquired through building a formal corporate alumni program are endless.
The gains for organizations and their employees go beyond recruitment. Investing in corporate alumni programs offers many other benefits – all of which drive engagement and improve employee retention – including:
Active and meaningful engagement in corporate alumni networks provides mutual benefits for both organizations and alumni network members. Companies benefit from a talent pipeline of known and trusted individuals, ensuring a smoother onboarding process and reduced recruitment costs.
Alumni, in turn, gain access to a valuable professional network, mentoring opportunities, and potential job referrals. This engagement fosters a sense of belonging and a culture of lifelong learning, ultimately benefiting both parties by enhancing the organization's success and personal career development.
When establishing an alumni network, two key considerations are the alumni platform and target demographic. You want to make sure you have alumni software that enhances communication with alumni, and that you understand the target demographic you are trying to reach. Once you have these two things, you’re ready to put your corporate alumni engagement strategies into practice.
The 10 best practices that we have determined for you to succeed in corporate alumni engagement efforts are:
Your corporate alumni network shouldn’t be kept a secret. From the outset, the alumni network should be presented as a tool designed for the employee's benefit. Your employees need to know that joining your organization will have a huge positive impact on their entire careers.
When employees are familiar with the network and what past employees have gone on to achieve after leaving the organization, they will be excited to join this community when it is their turn to leave.
The most common question from your alumni that you need a clear answer to is: What’s in it for me? You need to offer alumni benefits and a clear incentive to join. You can make your network more attractive with these alumni incentives and joining initiatives.
Remember, not all your alumni fit in one box. You have hired multiple professionals for a range of different jobs, who have all moved on to different careers or retirement paths. If you create individualized experiences, that means people only see content relevant to them, and they are likely to engage.
Using features that allow you to group different professions or departments will help you to personalize the experience.
Alumni events are a key way to boost engagement. Alumni love a good catch-up and the opportunity to network, which they can do easily at events and get-togethers.
Events can range from webinars and seminars to parties, dinners, drinks, and more. Variety is best, so you can attract all your alumni based on their interests.
If your alumni program delivers content that interests them, they will engage and continue to return to the site. This could be blogs, social media posts, newsletters or videos.
One piece of content that is always a winner with alumni is alumni stories, as it's always fun to see what former colleagues are up to.
Keep track of key engagement metrics to make sure your strategy is effective. If you notice less interest in particular topics or content types, you can work to improve those content pieces or invest more time in other areas that are returning a higher success rate.
You want your alumni program to give value to former employees, which can come from knowledge and learning initiatives. This could be in the form of mentorship schemes, thought leadership pieces, interviews and the ability to communicate between fellow alumni with ease.
Support your alumni’s career growth through job boards, access to training, or learning resources. Whether they’re exploring new paths or considering a return, professional development keeps your network relevant and valuable.
Alumni networks are a chance to think beyond careers. Offer resources like mental health support, financial planning, or wellness perks. Supporting alumni as whole people fosters long-term loyalty and reflects a people-first culture.
Highlight alumni achievements, like promotions, awards, or new ventures, through your content channels or even on social media. It reinforces pride in your network and inspires both alumni and current employees.
Implementing innovative strategies to boost alumni engagement is essential if you want to gain the numerous benefits that corporate alumni networks offer.
Boosting alumni engagement creates a win-win scenario for both organizations and their valued alumni network. To highlight the benefits of effective alumni engagement, consider that boomerang hires have a “44% higher retention rate over 3 years” and “companies with a recruiting-driven Alumni Program can fill up to 20% of all open requisitions via Alumni”.
Let's look at some successful strategies for implementing alumni engagement.
Your alumni program should be updated and current, and your alumni should hear from you consistently, so you’re top of their mind when an opportunity comes up that could benefit you.
Every organization runs its alumni program differently, but we’ve found that having a designated alumni community manager helps a corporate alumni network take off. In addition, the alumni manager should have support from executives, events, marketing and HR departments.
Providing an easy way for alumni to leave feedback allows you to improve the alumni experience and create the best possible environment in which your alumni can benefit and grow.
Each of your alumni groups or demographics might have different interests, and it is your job to tailor content, events and messaging to be inclusive and relevant to all your alumni.
One significant benefit of staying in touch with alumni is the opportunity for mentorship and learning. We strongly advise against keeping your alumni separate from current employees; instead, we encourage the bond and growth opportunities between the two.
So, you understand the benefits of creating an alumni network and building an engaged alumni community around it. But how do you actually implement one?
The best way is to use alumni management software. These solutions are designed to help you design and build your network, providing you with all the tools you need to deliver a thoroughly engaging experience for your alumni.
With a dedicated alumni management software like EnterpriseAlumni, you can create and integrate a corporate alumni platform that benefits both the organization and the members.
EnterpriseAlumni offers:
You can find more details on the alumni engagement tools you should be using, such as event and group features.
When looking to the future, alumni networking will be the key to your business development and success, as companies will need to stay agile and adaptive to the latest workforce trends.
It is absolutely crucial to get your corporate alumni engagement strategy on point. If you don’t believe us, look at these employee engagement stats: “organizations with high levels of employee engagement saw a 20.1% growth in revenue over 3 years, which is 2.3 times higher than the average growth rate of 8.9%”.
So, if you have the right alumni software, resources and understanding of how important alumni actually are, you are on your way to building a successful network.
For more ideas to build a successful alumni network, read this article on managing an alumni network.
