Who goes around - Comes around

When I introduce the idea of Employee Alumni programs, its often met with raised eyebrows. I was just as baffled when I heard of them too! Not only have I come around to the idea, but I also genuinely believe they will be a key factor for success in talent acquisition as trends we are currently facing, continue.

Broadly speaking, an alumni program is a set of strategies aimed at ex-employees, with a view of keeping them engaged with your business. The idea is that they form a key part of your talent pool for your future hiring efforts, your knowledge base for L&D, and your customer database for Sales and Marketing.

The mindset shift is in how we see the exit of an employee. Rather than viewing it as the end of an employment relationship, it is the opportunity to see it as a change of state in that same relationship, revealing more opportunities to add and extract value within those connections.

Some trends

1. The workforce is more transient and upwardly mobile than ever before, with as much as 20% of the workforce changing roles every year. We are more likely to change jobs than our parents, and companies expect this.

2. While training is better than ever, and transferrable skills are more clearly defined, there is still a huge amount of institutional knowledge that leaves with your staff. This becomes truer as we shift away from manual transactional work, towards knowledge-based work.

3. The steady supply of talent has been disrupted in New Zealand, which is having a massive effect on the talent pipeline. You might need to think again about hiring an intermediate level employee with a couple of years of experience. A huge portion of this group of high growth employees had their career plans disrupted in the last 18 months, so you may be surprised to find your plans have been thwarted when looking for talent with recent experience.

Some ideas

1. Keep a version of staff benefits active for ex-employees, especially referral bonuses.

2. Consider regular check-ins, communications and offers for them.

3. Many companies host events and offer extra benefits to those engaging in the events .

4. Exit interviews are a great opportunity to set the employment relationship up for its next stage of engagement. Explore what their future goals are, and how you can continue to support them.

Is it worth it? I have suggested some benefits below:

• Better value from professional development. You can clip the ticket twice on developed employees who work for you twice.

• Better candidate choice. If you can shore up your candidate pool with qualified candidates who are already vetted, and you know are a great culture fit, why wouldn’t you?

• It’s an opportunity to position your organisation as a thought leader, benefiting from the influence and ideas of your staff, even once they’ve left.

• Business development opportunities often arise from these conversations too. What better way to transition a former employee to a customer than through a genuine connection based on generosity.

• We know the incredible role that brand advocates play in gaining trust and building credibility with prospective clients/customers. An alumni program can create engaged, reputable brand ambassadors for the long term.

Whether you want to dip your toe in or go for the running cannonball, having a strategy to deal with the upcoming talent challenges will be critical. Setting your company apart in the competitive landscape will be more important than ever, do you have what it takes?