Corporate Alumni Management – Building Lifelong Relationships for Mutual Success

• Corporate alumni management is the process of engaging with former employees of a company to maintain relationships, build a sense of community, and leverage their expertise and networks for business benefits.
• Corporate alumni can include current employees, ex-employees who have recently moved on to other companies and partners, or built their own businesses, as well as retirees.

• Companies can benefit from alumni networks in a variety of ways, including accessing talent pools, building brand advocacy, generating referrals, gaining insight into industry trends, and expanding business opportunities.
• Corporate alumni can serve as a valuable talent pool to attract and rehire former employees who are familiar with the company culture and values. Such "Boomerang Hires" can save significant recruiting costs (e.g., headhunter fees) and reduce both time-to-hire as well onboarding time. Not only could ex-colleagues possibly return one day, their personal recommendations and referrals can lead to high-quality hires too.
• Engaged alumni act as brand ambassadors evangelizing your product and employer brand. They oftentimes are able to drive business opportunities back to their former employer, especially if they remain in your industry's ecosystem of clients and partners.
• Corporate alumni management can even help companies improve employee retention by elevating the employee experience.
• Alumni can also provide valuable insight to industry trends and technology that can help the company stay competitive.
• Some of the most successful corporate alumni networks invite not only their "good leavers" and retirees, but also current employees, creating a family-like community experience. We love seeing claims like "Once a partner, always a partner" (from the Starbucks Alumni Community). This reflects our own believe that lifelong relationships are the foundation for mutual success!

• Managing a corporate alumni network involves creating and maintaining a database of former employees, regularly communicating with them through various channels, providing opportunities for networking and professional development, and tracking the ROI of alumni engagement.
• The first step in managing a corporate alumni network is to identify and gather information on former employees. This includes their contact information, location, job title, and current employment status.
• Once the database is established, companies can begin communicating with alumni through newsletters, social media groups, and events.
• Providing opportunities for networking and professional development is also important, as it helps alumni stay connected and engaged with the company.

Some best practices for corporate alumni management include:

• having a dedicated alumni manager
• organizing regular events
• ensuring a robust database with good data quality and regular updates
• using a professional alumni management software with login options for alumni to update their profiles and consume exclusive content
• providing ongoing communication with engagement opportunities
• offering exclusive perks for community members,
• maintaining a dedicated job board with filters or matching algorithms within the alumni platform
• promoting mentorship opportunities
• ...and more

• Companies can engage an alumni network by sending regular newsletters, organizing alumni events, offering professional development opportunities, providing networking opportunities, and creating alumni-exclusive social social groups.
• Alumni newsletters can provide updates on members, the company's development and management team, and industry trends. Alumni stories are some of the most content in a corporate alumni program because they connect people and speak to the natural human curiosity.
• Create alumni-specific social media content that encourages alumni to utilize a state-of-the-art online platform that inspires them to exchange knowledge and ideas which might spark innovation.
• Engage corporate alumni through events. This is a best practice and a great option for both the company and its alumni to network and learn about new developments in the industry.
• Offer professional development opportunities such as providing access to training or certification programs for members of specific groups.

• Some successful corporate alumni management programs include those of Accenture, Deloitte, SAP, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Starbucks, and McKinsey & Company.
• These successful companies provide their alumni with benefits such as exclusive networking opportunities, professional development resources and knowledge-sharing opportunities, industry newsletters, virtual and in-person events around the world organized by regional groups, job referral and mentoring programs, business development opportunities, and various industry-specific perks and benefits.

• Several tools are available to support corporate alumni management, including CRM software, social media content management tools, and dedicated alumni management software. Take this criteria into consideration when assessing an alumni management software vendor.
• CRM software, such as Salesforce or HubSpot, can help companies manage alumni databases, but they usually lack a personalized frontend for alumni to log into and use as their networking platform. They're limited in what they offer to the alumni user and what kind of insights a company can gather.
• Social media content tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer can help companies manage content for their alumni on social media, but they cannot provide a personalized alumni management experience like alumni-specific platforms.
• Dedicated alumni management software provides a suite of tools for managing alumni engagement, including a directory, email campaigns, workflows for business automation, event management features, and powerful reporting and analytics dashboards to show networkings results on management levels. Please also see our tips on how to choose an alumni management software vendor.
• The best way to manage a professional corporate alumni network in a structured way is to use dedicated alumni management software. More than 90% of programs utilize a tool, and you will not want to miss out on options for data management, intelligent algorithms to match alumni profiles with recruiting or business opportunities, communication and engagement features, business automation options through configurable workflows, and reporting dashboards with all the analytics to track alumni engagement and ROI and report to the firm's management.

• Measuring the value of corporate alumni programs involves tracking key metrics and the return on investment (ROI). These vary by industry and company size. Typically, Companies can measure the ROI of alumni management by tracking metrics such as direct rehires, candidate referrals, and alumni-assisted revenue within the client and partner ecosystem. System integrations to HR, recruiting, and CRM systems as well as setting up suitable reporting processes allows for measuring the alumni impact.
• Other metrics can include day-to-day community activity such as alumni event attendance, engagement with platform content and communications, and the number of alumni who participate in mentorship or knowledge-sharing programs.
• By tracking alumni management metrics, companies can assess the effectiveness of their alumni engagement strategies and make data-driven decisions to improve engagement and ROI.

• Some of the challenges of corporate alumni management include getting started with an alumni network, maintaining data quality, keeping alumni engaged and finding the resources to manage the program effectively, managing a large network with many data points, and tracking the ROI of the alumni program.
• Getting started and convincing internal stakeholders to get the required budget oftentimes is the biggest hurdle for people asking how to successfully launch an alumni program. Once this first step is managed, you can begin to strategize around various aspects of your program, including naming your corporate alumni program.
• Managing a very large alumni network can also be a challenge, as it requires significant resources and time to maintain relationships. Connecting HR operations and the platform directly in the offboarding process is a helpful step.
• Finally, tracking the ROI of alumni engagement can be difficult, as it may take time to see the tangible benefits of engagement, but with a powerful platform analytics it can be setup easily.

• For some professional services organizations, such as law firms and consulting firms, the benefits of managing a corporate alumni network become apparent at a relatively small firm size of just a few hundred lawyers or consultants.
• In other industries, such as manufacturing, consumer goods, or information technology, the threshold in terms of number of employees is typically higher, starting at four to five figures or more.
• We provide a ROI calculator for various industries that might help you get an estimate of how much value an alumni network could generate for your organization. Feel free to contact us for more information, and see the other question on how to measure the ROI of a corporate alumni network.

• Yes, there are legal considerations when managing any sort of personal data, including the data of former employees. Companies must handle alumni data in compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Obtaining consent, securing data storage, and allowing alumni control over their privacy settings are among the most important considerations.
• We recommend involving your legal department as early as possible in the process of planning a professional alumni network for your firm to avoid any legal roadblocks at a later stage.
• But do not worry - there are organizations of all kinds of industries and sizes managing data protection successfully. We are happy to help with industry-related personal introductions wherever it might help you make the point for your corporate alumni network.

• Neglecting corporate alumni relationships can lead to missed business opportunities, loss of valuable connections, and a negative impact on employer branding and employee morale.
• Employees leave organizations every 4.1 years (every 2.7 if they're under 35) and need to manage turnover effectively. Corporate alumni programs ensure easier inflows and outflows of talent.
• Corporate alumni programs have grown significantly in the last ten years in all industries. As this trend continues, an employer without a well organized alumni network could be perceived as outdated or not investing in the employee lifecycle. This might have a negative impact on employer branding and employee retention. We find that companies with a corporate alumni network perform better on Glassdoor reviews.