With the BBC recently reporting UK job vacancies are at a record high, could an active corporate alumni group help your organisation avoid a recruitment crisis?
The UK workforce is on the move: where some people are leaving their posts to fulfil Lockdown conceived ambitions, others are voting with their feet and moving to those organisations that allow them to maintain a good work/ life balance.
Of course, there are plenty of other reasons that job vacancies rose to 1.7 million in the three months to October, with Health and Hospitality sectors hit hardest due to a combination of the Brexit / Covid fallout.
But rather than collectively sighing at this inevitable outcome, let’s focus on solutions! Namely, corporate alumni groups and the advantages in investing in this element of the employee journey:
1. Keeping recruitment costs down: let’s talk about ‘boomerang employees’ – those people who leave but return to take on another role. Boomerang employees make up 10-20% of annual recruitments – but there’s no reason this figure shouldn’t be higher. This group immediately operate at increased productivity as they already ‘know’ the organisation and are usually happier in the workplace than brand new recruits.
Additionally, former employees offer an organisation additional capacity – senior or pensioned employees or those who now work in freelance roles – can fulfil project or short-term roles, utilising their extensive experience without a lengthy induction period.
And finally, even if the job isn’t right for a former employee – they may be able to recommend someone who would be a perfect fit – saving costly recruitment charges.
2. Accessing talent and experience of former employees: it’s likely that former employees are a specialist in an area pertaining to your organisation or field. They may leave for a role with a competitor or associated organisation and therefore offer opportunities to increase your networks, organisational knowledge, or expertise. They could be approached to evaluate innovative ideas and are likely to give open and honest feedback. Creating a dialogue with your alumni is a fantastic, low-cost way to increase organisational knowledge and to get much needed outside perspective.
3. Raising brand awareness: in the same way that a university with a strong alumni network (think Harvard) is an attractive prospect for a student, being part of an established, active, and even prestigious corporate alumni group is a draw for an employee. And an engaged former employee is more likely to continue to promote, volunteer or fundraise for an organisation that continues to proactively engage them and seek a two-way dialogue.
But if companies that invest in a meaningful lifelong employee journey consistently outperform those that don’t, why are so many alumni engagement programmes limited to ad hoc email communications of company updates, personnel changes, and obituaries? What are the alternatives?
Many former employees would like to continue to enjoy the networks in which they played a part whilst employed by an organisation – social clubs, sporting activities and even training opportunities. And university networks like Harvard’s demonstrate that employees would also relish the chance to connect across their network.
Dementia charity Alzheimer’s Society is taking steps to develop an alumni platform that addresses these areas. They are trialling new social connection platform, King Prawn to re-connect their alumni. Whilst the trial is in its infancy, alumni members have made initial first connections with positive results. Former Alzheimer’s Society employee Nikki D explains,
‘It has been great to reconnect with colleagues with whom I worked many years ago. Our paths have gone in varied directions, but we still have common values and have developed similar ways of working even though we are in different worlds now. It was great to hear about other experiences and I’ve taken away some nice bits of learning. The experience has definitely made me feel more engaged with the organisation and I’m looking forward to my next connection!’
