A robust alumni network of your top former employees can enhance your organization’s reputation, facilitate growth, and lead to more success. But to keep your alumni network serving you well, you need to focus on corporate alumni engagement strategies.
That requires an understanding of what keeps alumni members engaged. It also means using effective alumni engagement strategies that not only increase engagement but also encourage continued participation.
Are you ready to boost your corporate alumni engagement? These are the top 10 corporate alumni engagement strategies of 2024.
1. Leverage digital platforms for networking
Before you can start implementing the right alumni engagement strategies, you need to choose the right digital platform. This makes it easier to manage alumni programs. Use it to communicate with and engage alumni, distribute crucial alumni information, and even create virtual networking possibilities.
Aluminate for Enterprise is an online platform that many leading organizations use to create a user-friendly virtual space for their alumni networks. And you can use it for your own alumni community, by customizing it to suit your needs.
Use the Aluminate platform as a member directory for your alumni network, and to build a strong online corporate community. Segment the larger alumni group into sub-groups of members with shared interests. And keep your community data accurate and up-to-date with the social data sync feature.
2. Host virtual and in-person events
One of the most popular alumni engagement strategies is, of course, to host regular alumni events. These can be in-person events such as networking sessions, industry-specific workshops, alumni reunion events, or even virtual events like webinars.
Special events like these cater to your alumni community’s needs for socializing with fellow alumni. They also open doors to the type of networking that will aid their career advancement. Provide members with these high-value social and career opportunities, and your alumni engagement is sure to increase.
3. Offer continuous learning opportunities
When you offer alumni benefits like continuous learning opportunities you will raise alumni engagement even further. Create an alumni network based on the principles of lifelong learning, with free resources including a digital repository of learning materials.
Allow your alumni to be a part of your current employee’s learning path too, as mentors. Aluminate for Enterprise is the ideal choice here too, with features that aid peer-to-peer mentoring. This is good for engaging alumni by acknowledging the value of their experience and expertise.
4. Recognize and celebrate achievements in your alumni community
One of the most effective alumni engagement strategies is recognizing and celebrating your alumni’s achievements. This strategy lets them know that they are still valued and appreciated by your organization. Create special alumni awards you can present to them at alumni events, and announce their achievements.
On the Aluminate platform, the digital dashboard is the core of your alumni program, and an excellent tool for corporate alumni engagement. Post spotlight stories celebrating milestones on your alumni network’s online message board. This will strengthen alumni relationships and boost alumni engagement.
5. Provide career advancement support
You can engage alumni by providing career advancement support and career opportunities.
There are other good reasons for providing alumni with access to job opportunities. Rehiring your corporate alumni can save you thousands on recruitment and training. Also, your former executives are often the best choice for succession planning.
The obvious place to advertise relevant job opportunities within your corporate community is on your platform’s digital dashboard.
The Aluminate platform is completely customizable, and the digital dashboard is dynamic, so you can use it to show members content that appeals to their unique interests. Job boards, career services, and career coaching—these can all be incorporated into the dashboard for your most qualified candidates.
6. Create alumni advisory boards
An advisory board is typically a group of experts who offer their expertise, insights, skills, and guidance to an organization.
In the corporate setting, alumni advisory boards help with organizing alumni events, mentorship of current employees, and improving the company’s public image.
An alumni advisory board will advise you on the best way forward for your alumni program. Board members may suggest ways to grow the community, encourage event attendance, and recommend platform changes to improve alumni engagement.
7. Maintain regular communication
One of the most important alumni engagement strategies, regardless of the size of your corporate alumni network, is to maintain regular communication. This will keep your corporate alumni connected to the company, and also to one another.
Corporate alumni networks with monthly newsletters or other regular communications experience higher alumni engagement. When you regularly reach out to your alumni and keep them informed about developments in your corporate community, they become engaged. And they stay engaged.
However, there are many ways to communicate with members, such as through social media. Aluminate’s platform is ideally suited to creating your very own enterprise social network. Keep communication varied to maintain interest, and incorporate more personalized outreach when necessary.
8. Encourage alumni to be brand ambassadors
Why is corporate alumni engagement important? It leads to continued relationships that strengthen the company’s image. It provides you with a wider talent pool from which to choose top candidates. These are just two of many reasons why alumni engagement is beneficial for your company.
However, one of the most significant alumni contributions to your organization is brand advocacy. Even though they no longer work for the company, your former employees want to feel they are still useful to you. So, make them your unofficial brand ambassadors.
You will benefit from this savvy strategy, in two very important ways: you will have more engaged alumni and you’ll have an improved brand image.
9. Involve alumni in corporate social responsibility (CSR) Initiatives
More and more companies are realizing the importance of corporate social responsibility. This is the concept that businesses should operate in a way that enhances the community. Corporate social responsibility requires a commitment to ethical business practices and philanthropic activities.
This is where your corporate alumni are invaluable. Therefore your alumni engagement strategies should include CSR initiatives that your alumni can participate in. Use your social media pages as a springboard for these activities, and you’ll boost social media engagement at the same time.
10. Measure and adapt your alumni engagement efforts
Ensure that your alumni network continues to offer both members and the company value. Continuously monitor your alumni engagement strategies. Measure their success through polls or surveys, and by examining the data analytics of your alumni network’s platform.
This strategy will allow you to adapt your corporate alumni engagement efforts and encourage ongoing engagement. With Aluminate’s engagement tracking, reporting, and analytics capabilities you can regularly review your alumni engagement levels and make any necessary changes.
Use Aluminate for Enterprise to skyrocket your alumni engagement strategy
The above engagement strategies will offer your alumni the recognition and reward they seek from alumni program membership. They are guaranteed to boost alumni engagement. But if you want to give your alumni network the foundation it needs to truly thrive, you need Aluminate for Enterprise.
Aluminate has the features you need to adapt it to your alumni community’s unique requirements. It’s also the best tool to improve and scale your alumni program alongside your company’s growth and expansion.
Need to know more? Contact us today for more information, or request a free demo.
