Once only heard of in the academic world, alumni programs are becoming a common feature of the corporate sector. These alumni networks are known as corporate alumni programs, allowing businesses to maintain ties with their most valued ex-employees.
But how do you create a corporate alumni program that benefits your former employees and current corporate community? Find out how to do this in eight easy steps, in this guide to designing corporate alumni programs.
What is a corporate alumni program?
Corporate alumni programs are corporate community networks that organizations create to maintain lifelong relationships with their former employees, particularly executives. They are similar to the alumni associations of academic institutions, but designed for the corporate space.
Corporate alumni networks allow former employees to stay in touch with their former employers and one another. The ex-employees enjoy a wide range of benefits from participating, like fellowship and business advice, networking opportunities, and even job referrals.
But they are not the only ones to benefit from these programs. The organization they once worked for also stands to gain from alumni program participation.
Benefits of corporate alumni programs for your organization
These are the top four benefits of corporate alumni programs.
Recruitment and talent acquisition
One of the top reasons why alumni are important to your organization is the big boost they give to your recruitment and talent acquisition efforts.
Often, the ideal candidate for a top job vacancy is a former employee. Whether you’re actively involved in succession planning, or just looking to fill a middle management role, your corporate alumni may well be the solution. Such boomerang hires are becoming increasingly common.
Brand advocacy and reputation building
An alumni network offers your organization brand advocacy opportunities and the possibility of building a more positive brand reputation.
Your current and former employees all play a role in building your employer’s brand and reputation. Employee engagement is a big part of this. Engage your alumni too, and you have an even wider network of brand ambassadors to tap into.
Business development and networking opportunities
Networking allows you to develop your business and seek out profitable partnerships. A successful corporate alumni network makes that a whole lot easier.
After leaving your organization, most of those former employees and colleagues will have joined other organizations. The professional contacts they have made could make all the difference to your development and expansion plans. Networking with them opens the door to these possibilities.
Knowledge sharing and continuous learning
A culture of knowledge sharing and continuous learning is the key to business growth. An alumni network is the ideal platform for these activities.
Your corporate alumni won’t have just made new professional connections after leaving your employ. They will have gained more experience, acquired new expertise, and perhaps even earned new qualifications. This makes them suitable mentors for your current employees.
How to design effective corporate alumni programs in 8 steps
Creating alumni programs is easier than you might think. Just follow our simple steps to design your own corporate alumni program.
1. Set clear objectives
The first step is to set clear objectives and goals for your alumni program. What do you hope to achieve with the program? Asking yourself these questions will help you to identify the ideal candidates for your corporate alumni network in Step 2.
List what you wish to do with the program, and you’ll have a good idea of the technical tools you’ll need to make it a reality. It will help you in your choice of platform in Step 3.
2. Identify your target audience
Identify your alumni community. These are the employees and colleagues who, although no longer working at your company, were valuable to it in the past. Whatever made them an asset before, will still be there.
This could be because of their skill sets and expertise, or their work experience. It could be due to their work ethics, values, team-player attitude, or general demeanor. Identify the alumni who will continue to make a difference to your organization.
3. Invest in a corporate community platform
The time has arrived to invest in a community platform.
Choose software with features that will help you to manage, grow, and nurture your corporate alumni community. There are many such software options on the market. But the one most leading organizations trust for their alumni programs is Aluminate for Enterprise.
The Aluminate platform is the world’s most customizable community platform, adapting to different work environments. It can be used as an alumni network, an enterprise social network, or both. It has the features you need to make the most of whatever you choose to do with your corporate community.
These are some of the features you will enjoy on the Aluminate platform:
- A digital dashboard that keeps your alumni informed and engaged, with posts that speak to their specific interests.
- The Groups module allows you to group your corporate community into alumni and current employees, or segment those audiences further, according to the interests that bind them.
- With the mentor-matching feature, prospective mentors and mentees can easily find one another. This puts knowledge-sharing and support in their hands.
- You don’t have to worry about missing any important information about your alumni, either. The social data sync feature lets you stay abreast of any changes to your social data.
4. Develop a communication strategy
Develop a communication strategy that allows you to easily reach out to alumni and inform them about important developments or upcoming events. You can also post such announcements on the digital dashboard like the one mentioned above.
5. Create value-added content and activities
Create value-added content and activities to engage alumni and encourage active participation in the program. By segmenting your alumni audience into groups, you can more easily target them with the most relevant content.
Offer exclusive industry insights and trend reports to keep your corporate alumni informed and ahead in their careers. You can also provide access to professional development webinars and networking events to foster continuous growth and valuable connections within the alumni community.
6. Leverage data and insights to improve your strategy
Leverage data and insights to improve your alumni engagement strategy.
If you’ve chosen your platform wisely, you’ll be able to easily monitor your program’s progress, and make any changes necessary. Aluminate for Enterprise is the most customizable online community platform on the market. This means you can continuously adapt it to suit your unique needs.
7. Foster two-way engagement
Foster two-way engagement by inviting former employees to give you feedback about the program. They may have valuable insights into where it could improve.
Remember, you want your alumni to stay active on the network. Give them the freedom to choose how they want to participate, and encourage them to communicate with you. This will show them you value their opinions and judgment, and keep them feeling like part of your professional community.
8. Measure and optimize your corporate alumni network regularly
Keep an eye on key metrics such as alumni engagement rates, boomerang hire rates, and business development outcomes that follow networking events.
These will indicate how effective your current alumni strategies are. They will also highlight any areas that need attention. An alumni program is rarely perfect from the start. It takes continuous work to keep it productive. But with time, you’ll find the right strategy for your unique corporate community.
Design your ideal corporate alumni program with Aluminate for Enterprise
Alumni programs offer benefits to both the alumni themselves and the organizations that unite them.
Your corporate alumni will enjoy the fellowship, networking, and new possibilities that participation in an alumni program can bring. And they will continue to offer you value as brand advocates, catalysts for innovative business developments, donors, or wise mentors. They may even return to fill new roles.
But to enjoy these benefits, you need the right platform. One with the dynamic features that turn your network of former employees into a thriving corporate alumni community. Aluminate for Enterprise is the alumni software solution you can rely on.
Request a demo today.
