Companies are focusing on their ex-employees (Alumni) by engaging them with the organization. We know that there are definitely benefits of doing so. Alumni can help the organization in many ways including finding new talent and branding company outside. HR plays an important role in making sure this happens. Let’s have a look at the various ways, we can engage our Alumni with the organization. Most of these suggestions do not require money but efforts and willingness to get in touch with our ex-colleagues.
Connect with them on Linkedin and Facebook
Everyone is present on social media. Linkedin and Facebook are the popular ones. You will find most of your colleagues here. You can ask your ex-colleagues to connect on your company official LinkedIn and Facebook page. Later, when you are publishing any news, updates, achievements or projects on these platforms, chances that these updates will reach to your ex-colleagues in no time are high. They can also spread the news or updates through social media. It is one of the fastest ways to share the information and make sure you are heard.
Sending them company updates through newsletter
Company’s newsletter contains all the good things happened in the organization in a particular timeframe, it could be for a month or a quarter. I suggest that a quarterly newsletter to Alumni should be good enough. This newsletter should cover activities and updates. We can also include position open in the organization and ask your alumni to share the references. This is an effective way to get references for your talent pool.
B’day and Marriage Anniversary wishes
We use to wish them on their B’day and marriage anniversary when they were part of the team. Why not now? They should feel that we still care for them and remember these happy days in their life. We should make them feel special. If you have HRIS software, this task is pretty easy. An automated email with different templates can reach to your ex-employee on these days. Make them feel that they are away but we remember them. You can be more creative with this idea. You should not limit yourself to only sending emails but more, like, sending cards or a personal call. But it all depends on how much time and money you wish to put in this program.
Inviting them on Company Annual Function
The organization does organize their annual function. We can extend the invite to our ex-colleagues. If you don’t celebrate your annual day, you can invite them to the various celebration like Diwali party or Independence day celebration. In fact, you can also think about organizing an Alumni meetup too.
Inviting them on important technical seminars
Don’t forget to keep your alumni on your guest list for such technical seminars. This is an awesome way to keep in touch with them. What can be better than meeting alumni once again? This will give you an opportunity to have some face time with your ex-colleagues. You can also think about asking them to be a speaker in your technical seminars. Make them feel that you still value their voice and knowledge.
Alumni Speaks
Like we have employee speaks where employee talks about his experience in the organization and we publish it on various social media platforms including Facebook and LinkedIn, we should also think about Alumni speak. We should ask them to share their experience with us so that we can use it for our branding. You can video shoot and publish too. I believe the impact of alumni speaks is substantial.
Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-effective-ways-engage-alumni-your-organization-govind-negi/
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