Cultivating ready-trained talent

By VICKI JAYNE

Once the preserve of schools or universities, alumni networks are increasingly being developed by firms to keep tabs on employees who have moved on.

While some organisations, or particular people in them, are natural networkers and regard former colleagues as a sort of extended family, there's now more reason - and more effective electronic means - to formalise such ties.

In the United States where the trend is further advanced, there are even web-based service providers - such as www.corporatealumni.com - that can manage your corporate alumni network for you.

Not that it's a big deal to build those capabilities into a company website or just keep in touch by broadcast email.

Such methods don't need many resources and the benefits can be considerable.

One of the reasons KPMG has had some kind of alumni programme for nearly a decade is that loyal former employees can become good future customers.

Many end up in finance or accounting roles where they can influence the choice of financial service provider, explains KPMG partner, assurance, Chris Joyce.

"Most leave as friends of the firm and want to stay in touch, and we obviously want to stay in touch with them because they are quite a significant source of potential future work.

"They do have a sense of allegiance to the firm and if they have an opportunity to send work our way, they'll do it."

One former employee, now chief financial officer of a listed company, gave KPMG $150,000 of work.

And networking works both ways. Joyce says alumni returning to New Zealand use KPMG contacts to find work.

"We have a network of partners all with a chain of clients, so we can act as a sort of employment agency. It's all part of having relationships we want to keep."

That network is certainly worth a few lunches - and that's one way partners are encouraged to stay in touch with former colleagues.

For those who have gone further afield, there's a database of email addresses and the company produces a half-yearly magazine to keep alumni up to date with what former colleagues are doing, as well as what's happening with the company.

Joyce is a natural networker and an enthusiastic advocate of the corporate alumni concept.

The assurance or audit area tends to lose quite a few employees to the great Kiwi OE, so he started a database of former colleague back in the early 90s.

"We had an alumni directory in 1993 but the Privacy Act put a stop to that. Email has made it a lot easier and former staff think it's fantastic because they like to know where their colleagues are, what they're doing."

Some come back, and quite a few current employees are alumni from overseas branches who use KPMG's global network to move themselves around the world, says Joyce.

British research into alumni relationship management - it's even got a useful acronym, Arm - has found it not only creates new business opportunities but is an important recruitment tool.

That's because of increased demand for skilled workers and recognition that a pre-warmed seat is easier to settle back into.

It is widely accepted that today's workforce is highly mobile and job-hopping is less a sign of instability or disloyalty than a valid means of career advancement - a way to gain more skills, more responsibility or more money.

So given increased competition for talent, it makes sense to make use of old loyalties - to stay in touch with those who may one day bring all that extra experience back.

Recruiting from alumni ranks is more cost-effective than recruiting previously unknown talent: someone already familiar with an organisation's culture and systems can hit the ground running, or even sprinting, says Ernst and Young's head of HR, Richard de Haast.

"To put it bluntly, they get productive very quickly if they've had previous experience either with us or one of our overseas offices.

"I've just had someone like that join our HR department and three weeks into the job, she's not just running but sprinting because she's already up to speed with our methodology and culture."

His company has reactivated plans for a formal corporate alumni programme to strengthen links with those who have left for overseas or for new challenges.

It's looking at a generic web-based product linked to local and global sites.

"Our industry in particular can be a bit of a training ground for people who then move on, and there are opportunities in a commercial sense that may arise from staying in touch," says de Haast.

"As well, we have a core of younger people who leave to gain valuable experience overseas, and then choose to settle back here."

Similar motivations prompted the Treasury to set up an alumni programme last year.

Originally built on existing informal networks, it is now formalised through web and email links and a newsletter that will go out six to eight times a year.

"There are good strategic reasons why we wanted to be a bit more formal about it," explains HR manager Caroline Hubbard.

"It keeps a pool of potential staff and it means there are a group of people out in the broader market who are kept informed about what we're doing and are good ambassadors."

Although it's too soon to gauge the benefits, Hubbard says former Treasury folk haven't needed much encouragement to hook into the alumni network - they're keen to be kept in the loop.

Besides, she says, it's not a big investment.

"Intuition says strengthening the links is helpful whether or not it leads to re-employment.

"It's another way of reminding people that Treasury is probably a good place to be.

"It's an easy, low-cost way to maintain links - so why not do it?"

Joyce says the power of alumni should not be underestimated.

"I think [alumni relationship management] can be more powerful and effective than a lot of people give it credit for."

* vjayne@iconz.co.nz