Globalization, aging workers, and the rapidly growing flexible workforce are forcing many companies to reevaluate their workforce planning strategies. Many are developing new talent acquisition and management capabilities as a result. One such innovation is building an alumni talent community.
Forward-thinking employers recognize that investing in the nurturing of long-term worker relationships through a managed reutilization program creates measurable value for the organization. The benefits are significant, including: leveraging higher quality “known” talent, significantly reduced recruiting and engagement costs, and rapid time-to-productivity.
Quite simply, technology is redefining the way we identify, attract, hire and manage flexible talent, and this is just the beginning. Let’s take a look at how one global company built their business case for launching an Alumni Talent Community.
First, there was support for the initiative at the highest levels, including the CEO. Second, they formed a small, multi-talented team of only a few people to get the initiative off the ground. This clearly helped their efficiency and focus. The team included the major internal stakeholders, so the effort had a high transparency factor and support throughout the organization from the very beginning. Finally, they also had great support from their external business parter who provided the technology platform, talent curation expertise, and a full suite of compliance and engagement solutions.
“Alumni and retirees provide a tremendous source of known talent,” the program sponsor explained. Research shows that alumni and retirees who are properly reutilized by an organization are productive faster and cost less to train, provide great referrals for additional known talent, and are excellent ambassadors for the company.
The company started with a soft launch, with community members added via an informal discovery campaign. They then sent a series of e-mails to the larger alumni and retiree groups to build interest and momentum for the program. Soon after the launch, registration numbers started to increase. A live event planned for a few months after the soft launch was the official unveiling of the company’s Alumni Talent Community.
To build momentum, the company continued reaching out to both registered and unregistered alumni with targeted messaging. Various themes were used to help “personalize” the messages and drive interest and engagement.
Besides the retiree component, the company decided to increase its global alumni database to satisfy the organization’s global needs. A steering committee was set up to lead this effort and consisted of individuals from human resources, procurement and select engagement managers, who helped align messaging so that their goals along with the overall business goals could be achieved within the program.
Today the program continues to grow in popularity and is quickly becoming an intregal part of the organization’s total talent recruitment and management strategy.
Organizations that utilize solutions like the TalentWave Talent Community platform can realize significant benefits. The main value of implementing a talent community is its power as a direct sourcing engine for curating and finding specialized contractors and consultants who are already known to the organization. However, direct sourcing is only one part of the value proposition. Our clients have also found:
- Dramatic cost savings through TalentWave’s integrated payroll and compliance services
- Happier contractors and consultants through TalentWave’s high touch contractor care program
- Much faster onboarding-to-productivity times through TalentWave Online
