According to a recent study, almost half of the employees plan to stay with their employer for very little time, usually not over two years. It is observed that the company’s alumni network tends to change jobs frequently and employers must accept this fact. 

Indeed, this can be also be assumed as an opportunity for the long term. These professionals ought to develop new skills, challenge themselves, and gain insights that you were likely unable to provide. 

Meanwhile, if cultivated and appropriately engaged, your alumni can be a vital resource for qualified talent and referrals so many companies rely on these relationships. Also, 40% of people would consider returning to their previous employer. 

Indeed, creating genuine alumni engagement means creating a thriving, pre-qualified pipeline of talent for an organization. 

A pool of talent that hires quicker performs better and, once they come back, tend to stay on for the long term. As one might imagine, having a strong alumni communication and engagement strategy and a platform that supports it is vital for ensuring all parties’ success. 

We have underlined below the best techniques to engage your alumni network. 

DRIVE SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT 

It is observed that allowing your alumni community to share your news, events, videos, and pictures quickly or any content across all social channels can yield tremendous results if you make it easy to do so. 

Create easily shared and user-friendly, one-click messaging, and you will quickly increase followings across social platforms. 

ENSURE EASY COMMUNICATION

Make it easy for alumni to communicate with your company, leadership, and perhaps even each other. 

Analyzing your program’s success will be based on how well you’re creating ongoing interactions with your alumni on as many channels as possible, such as email, your website, and even social media. 

If your platform has been integrated with a mobile app or has had one created, please send your alumni members in-app messages, nudges, and text messages showcasing company changes and rewards earned for telling others. 

INVOLVE OFTEN

When you’re keeping your alumni community in the loop about events or other items such as product/service updates, job postings, you should be doing so through multiple channels. 

Make your engagement platform simpler for your community to receive content and share it on all their social media channels and become alumni brand ambassadors. 

CUSTOMIZED ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

One needs to understand that no alumni relationship is exactly like another. You need to segment and tailor different engagement activities based on each user type, and creating customized training for your alumni makes them feel special and appreciated. 

PLAN EVENT UPDATES AND CHECK-IN 

Creating early notice and access to upcoming alumni events and gatherings not only encourages attendance and unique interaction with your company, but it stimulates loyalty and makes you stand out in the industry.

The events can be online instead of in-person, and subjects might include: professional development, industry research, current news, and executive interviews. 

ASSURE FLEXIBILITY

Finally, when it comes to your alumni program and the rewards you offer, you have to remain nimble. For rewards, as mentioned above, get feedback and adapt, so you’re offering rewards that motivate. 

For the program, build regular assessment periods, adjust your program based on the data and feedback. 

Look for ways to tie everything into your alumni’s lives—be it holidays, graduations, birthdays, back to school, or the changing seasons. 

Setting up automatic engagement triggers like these for each alumni segment gives that personal touch without extra work. 

BE PUNCTUAL 

It should come as no surprise that people, including alumni, love immediate communication, and gratification. 

Reduce the time it takes between completing the alumni engagement activities you’ve created. It could be generating a referral, sharing company news, leaving a like or following on social media, etc. And, obtaining rewards will boost activities to incorporate alumni engagement. 

Make sure you’re using automatic incentive fulfillment. It is not only easier on your company but creates immediate positive reinforcement for your alumni members. 

ANALYTICS 

Continuously re-evaluate the program and see what activities and rewards are working best for your alumni network. Also, make sure to periodically survey users to ensure you are prepared to meet their upcoming wants and needs. 

Then combine those answers with the data from your system. Like, reward program redemption rates, what activities are engaging them, and when they are engaging et cetera. 

Once you compile everything, you can tweak triggers, activities, and implement the user-suggested rewards. All of these will build more robust engagement and partner loyalty. 

MAKE IT INTERESTING 

Custom-designed contests can be terrific for promoting new products/services, talent sourcing, and overall engagement. 

Include items like dynamic leaderboards that showcase top users and features, grand prizes, or other interactive gamification components. 

SHARE EXPERIENCES

Part of the fun can be incorporating user-centric videos, photo galleries, blog posts, and other forms of content for your entire alumni community. They can access it from anywhere without any technical glitches. 

You can also use the same technology to create engaging company content. It will be ideal for your different alumni segments such as HR, Sales, IT, etc. 

Popular modules to build into your system include industry compliance updates, product updates/upgrades, among many others.

How NEXTBEE helps to build a strong Alumni Network?

Creating a program where alumni networks are engaged and feel appreciated is a great way to drive long-term relationships. Having a well-executed alumni engagement program is vital whether you’re a small business or an enterprise-level company. 

Alumni engagement is a proven strategy that works to generate new business and rejuvenate your talent pool by keeping customers happy with rewards, perks, incentives, et cetera.

Engaged alumni are much more likely to become boomerang employees. Perhaps, even some of your most excellent brand ambassadors too.

NextBee helps companies create the best alumni network engagement programs that build loyalty, generate referrals, and grow your brand’s ambassadors. 

Connect with us today!