Corporate Alumni Leaders: Webinar Series

Many teams that launch an Alumni Community and are tasked with engaging the organization’s former employees are starting an uphill battle, connecting with people who have voluntarily chosen to go elsewhere. It is incredibly difficult to maintain engagement when a majority of what a user needs or might want from your network can be found elsewhere. You may be able to onboard former employees with the common bond of a working relationship at the organization, but it is certainly not what drives them back or drives them to be great advocates or great community citizens. How do you convert your Alumni Community from a mailing list to an engaged and valuable community? A community where the Alumni serve each other in addition to the benefits it might drive your organization. Most programs take a very cookie-cutter approach to engagement, they don’t recraft their strategies each year to either change what’s not working or better align to corporate objectives, they think about scalability before solving one problem for one person, they focus on controls to prevent criticism, they are not using data-driven programming to improve….and all of this is incredibly fair because many Alumni Leaders are tasked with running the network but are not experts in community management and to make it even harder the things that often count the most in a community are often hard to count. This webinar is about taking a fresh look at where you are, where you need to be, and small adjustments to move the needle for your program and your community. To quote some thoughts from our panelist: – There are Community Managers so busy ‘doing the work’ they don’t realize their communities often aren’t making anywhere near the progress they should be making. – They often fall far behind best practices, struggle to gain internal support, and disappoint members. – Often they keep doing the same activities over and over again without any idea if a) they are the right activities and b) if they are actually working. – If you haven’t made tremendous progress in the community in the past year, there’s probably a reason. – A great community strategy isn’t written; it’s facilitated. You set up collaborative processes to educate and solicit the opinions of your stakeholders. You bring everyone on the journey with you. If you can relate to the challenges associated with engaging your community, join this one hour webinar to learn how you can approach the problem from a new perspective, focusing on value identification and creation.

In this episode of the Corporate Alumni Leaders Series, James Sinclair of EnterpriseAlumni talks to panelists Michael J Destefano, the Global Alumni Leader at EY and Andrea Legnani, the Global Head of Alumni Relations at Citi. This webinar focused on the practical steps that Alumni Leaders and Talent Acquisition Professionals can take to prepare, engage and ultimately activate this critical pool of talent. 5 Key Takeaways From The Session: Whether you are thinking of initiating a large global program, a small regional project or revamp your existing Alumni efforts, here are the five highlights from the session: Have Courage to start something now, reach out to someone internal, pitch an executive sponsor, walk into your talent or marketing teams offering your “Alumni Army” to accelerate initiatives or even try a new strategy.Now is the time to connect with people across your organization about the program and its value. Build The Business Case to gain internal budget and buy-in. We heard that 12% of Citi employees are boomerangs with an average cost saving of $75,000 per hire and that EY has about 17% of their workforce coming from their Alumni pool. The business case and data is overwhelmingly in your favor.ROI requires “Investment” Showcase Individual Use Cases to bring authenticity and context to your program. Michael talked about an ex-EY tax accountant who is now on the board of Coca-Cola or Citi talk about their Alumni now serving in the public sector. “Imagine if we had maintained a better relationship”Humanize the conversation with specific people or deals connected to your Alumni. Executive Sponsor is essential to secure budget, resources and advocate for the program at the highest level, helping cut through red tape and showcasing its importance.Now is the time to e-mail a C-Level executive with your strategy and ask for their support. Micro Communities are the way forward, it is better to have a table of 6 people around a table, on a call or discussing a topic with 100% engagement than trying to create a “one size fits all” strategy. Listen to the diversity of opinion across your communities to develop programming they want (or need). Presenters: James Sinclair, EnterpriseAlumniMichael J Destefano, EYAndrea Legnani, Citi

In this webinar James Sinclair, Principal of EnterpriseAlumni talks to Adrienne Jaroch, Firmwide Alumni Engagement Manager @Kirkland & Ellis and Danya Ray, Alumni Relations Specialist @Greenberg Traurig about the challenges to engage former attorneys and the questions law firms are exploring to drive greater value between former attorneys and the organization. Some topics explored: Exclusive or Open: Debating if alumni programs should be exclusive to ex-attorneys or include operational staff. Generational Differences: To deliver value to 5 generations of alumni across all career levels (from interns to retired partners) requires the value proposition for each to be well defined to create a meaningful experience. Network Fatigue: You must consistently iterate your engagement strategy as a former employee may be part of multiple Alumni Networks competing for their time. Program Innovation: Innovating your offerings, keeping them fresh, and using the platform to showcase your firm as the market leader. Competing Priorities (HR vs. Business Development): Many firms compete internally on the value of engaging former attorneys, for example, is it better to rehire or find them a new role at a potential customer. Ratings: Leveraging Alumni to ensure you are always ranked highly across all ratings including Acritas and Living Ratings, among others. Business Bottom Line: How alumni can impact the bottom line through net new business referrals, knowledge sharing, and access to talent.

James Sinclair of EnterpriseAlumni invites you to join this 1hr webinar with panelist Katy Scrivener the Global Head of Alumni Relations at HSBC, and Paul Fox the Board Director and Communications Chair for P&G Alumni to discuss how for many organizations, the purpose of an Alumni program starts with promoting and protecting their brand. As many organizations tend to lead their strategy with “outcomes” ranging from recruiting to sales to partnerships; James, Katy & Paul will discuss how first you have to create a community that cares about your brand, and that starts with delivering value. Learn how HSBC and P&G Alumni engage and leverage their communities as a method to further build their brand value and the steps they take to empower Alumni to assist each other as a primary driver for engagement. This webinar is part of the Alumni Leadership Webinar Series that invites corporate alumni leaders and community thought leaders globally to discuss strategy and value building for organizations engaging their Alumni communities. Presenters: James Sinclair, EnterpriseAlumniPaul Fox, P&G AlumniKaty Scrivener, HSBC

James Sinclair of EnterpriseAlumni invites you to join this one hour webinar with panelists Caren Scoropanos, National Director of Marketing for Alumni at KPMG and Becki Cedrone, Director, Alumni & Community Marketing at Coca Cola. The focus topic for this session is the importance of looking for support, buy-in, and opportunity inside the organization as the primary growth tool for attracting and engaging your Alumni population. Many approach Alumni growth & engagement by focusing on the Alumni, when in fact the quickest and most successful Alumni programs recognize it all starts internally. Learn from our panelists on how they think about growth-hacking their Alumni communities, leveraging modern and innovative thinking to deliver value to their Alumni and the organization.

Why an Alumni Strategy is a competitive differentiator between a good and great Corporate Alumni program. Our panelists, discuss the key to driving Alumni Engagement and how other companies approach and engage their stakeholders to drive a successful program. James Sinclair, CEO of EnterpriseAlumni is joined by Duncan Roberts, the Alumni Relations Manager for Pearson PLC and Emma Kennedy the Business Development Manager for RSM UK who looks after the strategic business development for the firm's risk assurance and fraud practice and is also responsible for relaunching RSM UK's alumni program.