China was the fastest growing country in terms of membership registration on Linkedin by Oct. 2008. IBM China Alumni's registration number on Linkedin ranks number one against other key IT MNC players. From that, you can tell social networking is coming in vogue in China, which leads us to think over a new model for talent sourcing, candidate relationship management and branding promotion. If you believe this trend, you might start thinking about the topic: Social network should be explored and utilized as one key recruitment channel for sourcing qualified talents to meet your company's hyper growth demand. If you look at the new employee data of your own company, it's quite easy to figure out rehires provide strong pipeline for leadership and critical skills which we should have strategic focus for alumni pipeline build-up and relationship maintenance.
Usually, organizations have long understood that a great many “non-employees” have a vested interest in the success of the organization, such as the alumni community. The alumni program is usually led by the corporate team or communication team rather than recruitment team in your organization. The reason is quite simple, the true value in terms of talent sourcing and recruitment is still under the ground or recruitment team still hesitate to tap into the field due to some inarticulate reasons.
Meanwhile, according to the sourcing channel market research among key IT MNC players in the market, employee referral program becomes the dominant source of quality hires for many organizations. Unfortunately, many HR professionals assume that participation in employee referral programs is driven by monetary rewards, so the idea of letting non-employees participate in the program becomes complicated with bonus payment and tax-related issues. On the contrary, the case is not true for alumni community. According to our alumni research, Networking, job opportunities, and career development resources are the most valuable features to former IBMers. For the sub item – Job opportunities, we found alumni who care about open positions are not only for themselves, the primary motivation is to find opportunity to help out a friend. So I guess it's just the moment you should change your mind to expand the program eligibility to alumni community. Instead of monetary rewards, you have more options to offer, free tickets to workshop, learning seminar, a special made thank-you notes, discounts on company products, or gifts etc., also can make equivalent motivations. Maintaining the relationship with alumni via the employee referral program has another benefit. By communicating with former employees on a regular basis about what is going on in the organization and disclosing your critical talent needs, you may earn the change to “rehire” past top performers. In a word, these individuals know your firm and its needs and have the capability of making high-quality referrals even if they don't return. Now, it's your turn to take lead the alumni initiative and announce the "Alumni Referral Program" in your organization.
