“Colleagues for life.” That’s what Deloitte calls them. Other companies use terms like “boomerang employees,” “alumni,” or “comeback colleagues.” Such language is a far cry from the days when former employees were referred to only in the past tense. But now a growing number of organizations are understanding the value of keeping the bond between employer and employee strong long after the two have parted. It’s a smart strategy for managing talent as company leaders grapple with the tightest job market in more than 15 years.

Indeed, ex-employees can be a treasure trove of brand ambassadors, potential clients, future business partners, and top-notch rehires. Much like college administrators who enthusiastically welcome former students back to their campus community, HR leaders and managers are reaching out to individuals who left their jobs for any number of reasons, excluding, of course, poor performance or policy violations. In doing so, many organizations are finding lasting benefits in these boosted ties.

Market Pressures

Alumni networks are not new to corporate America, of course. But there has been a renewed interest in growing them in recent years. The professional services industry—which includes legal, consulting, and accounting firms—has long led the way in creating and nurturing networks of ex-employees, according to Conenza, a Seattle-based company that helps businesses build and manage their alumni networks.

Conenza’s 2017 Alumni Program Benchmarking Report found that 22 percent of the more than 60 respondents to its survey have had alumni programs for at least 10 years. Large financial services companies such as Citigroup and JPMorgan are among the adopters, followed by technology companies like SAP and Dell. Nonprofits and mission-driven organizations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Junior Achievement Worldwide, also rely heavily on them, says Conenza CEO and founder Tony Audino, who worked at Microsoft 20 years ago and helped that company develop its alumni network.

One of the primary drivers behind the growth of these programs is the recognition that people switch jobs much more frequently than they did in the past. More than 20 percent of workers change roles every year, Audino says. Currently, about 10,000 Baby Boomers retire daily and Millennials move to different positions every 2.8 years, on average. “That kind of disruption in the workforce is only going to increase,” Audino predicts.

Labor shifts are also leaving some companies with a knowledge deficit as their most senior employees exit. “A lot of these alumni programs are an effort to close that gap” through rehiring, professional development and coaching opportunities, says Chris Hoyt, president of CareerXroads, a talent acquisition consultancy in Hurst, Texas.

At the same time, technology is reshaping industries across the board, particularly when it comes to building—and binding—community. “There’s a lot of movement in our alumni program, or any alumni program for that matter,” says Jenn Pedde, global manager of alumni and community at global management company Oliver Wyman in New York.

Indeed, keeping track of ex-employees can be challenging, Pedde says. To keep pace with Oliver Wyman’s 11,000 alumni, her team sends a monthly pop-up message via its online newsletter to remind them to update their contact information.

(This is the first part in a two-part series of this article)

Copyright 2018, SHRM. This article is reprinted from www.shrm.org with permission from SHRM. All rights reserved.