Sept. 2, 2020

Winning in the Age of Meaningful Connection with the Corporate Alumni Network

Show Notes
Transcript

Companies spend a lot of time and budget recruiting new talent into their organization, adding headcount to grow and replacing that which moves on or retires. Often overlooked as a strategy to source talent is the alumni which already hold an affinity for the organization. This episode explores the opportunity of maintaining meaningful connection with alumni to power talent, marketing and community initiatives.

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What's working on purpose anyway? Each
week we ponder the answer to this question.

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People ache for meaning and purpose at
work, to contribute their talents passionately

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and know their lives really matter.
They crave being part of an organization that

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inspires them and helps them grow into
realizing their highest potential business can be such

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a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration to help
usher in this world we all want working

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on purpose. Now Here is your
host, Doctor Elise Cortez. Welcome back

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to the Working in Purpose Program.
Thanks for tuning in again this week.

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I'm your host, Doctor Elise Cortez, Johny. You live from the road

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in Aspen, Colorado, where I'm
both playing and working. If you've been

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tuning in for while, do you
know this program as a thought leadership series

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that enlightens and inspires listeners with insights
from distinguished business leaders and subject matter experts.

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Before we get in today's conversation,
I want to give you two announcements

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from the road. First, September
marks the launch a Gusto Now, which

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is a growth and transformation institute dedicated
to awakening meaning, passion, inspiration and

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purpose and people, leadership and organizations. We'll be featuring leadership development and other

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professional development courses on this e learning
platform, available to individuals and companies in

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English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
You can learn more at Gusto dashnow dot

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com. Second announcement is my book
Purpose Ignited, How Inspirational Leaders Ignite passion

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and Elevate Cause, is finally due
out on Amazon November sixteenth. You can

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pre order it there. I wrote
the book to turn you on to ignite

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your passion, inspiration and purpose and
radically change the way leadership is conducted and

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business is done across the world.
Now on this week's program, our guest

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today is James Sinclair, the chief
executive and co founder of Enterprise Alumni,

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which is a leading alumni and retiree
engagement platform. Their software powers of corporate

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alumni networks of the world's largest companies, leveraging this fast, untapped pool of

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people for talent, sales, marketing, and community. We'll be talking about

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the importance of relationship management in business
today, our alumni network came to be,

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and how the platform improves operations for
business in today's purpose economy. You

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joined today from Los Angeles, California. James, Welcome to Working on Purpose.

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Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited about the book.

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I can't believe that was point number
two. That should have been point

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number one. I've been up to
all kinds of fun things in this pandemic,

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James. Let me just say that
it's just been fun, all kinds

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of mischief, including you. By
the way, you're part of my mischief.

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So I loved it when we cross
paths. And I like to start

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my shows by acquainting playfully our listeners
and viewers with my guests, and so

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among other passions. You know,
I'm an identity researcher, James, and

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so we got to start by how
you cheekily if I can use that word,

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put on your LinkedIn profile that you're
an EMTJ, which is a Myers

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Brig's personality type, a mix of
technology growth, hack or business acceleration and

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generally shiny truck and new gadget syndrome. Guy, can you say more about

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this person that I'm talking to.
I don't know if we have enough time

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in the day to talk about to
talk about that. You know, I

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did that survey with a identity researcher
many many years ago, and the reality

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is she was exactly right across the
board. And I think one of the

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great things about about that is and
she can teach you and give you learnings

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of errors to focus on things that
perhaps I didn't consider recognize about myself that

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when you read it, you're like, Oh, that's me, and then

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you're like, oh, that's me, and I need to make some adjustments

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of that. And so, you
know, I think the reason I like

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to put it out there is because
I think it works. I think it's

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it's a nice icebreaker, and for
people who are into identity research and that

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type of thing, it's a great
way to kind of start a conversation and

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laugh a little bit amongst the pros
and cons of what that even means.

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Well, you know what's so great
from my vantage point, James, because

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in my view, you're you're really
in the business of relationship management and so

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right in so many Just today I
gave a webinar at presentation and I was

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saying, job number one is self
awareness. Right, So if we know

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how it is we're navigating the world
and what motivates us, we can then

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bring it when it really makes sense, and then take it back a little

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bit and notch it back when we
need to. So for example, I

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am I'm an e f J.
So my heavy duty energy can blow your

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hair back, and some people don't
like that, so right, I moderate

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that. So the fact that you
here, you are, you are right,

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and tell me if you see it
differently. But I see that you're

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in the business of relationship management,
right, yes, no, kind of

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okay, all right, So here's
where I think it's interesting. So increasingly

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I would say that conscious business people
understand the value of nurturing relationships with all

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stakeholders, certainly those employees who have
left, and your platform helps them sustain

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the relationship with past employees, among
others. So can you say more about

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why this is so important? So
yes, I can, And I think

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the way to kind of put it
out into a sentence is for organizations,

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this doesn't matter the size. You
spend a lot of time, effort,

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and resources trying to find that perfect
person or maybe even the good person that

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can fill the role, and you
spend even more time kind of retaining them,

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hopefully and being a great employer hopefully, and then when they leave,

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the old way was like, well, good luck, and maybe you know

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you got that job you know,
somewhere else, and maybe I'm a little

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bit annoyed about it. Maybe I
think it's treason, whatever the conversation might

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be. And I think in the
past few years you've seen that actually come

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around where you're in your new role
because of us, because of the company

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we are, because of the opportunities
we gave you, and why would we

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throw that away just because you walk
out the door. I mean, we

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have one customer of ours who I'm
just in love with because she basically sends

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out a gift bag. I don't
know if she does it anymore because of

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COVID, but essentially sends out like
a gift bag of stuff two weeks into

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your new job that just says,
Hey, we hope you're doing amazing at

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your new role. We all miss
you here. You know, whatever we

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can do. Essentially, she's saying
the doors always open without saying And I

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thought it was just the most beautiful
act of understanding what it means to be

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in it for the long haul.
Essentially, James, I love that that

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is so evolved and what I see
there is just the interconnectivity of it.

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All right, that just because you
left today you needed to grow into a

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new opportunity, doesn't mean, as
you said, can't come back. And

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I also appreciate the fluidity of that. In fact, one of the things

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that you said to me when we
had our get appointing conversation that I so

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appreciate having started my career in recruiting
in human capital twenty some years ago,

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is you said that how employees leave
a company is as important as when they

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join. Say more about that.
Oh, I feel like every question you

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love at me is going to come
with a grumble first of like, oh,

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when do I starts? I'm gonna
watch myself. So I think there's

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two answers there. The first,
going back to that first example of the

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lady that sends out the gift box
or the thank you or the note to

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the people that have left, is
there are going to be people who say,

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why would you invest that money?
What's the ROI of doing that?

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And show me the value? And
my answer is very often that if you

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have trouble conceptualizing that investing in relationships
make sense, then you're going to have

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a fundamental problem with your growth and
maybe it might not catch up to you,

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maybe it will, but essentially some
of the most meaningful things that count

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often can't be counted, and I
think people forget about that when they're thinking

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about You don't need a business case
for why you should be a good employer,

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why you should keep in touch.
You need a vision statement, you

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need a perspective. And so I
think when we talk about how you leave

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the company, it's because when you
leave, the first thing that happens when

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you go to your new job is, hey, where did you come from?

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And they're either going to say,
I was working at X and I

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escaped, or I worked at why
and it was awesome, and let me

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tell you about it, And you're
always going to talk about your experience in

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the last company in this positive way. And actually it's one of the most

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important brand moments there possibly is,
because one hundred percent of people that leave

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will at some point reference their employment. And so it's a non negotiable that

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every single touch point you have with
any single human should be how you would

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treat your best customer, and anyone
who thinks that it's negotiable that you can

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treat vendors through procurement differently to how
you treat people on boarding into jobs or

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people off boarding are again not recognizing
that the world is changing and they are

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going to be left behind. Oh, James, this is so delicious and

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yummy, right as there a better
way to converse than something that's so enlightened.

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Let's compare and contrast, shall we. I remember distinctly when I got

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into the recruiting space in late nineteen
ninety eight Seattle, Washington. We were

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recruiting like crazy, especially technical people. But I also remember distinctly the practice

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of when it was time to sever
an employment relationship what that looked like.

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Generally speaking, what happened is the
unsuspecting employee or contractor would be sitting in

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their office or cube working when they
would be sort of picked up by the

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scruff of their neck and led out
to the parking lot. And just before

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that, they were in a box
and told her grab whatever that was in

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the was in the arm. Vicinity
put it in the box, and they

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were walked out to the parking lot
and dropped off. I always thought that

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was so incredibly disgusting and dehumanizing,
and so what you have ushered in is

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so much more sensible, enlightened,
and humane, And I think, you

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know, sometimes it's it's there's a
very short termist attitude to it. The

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person in that role responsible for your
separation offboard and whatever you want to call

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it, whether it has a name
or whether it's just kicking them out the

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door, is often not thinking about
the bigger picture. You know. They

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think they're just one rain drop in
the you know, in the in the

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thunderstorm, and the reality is that's
not the case. And I think it's

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a company's obligation to realize, actually, they are all interconnected. Everything is

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interconnected. And when you think about
relationship community whatever that means, there's no

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start and stop. There's no beginning
and end. It just is. You

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know, I just had a conversation
with a colleague of mine. We're going

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through procurement with a company who is
just amazing. There is a lady phones

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me every week to let me know
how I'm doing. Hey, this is

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where you're at, this is where
the contract is, this is where billing,

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this is where you're going to go
to make sure you get paid.

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And every week when she phones me, I just start with telling her how

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much I love her. And I
mean that so honestly because it is such

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an amazing thing. And so we
always end up talking like, what's it?

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How do you even get hired for
this role? You know, what

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is your how are you judged?
And she and I'm like, are you

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going to send me a survey afterwards? And if I give you a ten?

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That's how your bonuses get She said
no, She said that no one

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does. We're going to send you
a survey becas we want to make sure

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I'm doing a great job. But
that's not how I'm judged. My performance

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isn't based on your ten. My
performance is based on are you happy doing

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business with us? And are you
excited to do business with us? And

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are you going to deliver incredible software
to us? And it's really hard not

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to be a little blown away when
on the other side we have some customers

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where there's a little bit of like, oh, you're the vendor, you

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should be thrilled to be doing business
with us, you know step aside,

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I'm familiar with that, And again, I want to acknowledge that there is

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such an enlightenment in being able to
see how everything is interconnected and interdependent,

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all those relationships, all that energy. It's just I think it's so great

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for us. One of the things
I love about hosting the show, James,

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is to be able to help and
advance the leadership, the thinking,

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the operation of working and in a
business today. And you are beautifully doing

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this, James. I love it. I'm so glad I found you or

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you found me, whatever it was. Thank you. Yeah, you know.

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I have if I can an amazing
example of how this plays out kind

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of in the reworld, if I
can, if I can just lob something

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in there. This is for a
restaurant chain, North American restaurant chain,

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hundreds and hundreds of them, full
service, sit down and I guess again

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today maybe not as applicable, and
then they've moved intowards delivery and so forth.

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But essentially they are America's first employer. To a certain extent, people

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come out of high school and they're
working there, their first job, living

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with their parents, whatever it might
be. Many people might not be going

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to university. And the number one
cause of attrition of when people leave the

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company is no call, no show. Someone young that wakes up late,

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does something wrong, forget something,
doesn't show up for whatever reason, good

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or bad, and thinks the responsibility
or the accurate thing to do is to

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put their head in the sand and
to ignore it and hope it goes away.

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The HR of this brand basically said
it is his personal obligation to teach

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people. Number one, that's not
how business works. You just phone you

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tell them you made a mistake,
you made an error. How can I

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make it up? But he said, forgetting that, I believe it is

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my responsibility to teach people this.
I can't afford to lose their entire family.

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So if you think about that individual, his entire or her entire family

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can no longer come to this restaurant
because if they're like, hey, let's

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go here for Sally's birthday, this
kid that overslipt into up is gonna be

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oh work, can't go there.
That's the manager. I stood up and

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never returned their call. He's like, I can't afford to lose fifty customers

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because one kid you overslept. And
I think it doesn't always. You know,

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sometimes we pray it's because it's out
of the goodness of heart, but

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other times you recognize this just a
financial business recognition of doing the right thing

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actually leads to incredible business results.
That's so beautiful, James, And again

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we're teaching strategy. Right. When
I was teaching at SMU related to what

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you're saying, I taught a course
called Professional Seminar, which was for juniors

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and seniors and essentially, James,
what it was is how to get and

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keep your first job. And it's
so important that socialization that first job.

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I love what you just shared.
That's so fantastic. Okay, So now

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I have to ask. We've talked
about why this is a good idea,

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but what are companies missing out on
when they do not nurture their alumni network?

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So I think what companies? So
no one ever looks at It's very

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rarely to people look at and say
this is a terrible idea. Yes,

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you're going to have some people who
maybe just through and not to be an

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age it maybe perhaps a little bit
older in the employment organization where leaving was

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you know, you're a traitor and
that existed and when we just have to

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accept that. But in reality,
what they're losing is this entire pool of

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people that have an affinity to the
brand. You're talking about customers, you're

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talking about referrals, you're talking about
brand marketing. You know, we had

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one customer that stopped all their advertising
on Facebook and Instagram, essentially saying until

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they manage kind of how they're going
to they're going to deal with their advertisers,

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they're going to put a pause on
that advertising. And so they said,

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well, we still need to get
eyeballs. We're still in the e

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commerce business to consumer industry, and
we still need to get sales. So

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they went out to their alumni and
said, hey, we're not advertising on

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these channels. This is why would
you mind liking sharing, you know,

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our content? Yeah, and the
social media team came back and said they

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had higher audience, engagement, higher
eyeballs, high all of that and it

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costs them nothing from a versus a
paid ad, if that makes sense.

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So when you think about what is
the value of this community, well,

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what's the value what's the cost of
not having it? If you can again

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recognize the importance of relationships, the
importance of community, then I can't build

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you a business case. You're not
a customer of ours because if you can't

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connect those dots, there's nothing I
can do. You know, now,

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if you want to go into recruiting
and all the data we have, yes,

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there's thousands of data points to show
the high value in the ROI of

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it, but it has to start
from a place of recognizing kind of relationships

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matter period. Completely agree and on
that note, I can't think of a

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better way to go into a break. I'm your host, Doctor Release Cortez.

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We were there of James Sinclair,
the chief executive and co founder of

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Enterprise Alumni, a leading alumni and
retiree engagement platform. You tdted today from

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Los Angeles, California. We've been
talking about about the importance of relationship management

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in today's purpose economy. After the
break, we're going to learn how Enterprise

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Alumni came to be. Stay with
us. We'll be right back. Doctor

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Release Cortez is a management consultant specializing
in meaning and purpose and inspirational speaker and

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author. She helps companies visioneer for
greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired

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leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate
fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the

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workforce. To learn more or to
invite a lease to speak to your organization,

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please visit her at a lease Cortez
dot com. Let's talk about how

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to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with doctor

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00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:11.799
Elise Cortez to reach our program today
or open a conversation with Elise. Send

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00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:18.919
an email to Elise ali se at
Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to

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working on Purpose. Thanks for staying
with us, and welcome back to working

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on purpose if you're just joining us. My guest is James Sinclair, the

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chief executive and co founder of Enterprise
Alumni, a leading alumni in retiree engagement

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platform. Their software powers the corporate
alumni networks of the world's largest companies,

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leveraging this vast, untappedable of people
for talent, sales, marketing, and

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community. I'm your host, doctor
Elise Cortez. All right, So James,

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and this next conversation, the next
part of this segment, I should

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say, I really want to learn
where this thing came from. Right,

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it's no small deal to burn the
idea to start alumn at work come from?

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How was it born or hatched?
If you will. So I was

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in HLL tech and I was really
focused. And the time that I think

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all of us will remember is people
moving essentially from on premise HR systems built

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in the basement by professional services companies, cumbersome, awful stress, you know,

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anxiety ridden moving to the cloud.
I mean the first to do it

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was in sales with Salesforce essentially and
their CRM. Then you saw success factors

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work day. But this moved the
cloud became kind of inevitable for large organizations.

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But as they moved to the cloud, they needed to move all of

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these awkward little things they've built around
their on premise kind of existing systems with

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it. You know, oh,
we have this thing for you know how

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we off board or separation or compliance, whatever it is. And so we

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saw this opportunity that would allow very
large customers to actually do business with small

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niche software houses. You know,
in the old days, you're not going

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to buy software from us because you
know, again professional services, SAP and

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accenture own your entire relationship, and
why would you go outside of that.

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You're going to custom build. But
what we saw with the cloud is this

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massive opportunity for niche vendors to be
very good at one specific area. And

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so we really started exploring what is
out there and what's going on and what

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a company's looking at, and ultimately
we came to a proof of concept with

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one customer we were working on,
and we working on an innovation project for

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some of their HR processes, and
this concept of how people leave and replacement

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and opportunities and benefits came up and
you know, light bulb hit. I

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was like, huh, that could
be a thing. So we did a

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proof of concept. We tested it
out with our one of our first customers

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and that was actually Lufthansa, and
it worked really well, and over a

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period of about a year, we
thought that was its custom project. We're

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done. But about a year we
had about five more people come up and

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say, well, we want this
thing, whatever that is. And that

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was about four years ago, and
on the beginning of year two we were

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like, oh, this is real. There's a massive gap, there's a

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massive white space, and the data
is sufficient that we don't have to rely

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on early adopters. We can actually
give some real data that says if you

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implement a program, these are the
results you're going to see. And so

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yes, about three three and a
half years ago it became Enterprise Alumni and

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we've raced to market ever since.
Kudos, hats off. Oh, it's

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just fantastic. It's so great to
see something birthed right. So one of

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the other things that I stand for
is to really help nurture more entrepreneurs in

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the world who are solving problems in
the world and expressing themselves through the work

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that they do. That's part of
what I stand for. So I want

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to hear a little bit more about
that story so that those listening that have

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maybe just even a slight inkling that
they might want to do something in the

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way of entrepreneurship, they've got an
idea, help us understand. So for

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Lufthansa was trying to do something to
the extent that you can share with us,

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What was it the problem they were
trying to solve? Why did they

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want to engage with you? So
I think one of the big areas of

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all of this and being an entrepreneur
or having an idea, or not necessarily

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be an entrepreneur, just being able
to kind of see the forest through the

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trees or whatever one wants to call
it, is just hearing a tidbit in

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the middle of a conversation that one
three words that goes unnoticed but actually is

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absolutely everything. And so being able
to hear that and say, one second,

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I heard that has served me very
well in my entire career because there's

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a speak to customers and they hear
their problems, they hear what they're trying

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to do. Being able to pick
up on something that others might ignore is

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really where opportunity is. And so
for us, you know, we were

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there for a different project related to
HR transformation and processes, but it was

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this one conversation around how employees leave, when they leave, why they leave

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a career for life. You know, Lufthansa is an amazing organization to treat

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their people incredibly well, but there's
also this recognition or the conversation I was

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sitting into, which is, actually, there might be a benefit of asking

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people to leave, leave, go
out and get some new skills, some

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different skills, new network, different
network, and then bring you back.

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But why would you Because Lufthansa is
an incredible employer, why would you ever

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leave? And so the conversation was, maybe if people left, but we

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could still continue to give them all
the benefits, all the perks that are

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so brilliant, would that actually make
people more inclined to say, you know

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what, I am going to try
something new. And if we made it

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clear as easy to come back,
and so it's spawn other it's one idea

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that at the time, the CHR
had this kind of vague thought process of

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is asking people to leave actually in
the best interest of the employee and the

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company because they're going to come back
a couple of years later, and when

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they come back, they're going to
come back swinging. And I was a

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little bit taken aback with like wow. Number one, just in general,

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just wow, because I love hearing
people talk about their vision statements. And

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two is, well, they're going
to need something to be able to do

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that with and there's nothing out there. And they were talking at the time

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about using a CRM or custom building
something. And that's really what kicked it

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off was, Hey, I think
there's something here. Why don't we just

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do a proof of concept? Why
don't we just ideate? And I think

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to other entrepreneurs is really important to
recognize that the only thing more important than

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a product is customers. And so
for us, I've always believed in you've

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got to find a customer, you
got to find the business case, you've

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got to find the problem first.
For suspending eight months in the lab trying

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to create something, especially for the
software that we're doing, and hoping that

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when you come to market. You
know, field of dreams, everyone's going

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to come because it doesn't exist.
It doesn't matter how great you know you

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might be. So I think for
Luftan's there was also a great understanding into

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a visionary Chroo dotor Betta navalcans who
just had a perspective of what the next

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ten, twenty thirty years look like
for the Luftanza group. Okay, this

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is now getting beyond yummy. I
need to create a new term because yummy

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just doesn't quite do it anymore.
So here's what I want to celebrate about

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what you're talking about, James.
As a growth and transformation professional, my

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jam is seeing molecules change in front
of my eyes. And there's nothing more

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exciting to me than that. And
I just got to do that today on

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an earther call with something with an
executive I'm coaching. So the idea that

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an organization would intentionally ask someone to
leave the organization so that they can go

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and retool, refuel, if you
will, add something to their person and

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their set of tools, and then
be welcome to come back is so refreshing

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because here's what I know. We
need a catalyzing force to be able to

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ignite that development. And oftentimes what
I see in organizations that have long standing

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ten year of employees is a certain
stagnancy. They have missed the opportunity to

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really see a new environments and be
forced to do things in a whole different

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way and therefore learn and grow and
expand their their strategic mindset. And so

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this is so refreshing to hear how
this CRHO has this vision of intentionality to

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grow people by actually asking them to
leave and come back. I think it's

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just reflective. Look, it's a
leadership conversation period. It has to start

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at the top. And the reason
has to start at the top is because

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its got to have someone who has
long term vision in terms of the fact

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that they're going to be there in
a year, two year, five year,

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ten years, but also the visions
to say, Okay, let's try

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it. Why wouldn't we Why wouldn't
we put together a risk analysis, work

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out what we can do, confine
it, try it and if it doesn't

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work, okay. Like I think
people misinterpret the concept of failure. You

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know, failure is overused term.
You hear it all the time on podcasts

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of like you know, run into
failure fast follow your failure. There's all

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these words about it, but actually
was certainly exaid. I think it's an

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overrated and the wrong word to use
in a majority of scenarios because a majority

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of failures actually get you one step
closer to success. A majority of failures

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are building blocks to new information.
I think we've pitched this, you know,

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fail fast, fail quickly. Nope, that's just learn and iterate.

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And I think we've given the wrong
mentality to entrepreneurs, which is it's okay

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if you fail. No, it's
not. It's just not failing. It's

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it's notating, Yeah, devastating.
It's not okay to fail. Why don't

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you look at it the other way? That says what do you need to

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do to get closer to correctness whatever
that might mean. And it's a never

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ending journey. I mean, I
had a call this morning when a customer

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who was talking to us about our
release. It was an IT side of

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the customer. They want no releases
and versions, and I said, you

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need to understand something. Our product
is in perpetual beta. And he looked

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at me as if I was was
going to be the end of my contract.

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And I said, and that is
in the best interest of you because

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everything changes consistently, and if you're
not using changes in behavior and patterns and

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everything to iterate your product, then
you're real staying stagnant. And I think

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that applies to individuals, to companies, to everything. Is this perpetual state

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of beata doesn't mean that, oh, you've hit failure, you're going to

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00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:08.839
just jump off a cliff. No, it means, Okay, we're going

397
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to try things and see what happens. M so agree with that, and

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that's such an important governing mindset to
embrace. And with that, I really

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wanted to get the opportunity to be
able to ask you to share about some

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of the things that you've had to
navigate through. I'm sure that along these

401
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four years there's been just a couple
of challenges and things that you've had to

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00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:34.720
overcome, So share with It's just
maybe a couple that maybe will help our

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listeners understand how you have uniquely embraced
this whole attitude of risk and failing and

404
00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:47.480
what do I want to say,
retooling. So this morning we were having

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a conversation where we're working on something
and there's some complexity, and people were

406
00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:53.119
talking about the mayhem and the chaos
and the you know, basically, I

407
00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:56.200
came in and lobbed a grenade in
the middle of the project management team with

408
00:25:56.200 --> 00:26:00.119
a new idea I had, and
I remind did everyone to remember three and

409
00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:03.759
a half years ago, when we
had one customer. You want to talk

410
00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:06.440
about a grenade, I had no
grenades because I had one customer. We

411
00:26:06.440 --> 00:26:08.000
were wondering how we were going to
get our second customer. When we had

412
00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:11.000
two customers, we had a platform
that wasn't fully stable, and we were

413
00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:14.359
trying to work out how we were
going to you know, fake it till

414
00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:17.400
we make it, you know,
a five customers, we suddenly needed support,

415
00:26:17.400 --> 00:26:18.720
but we didn't have it. So
all of us were running twenty full

416
00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:22.519
seven support on our phones and having
alarms wake us up. If a customer

417
00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:26.920
in Europe woke, you know,
submitted support ticket. The problems never go

418
00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:30.559
away, they just change and it
doesn't get easier it again, it just

419
00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:33.440
different. And I think people it's
evenly easy to forget the pain of like

420
00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:37.000
last year and or the pain of
three years ago. I always tell people

421
00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:40.119
were in things, I'm like,
remember this, because in two years,

422
00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:41.880
when you complain about something, I'm
going to remind you about this moment and

423
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:45.359
how the world was ending right here
and it wasn't. So I think one

424
00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:51.839
of that is recognizing that the pain
is is the only difference is the level,

425
00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:53.200
the the you know, the amount
of it. You know, as

426
00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:56.880
we get bigger, we have bigger
contracts, we have government contracts, just

427
00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:00.720
bigger problems, different problems, you
know, doesn't change quickly. I might

428
00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:03.279
lose my hair. And I think
the second side of that is also my

429
00:27:03.319 --> 00:27:07.839
personal growth, which is how to
be a great employer. And I think

430
00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:11.680
that is accelerated in the past six
months and that has done more learning for

431
00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:15.640
this company and our product than actually
anything has in my life in terms of

432
00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:18.640
learning how to be a great,
great employer. You know, the one

433
00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:22.440
thing I've always done is when I
interview people, I always first question,

434
00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:23.880
when you leave us in three years, what role are you going to get?

435
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:26.680
And people are like, what,
like, when you leave us in

436
00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:30.359
three years? Because I hope that
either you do or if you don't,

437
00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:33.119
it means everything's amazing. What is
the next role? Are you're going to

438
00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:34.200
have headcount, You're going to have
this, or you're gonna be VP?

439
00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:37.920
What is the role you're going to
go into and on one side always baffles

440
00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:41.279
people because people don't ask that.
But two is I explain to my employees

441
00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:45.680
or the prospect I need to understand
what I got to do to keep you.

442
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:48.839
I need to understand what I've got
to do at every single moment of

443
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:51.759
every day to retain you, because
retaining you is a right, sorry,

444
00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:53.480
retaining you as a privilege, not
a right. And therefore, if I

445
00:27:53.559 --> 00:27:56.440
don't know your three year goal,
if I don't know where you're going,

446
00:27:56.680 --> 00:28:00.039
then someone else is going to come
in and swoop you. And so I

447
00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:04.000
think that learning is as important as
the business. Learning is trying to be

448
00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:12.279
a good leader, especially now when
everyone's working over zoom wonderful points. That's

449
00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:15.799
so great to share all of those
things, and it makes me think the

450
00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:18.039
next thing I really want to get
too, because let meet back up and

451
00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:21.799
give some context first from my advantage
point, James, I am very very

452
00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:26.160
biased in this. I do think
that work is a pretty amazing playground when

453
00:28:26.279 --> 00:28:29.519
you get it right, when you
have the right fit right for a lot

454
00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:32.039
of people, about eighty five percent
of the globe as it is, really

455
00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:33.559
don't quite see it that way.
Just so so you and I are both

456
00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:37.319
working on changing that. In fact, one of the things I didn't say

457
00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:40.559
is part of what I'm doing,
especially in the pandemic, is helping organizations

458
00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:44.400
to look at and evaluate. Let's
look at all of your human capital processes

459
00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:47.559
and procedures and see which ones need
to be either completely thrown out entirely because

460
00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:51.279
they were invented in nineteen eighty two
or adopted in nineteen eighty two, or

461
00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:53.240
they are sucking the soul out of
the people that you're trying to motivate and

462
00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:56.480
get to perform. So so,
anyway, all that said, I love

463
00:28:56.519 --> 00:28:59.440
the work that I get to do. I get to live my purpose.

464
00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:00.880
And I was sneaky suspicion that you
have a little bit of fun at what

465
00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:04.559
you're doing. So I want to
hear a few things that you're proud of

466
00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:08.720
at what you've done an enterprise on
lum night. I'm proud of everything that

467
00:29:08.839 --> 00:29:12.960
the team has managed to accomplish as
an organization. And the reason is so

468
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:17.279
important to be proud of everything is
because I'm here and it's working, and

469
00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:21.279
we have amazing customers in you know, the Global two thousand, and they're

470
00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:23.880
all referenceable, and I think all
of that, I think I'm most proud

471
00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:29.279
about the culture we've created as an
organization, which is a culture of recognizing

472
00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:33.079
that everyone's different, everyone works differently, everyone's motivated by different ways. I'm

473
00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:37.079
proud of an early thing I did, which is making our engineers interface with

474
00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:41.759
our customers. What it was a
program we originally called Feel Their Pain.

475
00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:45.359
And the reason was because when the
customers telling us about a problem or a

476
00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:48.119
thing they're trying to solve, and
we try and relay that to the product

477
00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:51.759
team, and we're small, so
I say relay it's looking to my right

478
00:29:51.799 --> 00:29:52.759
and being like, hey, Ken, here's a problem. You know,

479
00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:56.240
by the time it gets to an
engineers, yes, they don't understand the

480
00:29:56.680 --> 00:30:00.400
you know what went into that conversation. And so what I realized really early

481
00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:04.160
is by putting people everyone in our
organization to meet our customers, to know

482
00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:07.960
our customers, the amount of pride
they have when they deliver something for one

483
00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:11.720
of our customers is just incredible because
they know I'm delivering this and this is

484
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:15.960
something that Sam wants and it's going
to make his life better. And when

485
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.000
you can connect those dots, you
know you talked about it, which is

486
00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:22.400
understanding where you fit into the ecosystem, but understanding that the whole ecosystem is

487
00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:26.880
connected, and if you disconnect areas, the only thing it can lead to

488
00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:30.200
is lack of something. It doesn't
grow anything when you silo a section of

489
00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.960
your organization. And I think the
final section I'm really proud of is being

490
00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:37.400
really open and transparent with our customers. You know, we are a small

491
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:41.759
company and we have monster customers,
infinitely bigger than us, and we like

492
00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:44.359
telling them that, look, there
are pros and cons and here's what they

493
00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:45.960
are, and here's why it's great. But here's what you're going to get.

494
00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:48.799
You know, my first few customers, I remember when I went back

495
00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:52.839
and said, hey, I'm building
out like a reputable sales process to get

496
00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:56.039
more customers. I need to understand
why you said yes. And the majority

497
00:30:56.119 --> 00:31:00.240
answer was I didn't think your product
was there yet. It was actually what

498
00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:03.799
I heard overwhelmingly, And of course
I fell off my chair of like,

499
00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:06.480
oh my god, is this I
might be canceled. I phoned you for

500
00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:08.119
advice and this is the end of
our contract. But they said, actually,

501
00:31:08.160 --> 00:31:11.359
we brought into your vision, We
brought into your team's vision. We

502
00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:14.559
knew you were going to get there, and if you got there, we

503
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:18.279
knew it was going to be amazing. And transparency with your customers is just

504
00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:22.119
everything because it means it's set the
right expectations. It means when all hell

505
00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:26.599
breaks loose, which it may do
at any point, you can literally send

506
00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:27.920
a text and they're going to be
like, no problem, keep me updated.

507
00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:32.680
As opposed to this is unacceptable,
this is mayhem. You're in breach.

508
00:31:32.920 --> 00:31:36.720
You know, when you treat everyone
as a partner versus a customer vendor

509
00:31:36.759 --> 00:31:41.359
relationship, you see such accelerated growth
through your organization, through your sales channels,

510
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:45.000
and through the relationships and the conversations
that you get to have human to

511
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:49.319
human versus customer to vendor. And
I think that's something that we've really worked

512
00:31:49.359 --> 00:31:56.359
on since day one. So beautiful
and again showcasing the true value and the

513
00:31:56.480 --> 00:32:04.039
ROI of building beautiful, precious relationship. Beautiful. Ah, all right,

514
00:32:04.039 --> 00:32:06.880
our last break at least Cortez your
host. We Around the Air with James

515
00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:09.680
Sinclair, the chief executive and co
founder of Enterprise Alumni, a leading alumni

516
00:32:09.720 --> 00:32:14.559
and a retiree engagement platform. He
joins today from Los Angeles, California,

517
00:32:14.920 --> 00:32:17.200
after the wreck. We're going to
hear more about the businesswin and application of

518
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:21.400
this platform. Let's stay with us. We'll be right back. Doctor Release

519
00:32:21.480 --> 00:32:27.599
Cortez is a management consultant specializing in
meaning and purpose and inspirational speaker and author.

520
00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:34.119
She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose
among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership

521
00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:39.720
and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce.

522
00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:44.680
To learn more or to invite a
Lease to speak to your organization,

523
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:47.839
please visit her at a Lease Cortez
dot com. Let's talk about how to

524
00:32:47.880 --> 00:33:00.480
get your employees working on purpose.
This is working on purpose with to Release

525
00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:05.359
Cortez. To reach our program today
or open a conversation with Elise, send

526
00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:12.440
an email to Elise ali Se at
Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to

527
00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:17.559
working on purpose. Thanks for staying
with us, and welcome back to working

528
00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:21.400
on purpose. If you're just tuning
in. My guest is James Sinclair,

529
00:33:21.400 --> 00:33:24.640
the chief executive and co founder of
Enterprise Alumni, a leading alumni and retiree

530
00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:30.400
engagement platform. Their software powers the
corporate alumni networks of the world's largest companies,

531
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:32.960
leveraging the vast, untapped pool of
people for talent, sales, marketing,

532
00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:37.559
and community. I'm your host,
doctor Elise Cortez. So for this

533
00:33:37.640 --> 00:33:42.240
last segment, I really wanted us
to talk about how this application that you've

534
00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:45.519
created, this platform the you've created, really helps businesses win. And so

535
00:33:45.559 --> 00:33:47.200
I read on your website a couple
of really cool things. I love all

536
00:33:47.200 --> 00:33:52.000
the information that you have out there. It's so important to be enlightened.

537
00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:55.319
But you say that Alumni Network helps
companies filling up to twenty percent of all

538
00:33:55.359 --> 00:34:00.880
open requisitions via alumni and alumni referrals, and fifty percent average reduction in time

539
00:34:00.920 --> 00:34:07.319
to productivity and forty four percent higher
retention. So obviously this translates to these

540
00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:09.960
to how companies win by using your
platform. But help us understand a bit

541
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.960
more about why these numbers are so
important to organizations for those or maybe you're

542
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.679
not so acquainted to the recruiting space. Yeah, and I think that's a

543
00:34:19.679 --> 00:34:22.960
great question. You know, not
everyone thinks about community or relationships from it.

544
00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:24.280
Oh, I'm going to recruit from
it. But the reality is,

545
00:34:24.559 --> 00:34:28.639
these are people that know your organization, they know your politics, they know

546
00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:31.199
Elevator three is always broken. They
know to get to launch six minutes early.

547
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:35.280
They know all the bits and pieces, including the skeletons in the closet

548
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:39.039
about your organization. And so there's
three data points that we kind of have

549
00:34:39.199 --> 00:34:43.360
based on all of our Number one
is about eighty percent of all levers,

550
00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:46.000
eligible leavers, not people who are
terminated for cause, all about eighty percent

551
00:34:46.039 --> 00:34:51.360
of all eligible levers would return for
the right opportunity. All about eighty percent

552
00:34:51.400 --> 00:34:53.760
a majority of them. I'm never
going to go to your careers website and

553
00:34:53.840 --> 00:34:57.519
fill in their resume. I mean, I can't imagine again in my life

554
00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:01.000
I'm ever going to visit careers dot
company com and create a profile and update

555
00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:06.800
my update my competencies. But having
access to those people and giving them an

556
00:35:06.800 --> 00:35:09.760
accelerated re entry if they do take
the job. Number one is you can

557
00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:13.480
ask their old manager, you know, hey, Sally, how is it

558
00:35:13.519 --> 00:35:15.559
all like to work with Frank?
And she's going to tell you he's great,

559
00:35:15.599 --> 00:35:17.760
he's amazing. Here's what you have
to work on, here's what you

560
00:35:17.800 --> 00:35:21.159
don't this is what's going to work. You know. The real, honest

561
00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:22.760
answer is the best way to find
out if someone's going to be a great

562
00:35:22.760 --> 00:35:24.760
fit is to work with them.
You know, you've got to get over

563
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:29.079
that resume period. And not everyone
likes this example, but I really think

564
00:35:29.079 --> 00:35:30.800
about it from a dating perspective.
You know, when you go on and

565
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:35.159
you have your first two months of
dating, everyone's on their best behavior.

566
00:35:35.559 --> 00:35:37.760
And then you know, month two
or month three, day three, you

567
00:35:37.880 --> 00:35:40.559
leave a cup by the sink instead
of washing it and cleaning and putting in

568
00:35:40.559 --> 00:35:44.880
the dishwasher. You know, by
month by month six, you know my

569
00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:46.239
wife has worked out. I'm a
bit of a slop. And the key

570
00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:49.760
is, you know, because it
takes comfort to understand out. And I

571
00:35:49.760 --> 00:35:52.960
know it's not maybe the greatest example, but that's how it works in business

572
00:35:52.039 --> 00:35:54.599
as well. That the you know, all the vectors, all the AI,

573
00:35:54.719 --> 00:35:59.000
all the intelligence doesn't actually show you
what it's going to be like to

574
00:35:59.079 --> 00:36:02.760
work with this huge So bringing someone
back gives you that answer. And that's

575
00:36:02.760 --> 00:36:06.440
why it's the number one source of
quality higher And what we mean by that

576
00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:07.719
is at the end of the first
year, they're still with a company,

577
00:36:07.719 --> 00:36:12.119
they're not on a performance improvement program, and the manager rates them good or

578
00:36:12.159 --> 00:36:15.800
better. So we know that data
exists. And then the second data point

579
00:36:15.960 --> 00:36:19.960
is feet on the ground quickly.
So if we think about two use cases

580
00:36:19.960 --> 00:36:22.840
we currently have based on kind of
where we are in the world. One

581
00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:27.079
of our customers is going out to
all of their retirees and saying, would

582
00:36:27.079 --> 00:36:29.519
you come back and work for us? Retire Is that left in the last

583
00:36:29.559 --> 00:36:31.880
four or five years? I think
not because we need someone to fill in

584
00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:36.400
Excel spreadsheets and do manual labor.
Nope, because we don't have enough people

585
00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:39.400
in our organization who have been through
and recovered from a crisis, and we

586
00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:44.079
need your leadership, We need your
guidance, we need your expertise. Would

587
00:36:44.119 --> 00:36:47.360
you return? Overwhelming Yes. In
fact, what was so amazing is how

588
00:36:47.400 --> 00:36:51.760
few people are asked how much,
as in what's the opportunity? You know,

589
00:36:51.800 --> 00:36:53.039
I think a little bit selfishly if
someone had come to me with that

590
00:36:53.119 --> 00:36:55.880
question first, my first response will
be like, Yeah, what are we

591
00:36:55.920 --> 00:36:59.639
looking at here? You know,
let's put together a deal structure. What

592
00:36:59.719 --> 00:37:04.440
was so amazing is these retirees were
so vested in the organization, you know,

593
00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:07.199
for a number of reasons, including
the fact they're retirement accounts linked to

594
00:37:07.239 --> 00:37:12.480
the business and the business success.
But it was an amazing conversation between a

595
00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:15.199
company and this pool of people,
and so when they do get back,

596
00:37:15.239 --> 00:37:19.119
they know everything, they know what
works, they know what doesn't work,

597
00:37:19.239 --> 00:37:22.039
and they're going to be impactful.
So I think when we think about this

598
00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:25.199
one answer of what's the value,
Well, we know we know what you

599
00:37:25.239 --> 00:37:28.360
are, we know how you are, we know whether you're great. And

600
00:37:28.360 --> 00:37:30.840
we're seeing a lot of companies saying, you know, we want to hire

601
00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:32.639
great people, will teach them the
skill. So how do we just find

602
00:37:32.679 --> 00:37:37.000
great people? Well, this talent
pool of you know, from thousands to

603
00:37:37.079 --> 00:37:40.639
tens of thousands that have worked with
you over the past ten fifteen years as

604
00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:45.960
an organization. Well, then that
strikes me going along the same dating or

605
00:37:45.960 --> 00:37:50.639
a marriage line there, James's.
So, you know, let's an employee

606
00:37:50.679 --> 00:37:52.960
leaves an organization because they just couldn't
stand that that person. You know,

607
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:57.280
my employer leaves the teacup by the
sink. I hate that about my employer.

608
00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:00.400
Right, they go to the next
employer and they realize that unled leave

609
00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:02.239
the teacup, but the sinks fall
of dishes, I'd love to come back

610
00:38:02.280 --> 00:38:06.199
to that teacup. Right. So
the grass is an always screener, and

611
00:38:06.599 --> 00:38:09.400
so to have an opportunity a means
to return to me just make so much

612
00:38:09.400 --> 00:38:15.360
sense. And to make it civilized
and humane is even better. We have

613
00:38:15.400 --> 00:38:17.440
a data point from a survey we
did to all of our users last year,

614
00:38:17.800 --> 00:38:21.320
and it's a little bit aggregate,
so it's not perfect because it includes

615
00:38:21.360 --> 00:38:24.920
all industries or globes, but nearly
thirty percent of people regretted their job move.

616
00:38:25.800 --> 00:38:28.480
But what am I going to do? I can't phone you back up

617
00:38:28.480 --> 00:38:30.800
and be like, hey, remember
me, I left four days ago.

618
00:38:30.840 --> 00:38:32.400
I hate it. You can't do
that. I mean my arrogance. My

619
00:38:32.519 --> 00:38:36.599
arrogance alone would never owe my ego
alone, would never actually let me make

620
00:38:36.639 --> 00:38:39.199
that conversation. So that's why I'm
making sure you leave the door open for

621
00:38:39.199 --> 00:38:44.440
those passive opportunities to return. It's
so critical because it's a tough conversation.

622
00:38:44.719 --> 00:38:45.719
Who do I phone? Where do
I phone? How am I going to

623
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:49.760
do it? Is You've got to
make it as easy as possible for someone

624
00:38:49.840 --> 00:38:52.559
to stay in touch, whatever that
might mean, And you've got to break

625
00:38:52.599 --> 00:38:54.800
down all the barriers the people might
have, whether it's my ego and my

626
00:38:54.960 --> 00:38:59.679
arrogance, whether it's my confidence,
whatever it is, You've got to make

627
00:38:59.679 --> 00:39:02.239
sure as an organization or is open. All they have to do is raise

628
00:39:02.280 --> 00:39:05.960
their hand just a few inches up
in the air, and you're going to

629
00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:07.920
be right there to be like,
hey, how can we help M?

630
00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:15.960
And again nice see that. I
see this as a mechanism that helps to

631
00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:20.719
develop communication and connection, which of
course I stand for all the along we

632
00:39:20.719 --> 00:39:24.719
all could use. Definitely be an
improvement in communication and connection. So your

633
00:39:24.920 --> 00:39:29.400
platform doing that, And then to
that extent, I wonder, James,

634
00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:36.199
you talk about how alumni network it
also provides a way for companion doctor quotes.

635
00:39:36.199 --> 00:39:38.599
I apologize I missed the lost section
there, no worries, I thought

636
00:39:38.599 --> 00:39:42.599
I saw something disconnect there. What
I was asking was I wanted to better

637
00:39:42.679 --> 00:39:46.519
understand how alumni network helps companies to
market their products and services through their alumni.

638
00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:51.599
How does that work? The majority
of people are still customers. If

639
00:39:51.599 --> 00:39:53.079
you take Target, when you leave
Target, you still get a seven percent

640
00:39:53.119 --> 00:39:57.360
discount, you know, so you
can leave Target however you want. You

641
00:39:57.440 --> 00:40:00.280
can leave in a fit of rage
because that employee leaves the taka by the

642
00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:02.679
sink. But seven percent if anyone
who's been to Target and popped in for

643
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:07.119
batteries and walked out two hundred and
ten dollars later. You know, knows

644
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:12.239
that seven percent is very important,
and I think a lot of organizations recognize

645
00:40:12.320 --> 00:40:14.800
that a customers, you know,
I think I can't remember who it is

646
00:40:14.840 --> 00:40:16.800
who basically said, when you leave, you're promoted from employee to customer,

647
00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:20.280
and that's how we look about the
exit process. And I'd love to be

648
00:40:20.320 --> 00:40:22.920
able to give the credit, but
I think that's really important, and that

649
00:40:22.920 --> 00:40:27.280
goes not only for retail professional services. I think KPMG had that stat of

650
00:40:27.320 --> 00:40:30.199
forty percent of net new business has
an alumnied thumbprint on it. It doesn't

651
00:40:30.199 --> 00:40:34.559
mean alumnia originated the deal or signed
the deal. It just means somewhere along

652
00:40:34.599 --> 00:40:37.199
that chain of a deal being done
and alumni stood up and said something in

653
00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:43.400
favor. So if someone is questioning
whether or not brand advocates work, well,

654
00:40:43.400 --> 00:40:45.920
I would tell you just look around, because they do work. Because

655
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.440
ninety percent of what you buy is
based on someone's recommendation there and then,

656
00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:52.360
and some companies stop by just offering
a discount, a very tangible join our

657
00:40:52.360 --> 00:40:55.039
alumni network. This is the discount. You know. We have airlines that

658
00:40:55.280 --> 00:40:59.000
maintain, as we mentioned, some
of the same perks as you would have

659
00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:00.679
had when you're an employee, so
a lot of good reasons. It doesn't

660
00:41:00.679 --> 00:41:04.679
always have to be I'm joining the
network to get a new job, to

661
00:41:04.760 --> 00:41:07.840
learn, something, to train,
something to connect. Sometimes it's okay to

662
00:41:07.880 --> 00:41:10.280
say I'm joining the network because I'm
going to get a discount and that's a

663
00:41:10.320 --> 00:41:15.360
fair trade, you know. Sometimes
it's okay to say that absolutely, this

664
00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:17.239
is what I want in the deal. Absolutely. Look back to your transparency

665
00:41:17.280 --> 00:41:21.840
thing. Okay, So now at
this point, I think we've helped our

666
00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:24.079
listeners and viewers understand really what it
is that you do. Now let's talk

667
00:41:24.199 --> 00:41:28.639
up, maybe if we can about
a business case of how a company has

668
00:41:28.719 --> 00:41:34.760
used the platform to improve their bottom
line results. I mean, almost every

669
00:41:34.760 --> 00:41:37.440
one of our customers has some sort
of an ROI dashboard or something similar.

670
00:41:37.559 --> 00:41:42.519
If I was to give a couple
of tidbits out there from a data perspective,

671
00:41:43.360 --> 00:41:46.360
I was on a recent webinar with
Ey and City and they both talked

672
00:41:46.400 --> 00:41:52.840
about the fact that Ey eighteen percent
of all employees are returners, City twelve

673
00:41:52.840 --> 00:41:58.519
percent of all employees are returners.
And City went one further and said,

674
00:41:58.599 --> 00:42:00.559
for positions of a certain aid or
hire and I forget what they said.

675
00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:05.840
We believe the saving is about seventy
five thousand dollars every time we hire someone

676
00:42:05.880 --> 00:42:08.199
back, because they stay longer,
they're more impactful, all of those stats.

677
00:42:08.440 --> 00:42:13.000
So you have companies out there that
are doing the research all day on

678
00:42:13.039 --> 00:42:15.800
this to recognize, you know,
for City, twelve percent seventy five thousand

679
00:42:15.840 --> 00:42:20.239
dollars saving per you're talking about a
multimillion dollars saving. But I think it's

680
00:42:20.239 --> 00:42:22.079
also important to recognize that some people
are like, well, great, I'm

681
00:42:22.119 --> 00:42:25.559
not City, I'm not Ey,
I have a twelve person company. Cool,

682
00:42:25.599 --> 00:42:29.760
we have a small company too.
Referrals are just as important to us.

683
00:42:30.079 --> 00:42:32.599
Referrals are a critical source of talent
supply, a critical source of net

684
00:42:32.599 --> 00:42:38.920
new business. So I think these
teachings of maintaining a relationship are you across

685
00:42:38.960 --> 00:42:40.920
the board, doesn't matter who you
are, what size you are. In

686
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:44.559
fact, I think it's just a
life lesson that sometimes takes a moment to

687
00:42:44.639 --> 00:42:46.880
learn, which is you have to
nurture the relationships you have, and you

688
00:42:46.960 --> 00:42:50.519
only realize you haven't been graded it
when someone's like, hey, do you

689
00:42:50.519 --> 00:42:52.280
know anyone at IBM, and you're
like, oh, crap, I used

690
00:42:52.280 --> 00:42:54.760
to have a great friend that work
there and I lost contact type of thing.

691
00:42:54.760 --> 00:42:58.960
You only really realize the misconnections when
you're like, oh, I made

692
00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:01.599
an error there and there was no
reason one email a year could have satisfied

693
00:43:01.599 --> 00:43:06.320
that. One like on a Facebook
post may have satisfied that. And so

694
00:43:06.360 --> 00:43:08.960
I think that whilst the data is
overwhelming, what you are seeing is a

695
00:43:08.960 --> 00:43:14.039
tremendous shift in all the companies that
are coming to us, specifically during this

696
00:43:14.079 --> 00:43:16.000
pandemic. I mean a majority of
our net new customers, our customers who

697
00:43:16.039 --> 00:43:22.039
are bleeding and you know, firing
or furloughing thousands of employees. Yet during

698
00:43:22.039 --> 00:43:23.719
this time, they're taking a conscious
effort to say, hey, this is

699
00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:28.519
awful, but this is not the
end of mankind. It's going to rebuild.

700
00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:31.360
And so the community in these relationships
matter. So this is now the

701
00:43:31.400 --> 00:43:36.599
time, more than ever to build
an alumni community and to connect them and

702
00:43:36.679 --> 00:43:40.559
to help them and do whatever we
can to automate because we're resource, you

703
00:43:40.559 --> 00:43:44.519
know, light, but at the
same time try and be of service and

704
00:43:44.519 --> 00:43:47.000
of value. We have one amazing
HR who came on a call a few

705
00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:51.440
weeks ago with one of our customers
to all of their alumni and said,

706
00:43:51.440 --> 00:43:52.920
look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry
if the position we're in, I'm sorry

707
00:43:52.960 --> 00:43:55.960
the organization we're in. You know, Here's what I want you to do.

708
00:43:57.079 --> 00:43:59.239
I want you to go learn.
I'm going to open up our entire

709
00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:01.719
learning management system. I'm going to
open up everything. Go learn, because

710
00:44:01.760 --> 00:44:06.599
here are five jobs we're hiring right
now that in January we didn't even know.

711
00:44:06.679 --> 00:44:08.920
Are jobs. We need people to
help support us on our Microsoft teams

712
00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:14.480
and things and remote and collaboration.
Go learn. These all learnable competencies.

713
00:44:14.519 --> 00:44:17.159
They require no experience except learning,
learning and come back to us and earn

714
00:44:17.199 --> 00:44:22.440
more money. And this HROD basically
built a culture of being honest and being

715
00:44:22.440 --> 00:44:25.559
transparent. That the end of the
call, thousands of people that have been

716
00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:30.800
fired essentially applauded for this guy.
And it was a great moment to recognize

717
00:44:30.840 --> 00:44:32.440
what it means to be a great
leader is during the worst of times,

718
00:44:32.639 --> 00:44:37.119
people still respect what you have to
stay and understand the heart and compassion of

719
00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:40.559
what you're trying to say, even
though you've just delivered them the worst news

720
00:44:40.639 --> 00:44:44.719
ever, which is you're out of
a job in the worst job market ever.

721
00:44:45.920 --> 00:44:47.519
Such an elevating conversation, James and
love and every moment of it,

722
00:44:47.519 --> 00:44:51.400
and you just perfectly quted up the
next question I wanted to ask you,

723
00:44:51.440 --> 00:44:54.400
which is relative to COVID nineteen,
so we all know how much twenty twenty

724
00:44:54.400 --> 00:44:59.480
has entirely changed life, the way
we work, and I think irreversibly altered

725
00:44:59.519 --> 00:45:04.039
the workplace. So I'm interested in
what insights you have about what companies and

726
00:45:04.159 --> 00:45:07.360
leaders can do to meet the needs
of a workforce that creves meeting in connection

727
00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:13.199
in these new times. Be human. I wish it was anything deeper than

728
00:45:13.239 --> 00:45:15.199
that. You have a human centered
approach. I wish I could give you.

729
00:45:15.440 --> 00:45:17.800
Look, there's a lot of bullet
points that come off be human,

730
00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:21.280
but it starts and ends there,
and you're seeing that, and you're seeing

731
00:45:21.280 --> 00:45:24.119
that because the conversations we're having are
I'm seeing a customer of mine at home,

732
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:27.840
when I'm meeting their kid, I'm
seeing their cat walk across the screen.

733
00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:30.800
You can't hide being human when someone
who day to day I have one

734
00:45:30.840 --> 00:45:35.079
customer, a major bank in North
America, and every time I've spoken to

735
00:45:35.159 --> 00:45:38.840
him in twenty nineteen. Beginning of
twenty twenty, suit tie mahogany walls like

736
00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:43.920
proper old school bank a kid you
not a week into COVID, we did

737
00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:51.000
a zoom head to toe in Alabama
University kind of gear cat flying across the

738
00:45:51.119 --> 00:45:53.000
room, TV kind of all,
and we had the greatest chat we've ever

739
00:45:53.000 --> 00:45:55.559
had. I don't think we talked
any business, but we In that forty

740
00:45:55.599 --> 00:46:00.280
five minutes, I got to learn
more about him that I've learned in three

741
00:46:00.360 --> 00:46:02.840
years two years of him being a
customer. And I also learned what pig

742
00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:07.440
sui means you happen to be from
Alabama. I guess that's important. Not

743
00:46:07.480 --> 00:46:08.679
going to go into it. It's
a chance that took along, but the

744
00:46:08.760 --> 00:46:13.320
key being is those are human conversations
to know a little bit about your life

745
00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:19.079
outside the transactional relationship that we have. M Yeah, and again this goes

746
00:46:19.079 --> 00:46:23.320
back to I'm really really intent on
helping organizations to be able to remove themselves

747
00:46:23.320 --> 00:46:28.519
from these shackles of all these processes
and practices that they've they've kept over the

748
00:46:28.599 --> 00:46:31.400
years that are completely not serving them. And the pandemic is actually fully illustrated

749
00:46:31.400 --> 00:46:35.360
to put a light on those things
and why they're now working. And to

750
00:46:35.400 --> 00:46:38.679
your point, now is a great
time start looking at new ways to engage

751
00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:45.239
connect teach and reward people. You
can get away with it now, you

752
00:46:45.280 --> 00:46:47.079
know, we talk to one customer. You know, and if you think

753
00:46:47.119 --> 00:46:51.639
about like a five star hotel brand
in twenty nineteen, they couldn't have sent

754
00:46:51.639 --> 00:46:52.760
you an email of like, hey, we're going to try a beta of

755
00:46:52.800 --> 00:46:55.599
doing something new, you know,
click care of your interest in joining.

756
00:46:55.599 --> 00:46:58.519
It would have been like, are
you kidding me? As twelve hundred dollars

757
00:46:58.519 --> 00:47:00.639
a night, you don't do anything
in I expect everything to be perfect.

758
00:47:01.039 --> 00:47:04.360
Now all of a sudden, you
can say that and people be like,

759
00:47:04.360 --> 00:47:07.360
oh, that's great, look at
them innovating. This is the moment where

760
00:47:07.400 --> 00:47:09.159
you can take all of those risks. You can try those things because your

761
00:47:09.280 --> 00:47:14.199
entire audience is willing to accept that
you're trying. You're testing. This is

762
00:47:14.280 --> 00:47:16.239
uncharted. So anyone who's like,
well do we really want to investigate?

763
00:47:16.400 --> 00:47:20.360
This is going to be hopefully the
only time in the next X number of

764
00:47:20.440 --> 00:47:22.400
years where you can be like,
blame COVID, We're going to try this,

765
00:47:22.519 --> 00:47:25.480
but maybe in some respects you're actually
this is a way for you to

766
00:47:25.840 --> 00:47:29.719
You're not blaming COVID. Besides,
you you did it as an organization.

767
00:47:29.760 --> 00:47:31.039
You have to wonder if you need
to blame someone, you put your arm

768
00:47:31.039 --> 00:47:34.159
around it and walk with it into
the room. Right, that's what you're

769
00:47:34.239 --> 00:47:37.559
doing. So okay, so guess
what, James, we manage to do

770
00:47:37.599 --> 00:47:39.719
it. We've already managed to blow
almost a whole hour together. And so

771
00:47:39.760 --> 00:47:43.840
you know, this program is listened
to by people across the world, and

772
00:47:43.840 --> 00:47:45.519
it's meant to be able to help
them more meaningfully and purposely connect with their

773
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:50.559
work. What would you like to
leave our listeners with. Look as a

774
00:47:50.599 --> 00:47:54.280
platform, company, enterprise alumni,
we serve great organizations developing these communities.

775
00:47:54.320 --> 00:47:59.400
Not everyone is ready for that.
And my big sentence is if you recognize

776
00:47:59.440 --> 00:48:02.199
the importance of relationships, think about
how people are leaving an organization, whether

777
00:48:02.239 --> 00:48:06.199
it's an Excel list, whether it's
an email two weeks after they join.

778
00:48:06.559 --> 00:48:09.000
Just take one step, and our
first step is collecting an external email address.

779
00:48:09.039 --> 00:48:12.519
When they're leaving, just have a
way to reach out to them,

780
00:48:12.599 --> 00:48:15.280
Maybe send them one email at year
and see what happens. It doesn't always

781
00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:19.599
have to start and end with a
big alumni platform and a big strategic program.

782
00:48:19.760 --> 00:48:21.920
It just starts. We've taken the
first step, and I think that's

783
00:48:21.960 --> 00:48:24.360
really important. Fantastic, what a
great way to finish James. You have

784
00:48:24.440 --> 00:48:27.880
been delightful. I'm so glad to
have you in my life. And by

785
00:48:27.880 --> 00:48:29.599
the way, you know, now
that we're connected, you could run,

786
00:48:29.639 --> 00:48:30.320
but you can out hide from you, right, you know? I hope,

787
00:48:30.320 --> 00:48:32.679
so, I hope so good.
I'm counting on it. Good,

788
00:48:32.679 --> 00:48:36.599
good, good. I'm a pretty
fast runner two as it turns out,

789
00:48:36.639 --> 00:48:39.039
so look out all right. So, ladies and gentlemen. If you'll learn

790
00:48:39.079 --> 00:48:43.880
more about James Really Alumni Network,
go to their website. It's Enterprise alumni

791
00:48:44.039 --> 00:48:46.360
dot com. Last week you missed
the live show, you can always sketch

792
00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:51.719
af be recorded podcast we run the
Doctor Herbert Senate, who's the encouragement doctor,

793
00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:54.400
talking about the importance of surrounding yourself
with people who lived and can inspire

794
00:48:54.400 --> 00:48:58.719
you to take on life's opportunities.
Next week we'll be on the air with

795
00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:01.920
Michael Oster talk talking about his book
Level Up, which will help you regain

796
00:49:02.039 --> 00:49:06.719
your forward momentum by using a personal
and powerful method to become the best possible

797
00:49:06.800 --> 00:49:09.119
version of you, both as a
person and as a leader. See you

798
00:49:09.199 --> 00:49:12.400
there. Remember that work is at
least one third of our life, so

799
00:49:12.599 --> 00:49:21.679
Let's Work on Purpose. We hope
you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure

800
00:49:21.719 --> 00:49:25.119
to tune into Working on Purpose,
featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortez,

801
00:49:25.320 --> 00:49:30.480
each week on the Voice America Empowerment
Channel. Together, we'll create a world

802
00:49:30.480 --> 00:49:38.000
where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires
impassioned performance, and employees are fulfilled in

803
00:49:38.039 --> 00:49:43.880
work that provides the meaning and purpose
they crave. See you there, Let's

804
00:49:44.039 --> 00:49:45.039
work on Purpose.

Winning in the Age of Meaningful Connection with the Corporate Alumni Network

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