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 Cortes. Welcome

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

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I'm your host, Doctor Alice Cortez. Join you lie 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 you know this program
as a thought leadership series that enlightens and

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inspires listeners with insights from distinguished business
leaders and subject matter experts. Before we

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get in today's conversation, I want
to give you two announcements from the road.

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First, September marks the launch of
Gusto Now, which is a growth

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and transformation institute dedicated to awakening meaning, passion, inspiration, and purpose and

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people, leadership and organizations will be
featuring leadership development and other professional development courses

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on this e learning platform, available
to individuals and companies in English, Spanish

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and Portuguese. You can move more
at gustodashnow dot com. Second announcement is

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my book Purpose Ignited, How Inspirational
Leaders Ignite passion and Elevate Cause, is

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finally due out on Amazon November sixteenth. You can pre order it there.

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I wrote the book to turn you
on to ignite your passion, inspiration and

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purpose and radically change the way leadership
is conducted and business is done across the

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world. Now on this week's program, our guest today is James Sinclair,

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the chief executive and co founder of
Enterprise Alumni, which is a leading alumni

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and retiree engagement platform. Their software
powers the corporate alumni networks of the world's

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largest companies, leveraging this fast,
untapped pool of people for talent, sales,

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marketing, and community. We'll be
talking about the importance of relationship management

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in business today, how Alumni network
can came to be, and how the

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platform improves operations for business in today's
purpose economy. You joined today from Los

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Angeles California. James, welcome to
Working on Purpose. Thank you so much

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for having me. I'm so excited
about the book. I can't believe that

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was point number two. That should
be point number one. I've been up

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to all kinds of fun things in
this pandemic, James. Let me just

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say that it's just been fun,
all kinds of mischief, including you.

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By the way, you're part of
my mischief. So I loved it when

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we cross paths. And I like
to start my shows by acquainting playfully our

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listeners and viewers with my guests,
and so among other passions. You know,

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I'm an identity researcher, James,
and so we got to start by

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how you cheekily if I can use
that word, put on your LinkedIn profile

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that you're an e NTJ, which
is in Meyers Brigs personality type a mix

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of technology growth, hacker, business
acceleration, and generally shiny truck and new

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gadget syndrome. Guy, can you
say more about this person that I'm talking

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to. I don't know if we
have enough time in the day to talk

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about talk about that. You know
I did. I did that survey with

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a identity researcher many many years ago, and the reality is she was exactly

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right across the board. And I
think one of the great things about about

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that is actually can teach you and
give you learnings of areas to focus on

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things that perhaps I didn't consider recognize
about myself that when you read it,

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you're like, Oh, that's me, and then you're like, oh,

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that's me, and I need to
make some adjustments of that. And so,

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you know, I think the reason
I like to put it out there

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is because I think it works.
I think it's nice's nice icebreaker, and

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for people who are into identity research
and that type of thing, it's a

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great way to kind of start a
conversation and laugh a little bit amongst the

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pros and cons of what that even
means. Well, you know what's so

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great from my vantage point, James, because in my view, you're really

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in the business of relationship management and
so right in so many Just today I

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gave a webinar a presentation and I
was saying, job number one is self

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awareness. Right, So if we
know how it is we're navigating the world

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and what motivates us, we can
then bring it when it really makes sense

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and then take it back a little
bit and notch it back when we need

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to. So for example, I
am I'm an e FJ. So my

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heavy duty energy can blow your hair
back, and some people don't like that,

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so right, I moderate that.
So the fact that you here,

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you are, you are right,
I mean, tell me if you see

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it differently. But I see that
you're in the business of relationship management,

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right, yes, no, kind
of okay, all right, So here's

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where I think it's interesting. So
increasingly I would say that conscious business people

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understand the value of nurturing relationships with
all stakeholders, certainly those employees who have

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left, and your platform helps them
sustain their relationship with past employees, among

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others. So can you say more
about why this is so important? So

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yes, I can, And I
think the way to kind of put it

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out into a sentence is for organizations, and this doesn't matter the size.

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You spend a lot of time,
effort, and resources trying to find that

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perfect person or maybe even the good
person that can fill the role, and

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you spend even more time kind of
retaining them hopefully and being a great employer

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hopefully, and then when they leave. The old way was like, well,

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good luck and maybe you know you
got that job you know somewhere else,

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and maybe I'm a little bit annoyed
about it. Maybe I think it's

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treason, whatever the conversation might be. And I think in the past few

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years you've seen that actually come around
where you're in your new role because of

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us, because of the company we
are, because of the opportunities we gave

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you, and why would we throw
that away just because you walk out the

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door. I mean, we have
one customer of ours who I'm just in

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love with because she basically sends out
a gift bag. I don't know if

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she does that anymore because of COVID, but essentially sends out like a gift

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bag of stuff two weeks into your
new job that just says, Hey,

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we hope you're doing amazing at your
new role. We all miss you here.

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You know, whatever we can do. Essentially, she's saying the doors

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always open without saying And I thought
it was just the most beautiful act of

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understanding what it means to be in
it for the long haul. Essentially,

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James, I love that that is
so evolved and what I see there is

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that that just the interconnectivity of it
all right that just because you left today

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you needed to grow into a new
opportunity, doesn't mean, as you said,

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can't come back. And I also
appreciate the fluidity of that. In

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fact, one of the things that
you said to me when we had our

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get appointed conversation that I so appreciate
having started my career in recruiting in human

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capital twenty some years ago, is
you said that how employees leave a company

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is as important as when they join. Say more about that. Oh,

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I feel like every question you love
at me is going to come with a

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grumble first of like, oh where
do I start? So I'm gonna watch

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myself. So I think there's two
answers there. The first, going back

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to that first example of the lady
that sends out the gift box or the

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thank you or the note to the
people that have left, is there are

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going to be people who say,
why would you invest that money? What's

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the ROI of doing that? And
show me the value? And my answer

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is very often that if you have
trouble conceptualizing that investing in relationships make sense,

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then you're going to have a fundamental
problem with your growth and maybe it

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might not catch up to you.
Maybe it will. But essentially some of

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the most meaningful things that count often
can't be counted, and I think people

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forget about that when they're thinking about
you do need a business case for why

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you should be a good employer,
why you should keep in touch. You

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need a vision statement, you need
a perspective. And so I think when

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we talk about how you leave the
company, it's because when you leave,

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the first thing that happens when you
go to your new job is, hey,

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where did you come from? And
they're either going to say, I

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was working at X and I escaped, or I worked at why and it

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was awesome and let me tell you
about it. And you're always going to

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talk about your experience in the last
company in this positive way. And actually

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it's one of the most important brand
moments there possibly is, because one hundred

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percent of people that leave will at
some point reference their employ ooyment. And

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so it's a non negotiable that every
single touch point you have with any single

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human should be how you would treat
your best customer. And anyone who thinks

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that it's negotiable that you can treat
vendors through procurement differently to how you treat

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people onboarding into jobs, or people
offboarding are again not recognizing that the world

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is changing and they are going to
be left behind. Oh James, this

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is so delicious and yummy, right. Is there a better way to converse

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than something gets so enlightened? Let's
compare in contrast, shall we. I

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remember distinctly when I got into the
recruiting space in late nineteen ninety eight Seattle,

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Washington. We were recruiting like crazy, especially technical people. But I

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also remember distinctly the practice of when
it was time to sever a un employment

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relationship. What that looked like a
generally speaking, what happened is the unsuspecting

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employee or contractor would be sitting in
their officer cube working when they would be

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sort of picked up by the scruff
of their neck and led out to the

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parking lot. And just before that, they were in a box and told

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of grab what it was was in
the arm vicinity put it in in the

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box, and they were walked out
to the parking lot and dropped off.

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I always thought that was so incredibly
disgusting and dehumanizing, and so what you

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have ushered in is so much more
sensible, enlightened, and humane, And

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I think you know, sometimes it's
it's there's very short term missed attitude to

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it. The person in that role
responsible for your separation, off boarding,

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whatever you want to call it,
whether it has a name, or whether

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it's just kicking them out the door. It is often not thinking about the

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bigger picture. You know. They
think there's just one rain drop in the

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you know, in the in the
thunderstorm, and the reality is that's not

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the case. And I think it's
a company's obligation to realize, actually,

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they are all interconnected. Everything is
interconnected. And when you think about relationship

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community whatever that means, there's no
start and stop. There's no beginning and

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end. It just is. You
know, I just had a conversation with

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a colleague of mine. We're going
through procurement with a company who is just

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amazing. There is a lady wh
phones me every week to let me know

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how I'm doing. Hey, this
is where you're at, this is where

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the contract is, this is where
billing, this is where you're going to

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go to make sure you get paid. And every week when she phones me,

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I just start with telling her how
much I love her. And I

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mean that so honestly because it is
such an amazing thing, And so we

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always end up talking like, how
do you even get hired for this role?

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You know, what is your how
you judged? And she and I'm

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like, are you going to send
me a survey afterwards? And if I

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give you a ten, that's how
your bonus is She said no, she

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said, no one does. We're
going to send you a survey. So

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we want to make sure I'm doing
a great job. But that's not how

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I'm judged. My performance isn't based
on your ten. My performance is based

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on are you happy doing business with
us? And are you excited to do

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business with us? And are you
going to deliver incredible software to us?

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And it's really hard not to be
a little blown away when on the other

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side we have some customers where there's
a little bit of like, oh,

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you're the vendor, you should be
thrilled to be doing business with us,

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you know step aside, I'm familiar
with that, And again I want to

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acknowledge that there is such an enlightenment
in being able to see how everything is

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interconnected and interdependent, all those relationships, all that energy. It's just I

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think it's so great for us.
One of the things I love about hosting

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the show, James, is to
be able to help and advance the leadership,

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the thinking, the operation of working
and in a business today. And

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you are beautifully doing this, James. I love it. I'm so glad

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I found you or you found me, whatever it was. Thank you.

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Yeah, you know I have if
I can an amazing example of how this

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plays out kind of in the reworld, if I can, if I can

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just lomb something in there, Pa
love. This is for a restaurant chain,

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and a North American restaurant chain,
hundreds and hundreds of them, full

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service, sit down and I guess
again today maybe not as applicable, and

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then they've moved in towards delivery and
so forth. But essentially they are America's

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first employer. To a certain extent, people come out of high school and

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they're working there, their first job, living with their parents, whatever it

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might be. Many people might not
be going to university. And the number

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one cause of attrition of when people
leave the company is no call, no

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show. Someone young that wakes up
late, does something wrong, forgets something

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doesn't show up for whatever reason,
good or bad, and thinks the responsibility

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or the accurate thing to do is
to put the head in the sand and

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to ignore it and hope it goes
away. The chro of this brand basically

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said it is his personal obligation to
teach people. Number one, that's not

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how business works. You just phone
you tell them you made a mistake,

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you made an error. How can
I make it up? But he said,

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forgetting that, I believe it is
my responsibility to teach people this.

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I can't afford to lose their entire
family. So if you think about that

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individual, his entire or her entire
family can no longer come to this restaurant

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because if they're like, hey,
let's go here for Sally's birthday, this

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kid that overslept intern up is gonna
be like, oh, I can't go

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there. That's the manager. I
stood up and never returned their call.

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He's like, I can't afford to
lose fifty customers because one kid, you

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know, overslept. And I think
it doesn't always. You know, sometimes

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

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you recognize this just a financial business
recognition of doing the right thing actually leads

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to incredible business results. That's so
beautiful. James and again, we're teaching

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strategy. Right. When I was
teaching at SMU related to what you're saying,

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I taught a course called Professional Seminar, which was for juniors and seniors

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and essentially, James, what it
was is how to get and keep your

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first job. And it's so important
that socialization that first job. I love

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

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to ask. We've talked about why
this is a good idea, but what

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

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I think what companies? So no
one ever looks at it. Very rarely

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people look at it and say this
is a terrible idea. Yes, you're

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going to have some people who maybe
just through and not to be an agist,

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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 we just have to accept

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

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

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

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

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manage kind of how they're going to
they're going to deal with the 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 commerce

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

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

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you know 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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cost 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

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

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Cortes. We are there with James
Sinclair, the chief executive and co founder

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of Enterprise Alumni, a leading alumni
and retiree engagement platform. You knowested today

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from Los Angeles, California, and
we've been talking a bit about the importance

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of relationship management in today's purpose economy. After the break, we're going to

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learn how Enterprise Alumni came to be. Stay with us, We'll be right

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back. Doctor Elise Cortes is a
management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose and

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inspirational speaker and author. She helps
companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and

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develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused
cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and

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commitment within the workforce. To learn
more or to invite Elise to speak to

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your organization, please visit her at
Elisecortes 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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Elise Cortes. To reach our program
today or open a conversation with Alise,

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send an email to Aleise Alise at
Elisecortes dot com. Now back to working

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

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Purpose if you're just joining us.
My guest is James Sinclair, the chief

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executive and co founder of Enterprise Alumni, a leading alumni and retiree engagement platform.

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

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this vast UNTAPPEDUOL with people for talent, sales, marketing, and community.

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I'm your host, doctor release Cortes. All right, so James, in

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

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I would want to learn where this
thing came from. Right, It's no

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small deal to burp the idea to
start Alumnie Newhork come from? How was

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it born or hatched? If you
will. So I was in HU Tech

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and I was really focused around the
time that I think all of us will

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remember is people moving essentially from on
premise HR systems built in the basement by

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professional services companies, cumbersome, awful, stress, you know, anxiety ridden

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moving to the cloud. I mean
the first to do it was in sales

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with Salesforce essentially and their CRM.
Then you saw success factors work day.

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

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they moved to the cloud, they
needed to move all of these awkward little

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things they've built around their on premise
kind of existing systems with it. You

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know, oh, we have this
thing for you know how we offboard or

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separation or compliance, whatever it is. And so we saw this opportunity that

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would allow very large customers to actually
do business with small niche software houses.

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You know, in the old days, you're not going to buy software from

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US speakeruse you know again professional services, SAP and accenture own your entire relationship,

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and why would you go outside of
that. You're going to custom build.

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But what we saw with the cloud
is this massive opportunity for niche vendors

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to be very good at one specific
area. And so we really started exploring

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what is out there and what's going
on and what a company's looking at,

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and ultimately we came to a proof
of concept with one customer. We were

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working on and we work on an
innovation project for some of their HR processes,

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and this concept of how people leave
and replacement and opportunities and benefits came

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up and you know, light bulb
hit was like, huh, that could

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be a thing. So we did
a proof of concept. We tested it

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out with our one of our first
customers and that was actually Leuft Hansa and

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it worked really well, and over
a period about a year, we thought

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that was it custom project, We're
done. But over about a year we

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had about five more people come up
and say, well, we want this

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thing, whatever that is. And
that was about four years ago, and

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on the beginning of year two we
were like, oh, this is real.

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There's a massive gap, there's a
massive white space, and the data

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is sufficient that we don't have to
rely on early adopters. We can actually

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give some real data that says if
you implement a program, these are the

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results you're going to see. And
so yes, about three three and a

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half years ago, became Enterprise Alumni
and we've raced to market ever since.

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Kudo's hats off. Oh, it's
just fantastic. It's so great to see

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something birthed right. So one of
the other things that I stand for is

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to really help nurture more entrepreneurs in
the world who are solving problems in the

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world and expressing themselves through the work
that they do. That's part of what

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I stand for. So I want
to hear a little bit more about that

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story so that those listening that have
maybe just even a slight inkling that they

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might want to do something in the
way of entrepreneurship they've got an idea,

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help us understand. So for Luftwansen
was trying to do something to the extent

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that you can share with us.
What was it the problem they were trying

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to solve? Why did they want
to engage with you? So I think

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one of the big areas of all
of this and being an entrepreneur or having

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an idea and not necessarily be an
entrepreneur, just being able to kind of

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see the forest through the trees or
whatever one wants to call it, is

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just hearing a tidbit in the middle
of a conversation that one three words that

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goes unnoticed but actually is absolutely everything. And so being able to hear that

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and say, one second, I
heard that it has served me very well

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in my entire career because as I
speak to customers and I hear their problems,

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hear what they're trying to do,
being able to pick up on something

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that others might ignore is really where
opportunity is. And so for us,

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you know, we were there for
a different project related to HR transformation and

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processes, but it was this one
conversation around how employees leave, when they

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leave, why they leave a career
for life. You know, Luftanza is

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an amazing organization to treat their people
incredibly well, but there's also this recognition

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or the conversation I was sitting into, which is, actually, there might

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be a benefit of asking people to
leave, leave, go out, get

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some new skills, some different skills, new network, different network, and

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then bring you back. But why
would you Because Luftana's an incredible employer,

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why would you ever leave? And
so the conversation was, maybe if people

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left, but we could still continue
to give them all the benefits, all

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the perks that are so brilliant,
would that actually make people more inclined to

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say, you know what, I
am going to try something new and if

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we made it clear it was easy
to come back. And so it's spawn

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that's one idea that at the time, the chro had this kind of vague

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thought process of is asking people to
leave actually in the best interest of the

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

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and when they come back, they're
going to come back swinging. And

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I was a little bit taken aback
with like wow. Number one, just

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in general, just wow, because
I love hearing people talk about their vision

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statements. And two is, well, they're going to need something to be

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able to do that with and there's
nothing out there. And they were talking

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at the time about using a CRM
or custom building something. And that's really

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what kicked it off was, Hey, I think there's something here. Why

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

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And I think to other entrepreneurs,
it's really important to recognize that the only

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thing more important than the product is
customers. And so for us, I've

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always believed in you've got to find
the customer, you got to find the

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business case, you've got to find
the problem first. For suspending eight months

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in the lab trying to create something, especially for the software that we're doing,

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and hoping that when you come to
market you know, field of dreams,

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everyone's going to come because that doesn't
exist. It doesn't matter how great

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you know you might be. So
I think for Liftans there was also a

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great understanding into a visionary cochro doctor
Bettan the Vulcans, who just had a

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perspective of what the next ten,
twenty thirty years look like for the Liftanzer

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group. Okay, this is now
getting beyond yummy. I need to create

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a new term because yummy just doesn't
quite do it anymore. So here's what

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I want to celebrate about what you're
talking about, James. As a growth

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and transformation professional, my jam is
seeing molecules change in front of my eyes.

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And there's nothing more exciting to me
than that. And I just got

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to do that today on an earlier
call with something with an executive I'm coaching.

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So the idea that an organization would
intentionally ask someone to leave the organization

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so that they can go and retool, refuel, if you will, add

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something to their person and their set
of tools, and then be welcome to

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come back is so refreshing because here's
what I know. We need a catalyzing

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force to be able to ignite that
development. And oftentimes what I see in

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organizations that have long standing tenure of
employees is a certain stagnancy. They have

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missed the opportunity to really see in
new environments, be forced to do things

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in a whole different way and therefore
learn and grow and expand their their strategic

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mindset. And so this is so
refreshing to hear how this CRHO has this

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vision of intentionality to grow people by
actually asking them to leave and come back.

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I think it's just reflective or look, it's a leadership conversation period.

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It has to start at the top, and the reason has to start at

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the top ISCA. It's got to
have someone who has long term vision in

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terms of the fact that they're going
to be there in a year, two

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year, five year, ten years, but also the vision to say,

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okay, let's try it. Why
wouldn't we Why wouldn't we put together risk

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analysis, work out what we can
do, confine it, try it,

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and if it doesn't work, okay. I think people misinterpret the concept of

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failure. You know, failures have
overused term. You hear it all the

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time on podcast of like you know, run into failure, fast follow your

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failure. There's all these words about
it, but actually a certain extent,

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I think it's an overrated and the
wrong word to use in a majority of

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scenarios, because a majority of failures
actually get you one step closer to success.

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A majority of failures are building blocks
to new information. I think we've

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pitched this, you know, fail
fast, fail quickly. Nope, that's

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just learn and iterate. And I
think we've given the wrong mentality to entrepreneurs,

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which is it's okay if you fail. No it's not. It's just

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not failing, it's it's morokating.
Yeah, devastating is not okay to fail.

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Why don't you look at it the
other way? That says, what

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do you need to do to get
closer to correctness whatever that might mean.

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And it's a never ending journey.
I mean. I had a call this

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morning with a customer who was talking
to us about our release. It was

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an IT side of the customer.
They want to know releases and versions,

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and I said, you need to
understand something. Our product is in perpetual

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beta. And he looked at me
as if I was that I was going

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to be the end of my contract. And I said, and that is

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in the best interest of you because
everything changes consistently, and if you're not

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using changes in behavior and patterns and
everything to iterate your product, then you're

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really staying stagnant. And I think
that applies to individuals, to companies,

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to everything. Is this perpetual state
of beta doesn't mean that, oh,

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you've hit failure, you're going to
just jump off a cliff. No,

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it means, Okay, we're going
to try things and see what happens.

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Hm hmm. So agree with that, and that's such an important governing mindset

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to embrace. And with that,
I really wanted to get the opportunity to

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be able to ask you to share
about some of the things that you've had

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to navigate through. I'm sure that
along these four years there's been just a

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couple of challenges and things that you've
had to overcome, So share with It's

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just maybe a couple that maybe will
help our listeners understand how you have uniquely

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embraced this whole attitude of risk and
failing and read what do I want to

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say, retooling. So this morning
we were having a conversation where we're working

405
00:25:48.839 --> 00:25:52.200
on something and there's some complexity,
and people were talking about the mayhem and

406
00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:53.920
the chaos and the you know,
basically, I came in and locked the

407
00:25:53.960 --> 00:25:57.400
grenade in the middle of the project
management team with a new idea I had,

408
00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:00.759
And I remind everyone, you remember
three and a half years ago,

409
00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:03.839
when we had one customer. You
want to talk about a grenade, I

410
00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:07.200
had no grenades because I had one
customer. We were wondering how we were

411
00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:08.839
going to get our second customer.
When we had two customers, we had

412
00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:11.839
a platform that wasn't fully stable,
and we were trying to work out how

413
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:15.240
we were going to you know,
fake it till we make it, you

414
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:18.039
know, a five customers, we
suddenly needed support, but we didn't have

415
00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:21.039
it. So all of us were
running twenty four seven support on our phones

416
00:26:21.319 --> 00:26:23.440
and having alarms wake us up.
If a customer in Europe woke, you

417
00:26:23.480 --> 00:26:27.119
know, submitted support ticket. The
problems never go away, They just change

418
00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:32.319
and it doesn't get easier it again, it just different. And I think

419
00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:34.960
people seem really easy to forget the
pain of like last year and or the

420
00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:37.640
pain of three years ago. I
always tell people were in things, I'm

421
00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:41.119
like, remember this, because in
two years, when you complain about something,

422
00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:42.640
I'm going to remind you about this. Moment and how the world was

423
00:26:42.759 --> 00:26:48.200
ending right here and it wasn't.
So I think one of that is recognizing

424
00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:52.920
that the pain is the only difference
is the level, the the you know,

425
00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:53.839
the amount of it. You know, as we get bigger, we

426
00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:57.400
have bigger contracts, we have government
contracts, just bigger problems, different problems,

427
00:26:57.599 --> 00:27:00.319
you know, doesn't change how how
quickly I might lose my hair.

428
00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:04.759
And I think the second side of
that is also my personal growth, which

429
00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:07.839
is how to be a great employer. And I think that is accelerated in

430
00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:11.880
the past six months and that has
done more learning for this company and our

431
00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:17.240
product than actually anything has in my
life in terms of learning how to be

432
00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:18.680
a great, great employer. You
know, the one thing I've always done

433
00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:22.319
is when I interview people, I
always first question, when you leave us

434
00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:26.119
in three years, what role are
you going to get? And people are

435
00:27:26.119 --> 00:27:27.440
like, what, like, when
you leave us in three years? Because

436
00:27:27.480 --> 00:27:30.680
I hope that either you do or
if you don't, it means everything's amazing.

437
00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:33.799
What is the next role? Are
you going to have head counter?

438
00:27:33.880 --> 00:27:34.559
You're going to have this? Are
you're going to be VP? What is

439
00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:37.240
the role you're going to go into? And you know, on one side,

440
00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:41.200
it always baffles people because people don't
ask that. But two is I

441
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:45.039
explain to my employees or to prospect, I need to understand what I've got

442
00:27:45.079 --> 00:27:47.480
to do to keep you. I
need to understand what I've got to do

443
00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:49.920
at every single moment of every day
to retain you, because retaining you is

444
00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:52.359
a right, sorry, retaining you
is a privilege, not a right.

445
00:27:52.759 --> 00:27:56.799
And therefore, if I don't know
your three year goal, if I don't

446
00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:59.880
know where you're going, then someone
else is going to come in and swoop

447
00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:03.920
you. And so I think that
learning is as important as the business.

448
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:07.559
Learning is trying to be a good
leader, especially now when everyone's you know,

449
00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:14.599
working over zoom wonderful points. That's
so so great to share all of

450
00:28:14.599 --> 00:28:15.720
those things, and it makes me
think the next thing I really want to

451
00:28:15.720 --> 00:28:19.119
get to Because let me back up
and give some context first, from my

452
00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:22.000
vantage point, James, I am
very very biased in this. I do

453
00:28:22.079 --> 00:28:26.079
think that work is a pretty amazing
playground when you get it right, when

454
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:30.640
you have the right fit right for
a lot of people, about eighty five

455
00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:33.200
percent of the globe as it is, really don't quite see it that way.

456
00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:34.519
Just so, so you and I
are both working on changing that.

457
00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:37.160
In fact, one of the things
I didn't say is part of what I'm

458
00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:41.400
doing, especially in the pandemic,
is helping organizations to look at and evaluate.

459
00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:45.400
Let's look at all of your human
capital processes and procedures and see which

460
00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:48.599
ones need to be either're completely thrown
out entirely because they were invented in nineteen

461
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:52.519
eighty two or adopted in nineteen eighty
two, or they are sucking the soul

462
00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:55.119
out of the people that you're trying
to motivate and get to perform. So

463
00:28:55.839 --> 00:28:57.359
anyway, all that said, I
love the work that I get to do.

464
00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:00.400
I get to live my purpose and
snaky suspicion that you have a little

465
00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:03.640
bit of fun at what you're doing. So I want to hear a few

466
00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:07.599
things that you're proud of at what
you've done. Enterprise Alumni, I'm proud

467
00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:12.720
of everything the team has managed to
accomplish as an organization. And the reason

468
00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:17.200
is so important to be proud of
everything is because I'm here and it's working,

469
00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:21.039
and we have amazing customers in you
know, the global two thousand and

470
00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:23.640
they're all referenceable, and I think
all of that, I think I'm most

471
00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:27.039
proud about the culture we've created as
an organization, which is a culture of

472
00:29:27.559 --> 00:29:33.480
recognizing that everyone's different, everyone works
differently, everyone's motivated by different ways.

473
00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:37.960
I'm proud of an early thing I
did, which is making our engineers interface

474
00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:41.519
with our customers. What I it
was a program we originally called Feel Their

475
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:45.160
Pain and the reason was because when
the customer is telling us about a problem

476
00:29:45.240 --> 00:29:48.480
or a thing that they're trying to
solve, and we try and relay that

477
00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:51.319
to the product team, and we're
small, so I say relay it's looking

478
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:52.319
to my right and being like,
hey, Ken, here's a problem.

479
00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:55.400
You know, by the time it
gets to an engineer is yes, they

480
00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:00.279
don't understand the you know what went
into that conversation. And so so what

481
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:03.480
I realized really early is by putting
people everyone in our organization to meet our

482
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:07.839
customers, to know our customers,
the amount of pride they have when they

483
00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:11.200
deliver something for one of our customers
is just incredible because they know I'm delivering

484
00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:15.119
this and this is something that Sam
wants and it's going to make his life

485
00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:18.240
better. And when you can connect
those dots, you know you talked about

486
00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:22.240
it, which is understanding where you
fit into the ecosystem, but understanding that

487
00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:26.400
the whole ecosystem is connected and if
you disconnect areas, the only thing it

488
00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:29.680
can lead to is lack of something. It doesn't grow anything when you silo

489
00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:33.279
a section of your organization. And
I think the final section I'm really proud

490
00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:36.519
of is being really open and transparent
with our customers. You know, we

491
00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:41.319
are a small company and we have
monster customers, infinitely bigger than us,

492
00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:42.839
and we like telling them that,
look, there are pros and cons and

493
00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:45.519
here's what they are, and here's
why it's great. But here's what you're

494
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:48.480
going to get. You know,
my first few customers, I remember when

495
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:52.200
I went back and said, hey, I'm building out like a reputable sales

496
00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:55.240
process to get more customers. I
need to understand why you said yes.

497
00:30:55.920 --> 00:31:00.880
And the majority answer was I didn't
think your product was there yet. Was

498
00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:03.640
actually what I heard overwhelmingly, And
of course I fell off my chair of

499
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:06.319
like, oh my god, is
this I might be canceled. I've phoned

500
00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:07.759
you for advice and this is the
end of our contract. But they said,

501
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:11.079
actually, we brought into your vision, we brought into your team's vision.

502
00:31:11.319 --> 00:31:14.519
We knew you were going to get
there, and if you got there,

503
00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:18.759
we knew it was going to be
amazing. And transparency with your customers

504
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:22.319
is just everything because it means it
set the right expectations. It means when

505
00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:25.960
all hell breaks loose, which it
may do at any point, you can

506
00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:27.400
literally send a text and they're going
to be like, no problem, keep

507
00:31:27.400 --> 00:31:32.400
me updated. As opposed to this
is unacceptable, this is MAYHEMI your own

508
00:31:32.440 --> 00:31:36.480
breach. You know, when you
treat everyone as a partner versus a customer

509
00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:40.960
vendor relationship, you see such accelerated
growth through your organization, through your sales

510
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:44.960
channels, and through the relationships and
the conversations that you get to have human

511
00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:49.000
to human versus customer to vendor.
And I think that's something that we've really

512
00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:56.200
worked on since day one. So
beautiful and again showcasing the true value and

513
00:31:56.279 --> 00:32:04.079
the ROI of building beautiful, precious
relationship. Beautiful center. All right,

514
00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:07.359
our last break, Elise Cortez,
your host, leirandiir with James Sinclair,

515
00:32:07.440 --> 00:32:09.880
the chief executive and co founder of
Enterprise Alumni, a leading alumni and a

516
00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:15.200
retiree engagement platform. He joined us
today from Los Angeles, California. After

517
00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:17.200
the rerek. We're going to hear
more about the business win and application of

518
00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:22.000
this platform. Stay with us,
We'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortes

519
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:27.640
is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose and inspirational speaker and author.

520
00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:34.559
She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose
among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and

521
00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:39.799
meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment,
performance, and commitment within the workforce.

522
00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:45.720
To learn more or to invite Elise
to speak to your organization, please visit

523
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:50.480
her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's
talk about how to get your employees working

524
00:32:50.559 --> 00:33:01.000
on purpose. This is working on
purpose with thet to release Cortes to reach

525
00:33:01.039 --> 00:33:06.680
our program today or open a conversation
with alease send an email to a lease

526
00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:15.960
Alise at elisecortes dot com. Now
back to working on purpose. Thanks for

527
00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:20.000
staying with us, and welcome back
to working on purpose if you're just tuning

528
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:22.960
in. My guest is James Sinclair, the chief executive and co founder of

529
00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:28.039
Enterprise Alumni, a leading alumni and
retiree engagement platform. Their software powers the

530
00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:31.359
corporate alumni networks of the world's largest
companies, leveraging the vast untapped pool of

531
00:33:31.359 --> 00:33:35.319
people for talent, sales, marketing, and community. I'm your host,

532
00:33:35.319 --> 00:33:38.279
doctor Elise Cortes. So for this
last segment, I really wanted us to

533
00:33:38.319 --> 00:33:43.759
talk about how this application that you've
created, this platform they've created, really

534
00:33:43.880 --> 00:33:46.240
helps businesses win. And so I
read on your website a couple of really

535
00:33:46.279 --> 00:33:49.559
cool things. I love all the
information that you have out there. It's

536
00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:53.200
so important to be to be enlightened. But you say that Alumni Network helps

537
00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:59.440
companies filling up to twenty percent of
all open requisitions via alumni and alumni referrals

538
00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:04.759
and fifty percent average reduction in time
to productivity and forty four percent higher retention.

539
00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:08.239
So obviously this translates to these to
how companies win by using your platform.

540
00:34:08.280 --> 00:34:13.280
But help us understand a bit more
about why these numbers are so important

541
00:34:13.280 --> 00:34:15.840
to organizations for those or maybe you
are not so acquainted to the recruiting space.

542
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:20.599
Yeah, and I think that's a
great question. You know, not

543
00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:22.920
everyone thinks about community or relationships from
it. Oh, I'm going to recruit

544
00:34:22.920 --> 00:34:27.320
from it. But the reality is, these are people that know your organization,

545
00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:30.599
they know your politics, they know
elevator three is always broken, they

546
00:34:30.639 --> 00:34:32.360
know to get to lunch six minutes
early. They know all the bits and

547
00:34:32.360 --> 00:34:37.960
pieces, including the skeletons in the
closet about your organization. And so there's

548
00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:40.079
three data points that we kind of
have based on all of our day.

549
00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:44.559
Number one is about eighty percent of
all levers, eligible leavers, not people

550
00:34:44.559 --> 00:34:46.920
who are terminated for cause, all. About eighty percent of all eligible levers

551
00:34:46.960 --> 00:34:52.320
would return for the right opportunity.
All about eighty percent A majority of them

552
00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:54.760
are never going to go to your
career's website and fill in their resume.

553
00:34:54.920 --> 00:34:58.480
I mean, I can't imagine again
in my life I'm ever going to visit

554
00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:02.400
careers dot that company or common create
a profile and update my update my competencies.

555
00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:07.880
But having access to those people and
giving them an accelerated re entry if

556
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:10.840
they do take the job. Number
one is you can ask their old manager.

557
00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:14.079
You know, hey, Sally,
how is it I like to work

558
00:35:14.119 --> 00:35:16.280
with Frank? And she's going to
tell you he's great, he's amazing.

559
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:19.519
Here's what you have to work on, here's what you don't this is what's

560
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:22.519
gonna work. You know. The
real, honest answer is the best way

561
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:23.719
to find out if someone's gonna be
a great fit is to work with them.

562
00:35:23.880 --> 00:35:25.920
You know, you've got to get
over that resume period. And not

563
00:35:25.960 --> 00:35:30.639
everyone likes this example, but I
really think about it from a dating perspective.

564
00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:32.000
You know, when you go on
and you have your first two months

565
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:36.840
of dating, everyone's on their best
behavior. And then you know, month

566
00:35:36.920 --> 00:35:38.960
two or month three, day three, you leave a cup by the sink

567
00:35:38.960 --> 00:35:42.599
instead of washing it and cleaning and
putting in the dishwasher. You know,

568
00:35:42.639 --> 00:35:45.800
by month six, you know,
my wife has worked out. I'm a

569
00:35:45.800 --> 00:35:47.159
bit of a slop. And the
key is, you know, because it

570
00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:51.559
takes comfort to understand it. And
I know it's not maybe the greatest example,

571
00:35:51.679 --> 00:35:53.000
but that's how it works in business
as well. That you know,

572
00:35:53.119 --> 00:35:58.000
all the vectors, all the AI, all the intelligence doesn't actually show you

573
00:35:58.039 --> 00:36:00.960
what it's going to be like to
work with this huge So bringing someone back

574
00:36:01.480 --> 00:36:05.320
gives you that answer. And that's
why it's the number one source of quality

575
00:36:05.400 --> 00:36:07.800
higher And what we mean by that
is at the end of the first year,

576
00:36:07.800 --> 00:36:09.679
they're still with the company, they're
not in a performance improvement program,

577
00:36:09.840 --> 00:36:14.440
and the manager rates them good or
better. So we know that data exists.

578
00:36:14.519 --> 00:36:17.360
And then the second data point is
feet on the ground quickly so if

579
00:36:17.400 --> 00:36:21.960
we think about two use cases we
currently have based on kind of where we

580
00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:24.360
are in the world. One of
our customers is going out to all of

581
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:28.840
their retirees and saying, would you
come back and work for us? Retire

582
00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:31.079
is that left in the last four
or five years? I think not because

583
00:36:31.119 --> 00:36:34.880
we need someone to fill in Excel
spreadsheets and do manual labor. No,

584
00:36:35.159 --> 00:36:37.760
because we don't have enough people in
our organization who have been through and recovered

585
00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:42.559
from a crisis, and we need
your leadership, We need your guidance,

586
00:36:42.599 --> 00:36:46.119
we need your expertise. Would you
return overwhelming yes, if at What was

587
00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:51.400
so amazing is how few people asked
how much? As in what's the opportunity?

588
00:36:51.639 --> 00:36:52.719
You know, I think a little
bit selfishly if someone had come to

589
00:36:52.760 --> 00:36:55.719
me with that question, my host
response will be like, Yeah, what

590
00:36:55.719 --> 00:36:59.360
are we looking at here? You
know, let's put together a deal structure.

591
00:36:59.519 --> 00:37:04.079
What was so amazing is these retirees
were so vested in the organization,

592
00:37:04.280 --> 00:37:06.519
you know, for a number of
reasons, including the fact that their retirement

593
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:09.679
account is linked to the business and
the business success. But it was an

594
00:37:09.719 --> 00:37:15.679
amazing conversation between a company and this
pool of people. And so when they

595
00:37:15.719 --> 00:37:17.360
do get back. They know everything, they know what works, they know

596
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:21.480
what doesn't work, and they're going
to be impactful. So I think when

597
00:37:21.519 --> 00:37:24.360
we think about this one answer of
what's the value, well, we know,

598
00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:27.639
we know what you are, we
know how you are, we know

599
00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:30.239
whether you're great. And we're seeing
a lot of companies saying, you know,

600
00:37:30.239 --> 00:37:31.840
we want to hire great people,
we'll teach them the skill. So

601
00:37:31.880 --> 00:37:36.920
how do we just find great people? Well, this talent pool of you

602
00:37:36.920 --> 00:37:39.039
know, from thousands to tens of
thousands that have worked with you over the

603
00:37:39.039 --> 00:37:44.239
past ten to fifteen years as an
organization, Well, diff a thing that

604
00:37:44.280 --> 00:37:46.920
strikes me going along the same dating
or marriage line there, James is,

605
00:37:47.280 --> 00:37:52.639
so, you know, let's an
employee leaves an organization because they just couldn't

606
00:37:52.679 --> 00:37:54.679
stand that that person, you know, my employer leaves the teacup by the

607
00:37:54.679 --> 00:37:58.239
sync. I hate that about my
employer. Right, they go to the

608
00:37:58.239 --> 00:38:00.360
direct employer and they realize none,
I leave the teacup, but the sink

609
00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:04.559
is full of dishes. I'd love
to come back to that teacup. Right.

610
00:38:04.639 --> 00:38:07.159
So the grass is an always screener, and so to have an opportunity

611
00:38:07.199 --> 00:38:10.519
a means to return to me just
make so much sense, and to make

612
00:38:10.559 --> 00:38:15.280
it civilized and humane is even better. We have a data point from a

613
00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:19.400
survey we did to all of our
users last year, and it's a little

614
00:38:19.400 --> 00:38:22.519
bit aggregate, so it's not perfect
because it includes all industries or globes,

615
00:38:22.760 --> 00:38:27.280
but nearly thirty percent of people regretted
their job move. But what am I

616
00:38:27.239 --> 00:38:29.119
going to do? I can't phone
you back up and be like, hey,

617
00:38:29.400 --> 00:38:30.800
remember me, I left four days
ago. I hate it. You

618
00:38:30.840 --> 00:38:34.719
can't do that. I mean my
arrogance, my arrogance alone would never or

619
00:38:34.760 --> 00:38:37.360
my ego alone would never actually let
me make that conversation. So that's why

620
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:42.519
I making sure you leave the door
open for those passive opportunities to return is

621
00:38:42.519 --> 00:38:45.760
so critical because it's a tough conversation. Who do I phone? Where do

622
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:46.559
I phone? How am I going
to do it? Is You've got to

623
00:38:46.559 --> 00:38:51.239
make it as easy as possible for
someone to stay in touch, whatever that

624
00:38:51.320 --> 00:38:53.119
might mean. And you've got to
break down all the barriers that people might

625
00:38:53.159 --> 00:38:58.360
have, whether it's my ego and
my arrogance, whether it's my confidence,

626
00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:00.639
whatever it is. You've got to
make sure that as an organization or is

627
00:39:00.719 --> 00:39:04.920
open all they have to do is
raise their hand just a few inches up

628
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:06.840
in the air, and you're going
to be right there to be like,

629
00:39:06.880 --> 00:39:14.880
hey, how can we help mm
hmm and again nice see that. I

630
00:39:14.920 --> 00:39:19.360
see this as a mechanism that helps
to develop communication and connection, which of

631
00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:22.559
course I stand for all of you
along. We all could use definitely be

632
00:39:22.920 --> 00:39:27.199
an improvement in communication and connection.
So your platform doing that. And then

633
00:39:27.239 --> 00:39:31.400
to that extent, I wonder,
James, you talk about how alumni network

634
00:39:31.480 --> 00:39:37.119
also provides a way for companies.
Doctor Cortez. I apologized, I missed

635
00:39:37.159 --> 00:39:39.679
the last section. There, no
worries. I thought I saw something disconnect

636
00:39:39.719 --> 00:39:44.440
there. What I was asking was
I wanted to better understand how alumni network

637
00:39:44.480 --> 00:39:47.280
helps companies to market their products and
services through their alumni. How does that

638
00:39:47.320 --> 00:39:52.199
work? The majority of people are
still customers. If you take Target,

639
00:39:52.239 --> 00:39:54.199
when you leave Target, you still
get a seven percent discount, you know,

640
00:39:54.280 --> 00:39:57.960
so you can leave Target however you
want. You can leave in a

641
00:39:58.000 --> 00:40:00.440
fit of rage because that employee leaves
the teac by the sink. But seven

642
00:40:00.440 --> 00:40:04.519
percent is for anyone who's been to
Target and popped in for batteries and walked

643
00:40:04.519 --> 00:40:07.400
out two hundred and ten dollars later, you know knows that seven percent is

644
00:40:07.480 --> 00:40:13.239
very important, and I think a
lot of organizations recognize that a customer is

645
00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:15.599
you know, I think I can't
remember who it is who basically said when

646
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:17.719
you leave, you're promoted from employee
to customer. And that's how we look

647
00:40:17.719 --> 00:40:21.199
about the exit process. And I'd
love to be able to give the credit,

648
00:40:21.400 --> 00:40:23.320
but I think that's really important,
and that goes not only for retail

649
00:40:23.559 --> 00:40:28.559
professional services. I think KPMG had
that stat of forty percent of net new

650
00:40:28.599 --> 00:40:31.559
business has an alumni's thumbprint on it. It doesn't mean the alumni originated the

651
00:40:31.559 --> 00:40:35.159
deal or signed the deal. It
just means somewhere along that chain of a

652
00:40:35.159 --> 00:40:38.360
deal being done and alumni stood up
and said something in favor. So if

653
00:40:38.519 --> 00:40:43.719
if someone is questioning whether or not
brand advocates work, well, I would

654
00:40:43.719 --> 00:40:45.719
tell you just look around, because
they do work. Because ninety percent of

655
00:40:45.760 --> 00:40:50.239
what you buy is based on someone's
recommendation. There and then, and some

656
00:40:50.280 --> 00:40:53.159
companies start by just offering a discount, a very tangible join our alumni network.

657
00:40:53.199 --> 00:40:55.679
This is the discount. You know. We have airlines that maintain,

658
00:40:55.760 --> 00:40:59.280
as we mentioned, some of the
same perks as you would have had when

659
00:40:59.320 --> 00:41:01.159
you're an employee, so a lot
of good reasons. It doesn't always have

660
00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:05.360
to be I'm joining the network to
get a new job, to learn something,

661
00:41:05.400 --> 00:41:07.199
to train, something, to connect. Sometimes it's okay to say I'm

662
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:12.079
joining the network because I'm going to
get a discount and that's a fair trade,

663
00:41:12.159 --> 00:41:15.519
you know. Sometimes it's okay to
say that, absolutely, this is

664
00:41:15.519 --> 00:41:19.800
what I wanted the deal. Absolutely. Back to your transparency thing. Okay,

665
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:22.239
So now at this point, we've
I think we've helped our listeners and

666
00:41:22.320 --> 00:41:24.079
viewers understand really what it is that
you do. Now, let's talk,

667
00:41:24.360 --> 00:41:28.880
maybe if we can, about a
business case of how a company has used

668
00:41:28.920 --> 00:41:34.880
the platform to improve their bottom line
results. I mean, almost every one

669
00:41:34.920 --> 00:41:37.719
of our customers has some sort of
an ROI dashboard or something similar. If

670
00:41:37.760 --> 00:41:42.559
I was to give a couple of
tidbits out there from a data perspective,

671
00:41:43.400 --> 00:41:46.679
I was on a recent webinar with
Ey and City and they both talked about

672
00:41:46.679 --> 00:41:53.239
the fact that Ey eighteen percent of
all employees are returners, City twelve percent

673
00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:58.679
of all employees are returners. And
City went one further and said, for

674
00:41:58.880 --> 00:42:00.880
positions of a certain g or hire
and I forget what they said, we

675
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:06.119
believe the saving is about seventy five
thousand dollars every time we hire someone back,

676
00:42:06.119 --> 00:42:08.280
because they stay longer, they're more
impactful, all of those stats.

677
00:42:08.480 --> 00:42:13.159
So you have companies out there that
are doing the research all day on this

678
00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:16.079
to recognize, you know, for
City, twelve percent seventy five thousand dollars

679
00:42:16.079 --> 00:42:20.480
saving per you're talking about a multimillion
dollar saving. But I think it's also

680
00:42:20.519 --> 00:42:22.199
important to recognize that some people are
like, well, great, I'm not

681
00:42:22.280 --> 00:42:25.599
City, I'm not euy, I
have a twelve person company. Cool,

682
00:42:25.639 --> 00:42:29.920
we have a small company too.
Referrals are just as important to us.

683
00:42:30.119 --> 00:42:32.800
Referrals are a critical source of talent
supply, a critical source of net new

684
00:42:32.840 --> 00:42:38.360
business. So I think these teachings
of maintaining a relationship are you know,

685
00:42:38.559 --> 00:42:40.880
across the board, doesn't matter who
you are, what size you are.

686
00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:44.519
In fact, I think it's just
a life lesson that sometimes takes a moment

687
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:46.800
to learn, which is you have
to nurture the relationships you have, and

688
00:42:46.840 --> 00:42:50.440
you only realize you haven't been graded
it when someone's like, hey, do

689
00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:52.079
you know anyone at IBM, and
you're like, oh, crap, I

690
00:42:52.159 --> 00:42:54.599
used to have a great friend that
worked there and I lost contact type of

691
00:42:54.639 --> 00:42:58.800
thing. You only really realize the
misconnections when you're like, oh, I

692
00:42:58.840 --> 00:43:01.000
made an error there and there was
no reason one email a year could have

693
00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:06.199
satisfied that. One like on a
Facebook post may have satisfied that. And

694
00:43:06.239 --> 00:43:08.880
so I think that whilst the data
is overwhelming, what you are seeing is

695
00:43:08.920 --> 00:43:13.960
a tremendous shift in all the companies
that are coming to us, specifically during

696
00:43:13.960 --> 00:43:15.760
this pandemic. I mean a majority
of our net new customers, our customers

697
00:43:15.880 --> 00:43:21.760
who are bleeding and you know,
firing or furloughing thousands of employees. Yet

698
00:43:21.840 --> 00:43:23.519
during this time, they're taking a
conscious effort to say, hey, this

699
00:43:23.679 --> 00:43:28.000
is awful, but this is not
the end of mankind. It's going to

700
00:43:28.039 --> 00:43:31.280
rebuild. And so the community and
these relationships matter. So this is now

701
00:43:31.320 --> 00:43:36.480
the time, more than ever to
build an alumni community and to connect them

702
00:43:36.519 --> 00:43:39.760
and to help them and do whatever
we can to you know, automate because

703
00:43:39.800 --> 00:43:43.920
we're resource, you know light,
but at the same time try and be

704
00:43:43.960 --> 00:43:46.320
of service and a value. We
have one amazing chro who came on a

705
00:43:46.360 --> 00:43:50.719
call a few weeks ago with one
of our customers to all of their alumni

706
00:43:51.039 --> 00:43:52.519
and said, look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry the position we're in,

707
00:43:52.599 --> 00:43:55.639
I'm sorry the organization we're in.
You know, here's what I want you

708
00:43:55.679 --> 00:43:58.800
to do. I want you to
go learn. I'm going to open up

709
00:43:58.800 --> 00:44:01.440
our entire learning management system. I'm
going to open up everything. Go learn,

710
00:44:01.480 --> 00:44:06.320
because here are five jobs we're hiring
right now that in January we didn't

711
00:44:06.360 --> 00:44:08.400
even know our jobs. We need
people to help support us on our Microsoft

712
00:44:08.519 --> 00:44:14.519
teams and things and remote and collaboration. Go learn. These all learnable competencies.

713
00:44:14.559 --> 00:44:17.000
They require no experience except learning,
learning and come back to us and

714
00:44:17.039 --> 00:44:22.159
earn more money. And this CCHRO
had basically built a culture of being honest

715
00:44:22.199 --> 00:44:25.239
and being transparent. That the end
of the call, thousands of people that

716
00:44:25.280 --> 00:44:30.159
have been fired essentially applauded for this
guy. And it was a great moment

717
00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:32.000
to recognize what it means to be
a great leader is during the worst of

718
00:44:32.079 --> 00:44:37.079
times, people still respect what you
have to stay and understand the heart and

719
00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:39.920
compassion of what you're trying to say, even though you've just delivered them the

720
00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:44.199
worst news ever, which is you're
out of a job in the worst job

721
00:44:44.239 --> 00:44:47.559
market ever. Such an elevating conversation
James and Loven every moment of it,

722
00:44:47.599 --> 00:44:51.400
and you just perfectly cute at 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
00:44:54.440 --> 00:44:59.519
has entirely changed life, the way
we work, and I think irreversibly altered

725
00:44:59.519 --> 00:45:04.079
the workplace. So I'm interested in
what insights you have about what company and

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

727
00:45:07.800 --> 00:45:13.239
in these new times. Be human. I wish it was anything deeper than

728
00:45:13.239 --> 00:45:15.920
that. You know, have a
human centered approach. I wish I could

729
00:45:15.920 --> 00:45:17.400
give you. Look, there's a
lot of bullet points that come off we'd

730
00:45:17.400 --> 00:45:20.760
be human, but it starts and
ends there, and you're seeing that,

731
00:45:20.840 --> 00:45:23.639
and you're seeing that because the conversations
we're having are I'm seeing a customer of

732
00:45:23.639 --> 00:45:27.440
mine at home and I'm meeting their
kids, I'm seeing their cat walk across

733
00:45:27.440 --> 00:45:30.519
the screen. You can't hide being
human when someone who day to day I

734
00:45:30.559 --> 00:45:34.679
have one customer, a major bank
in North America, and every time I've

735
00:45:34.719 --> 00:45:38.000
spoken to him in twenty nineteen.
Beginning of twenty twenty, suit Tie Mahogany

736
00:45:38.039 --> 00:45:43.639
walls like proper old school bank a
kid you not. A week into COVID,

737
00:45:43.679 --> 00:45:50.239
we did a zoom head to toe
in Alabama University kind of gear cat

738
00:45:50.320 --> 00:45:52.440
flying across the room, TV kind
of all, and we had the greatest

739
00:45:52.519 --> 00:45:54.559
chat we've ever had. I don't
think we talked to any business, but

740
00:45:54.599 --> 00:45:59.280
we In that forty five minutes,
I got to learn more about him that

741
00:45:59.320 --> 00:46:01.440
I've learned in three years two years
of him being a customer. And I

742
00:46:01.480 --> 00:46:06.519
also learned what pig suey means you
happen to be from Alabama. I guess

743
00:46:06.559 --> 00:46:08.119
that's important. I'm not going to
go into it. It's a chance that

744
00:46:08.159 --> 00:46:12.239
to Golong, But the key being
is those are human conversations to know a

745
00:46:12.280 --> 00:46:16.400
little bit about your life outside the
transactional relationship that we have. Mm hmmm

746
00:46:16.679 --> 00:46:21.280
hmm. Yeah. And again this
goes back to I'm really really intent on

747
00:46:21.320 --> 00:46:25.719
helping organizations to be able to remove
themselves from these shackles of all these processes

748
00:46:25.719 --> 00:46:30.280
and practices that they've they've kept over
the years that are completely not serving them,

749
00:46:30.320 --> 00:46:32.760
and the pandemic is actually fully illustrated. Put a light on those things

750
00:46:32.880 --> 00:46:36.679
and why they're not working, and
to your point. Now is a great

751
00:46:36.719 --> 00:46:43.239
time start looking at new ways to
engage, connect, teach, and reward

752
00:46:43.280 --> 00:46:45.760
people. You can get away with
it now, you know, we talked

753
00:46:45.800 --> 00:46:47.880
to one customer. You know,
and if you think about like a five

754
00:46:47.920 --> 00:46:52.239
star hotel brand in twenty nineteen,
they couldn't have sent you an email of

755
00:46:52.320 --> 00:46:53.800
like, hey, we're going to
try a beta of doing something new,

756
00:46:54.079 --> 00:46:57.079
you know, click care of you
interest in joining. It would have been

757
00:46:57.079 --> 00:46:59.400
like you kidding me, it's twelve
hundred dollars a night. You don't do

758
00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:01.599
anything in base or I expect everything
to be perfect. Now all of a

759
00:47:01.679 --> 00:47:05.039
sudden you can say that and people
be like, oh, that's great,

760
00:47:05.119 --> 00:47:07.079
look at them innovating. This is
the moment where you can take all of

761
00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:10.800
those risks. You can try those
things because your entire audience is willing to

762
00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:15.679
accept that you're trying. You're testing. This is uncharted. So anyone who's

763
00:47:15.679 --> 00:47:17.480
like, well do we really want
to investigate this is going to be hopefully

764
00:47:17.480 --> 00:47:21.679
the only time in the next X
number of years where you can be like,

765
00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:24.239
blame COVID, We're going to try
this, but maybe in some respects

766
00:47:24.239 --> 00:47:28.400
you're actually this is a way for
you to you're not blaming COVID. Besides

767
00:47:28.440 --> 00:47:30.559
you, you did it as an
organization. You have to under but you

768
00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:31.960
need to blame someone. You put
your arm around it and walk with that

769
00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:35.760
into the room. Right, that's
what you're doing. So okay, So

770
00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:37.679
guess what, James, we managed
to do it. We've already managed to

771
00:47:37.679 --> 00:47:40.760
blow almost a whole hour together.
And so you know, this program is

772
00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:44.679
listened to by people across the world, and it's meant to be able to

773
00:47:44.719 --> 00:47:46.679
help them more meaningfully and purposely connect
with their work. What would you like

774
00:47:46.679 --> 00:47:52.239
to leave our listeners with. Look
as a platform, company, enterprise alumni,

775
00:47:52.480 --> 00:47:55.440
we serve great organizations developing these communities. Not everyone is ready for that.

776
00:47:55.639 --> 00:48:00.280
And my big sentence is if you
recognize the importance of relationships, think

777
00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:04.400
about how people are leaving your organization, whether it's an Excel list, whether

778
00:48:04.440 --> 00:48:07.559
it's an email two weeks after they
join. Just take one step, and

779
00:48:07.559 --> 00:48:10.199
our first step is collecting an external
email address. When they're leaving, just

780
00:48:10.280 --> 00:48:13.679
have a way to reach out to
them. Maybe send them one email a

781
00:48:13.719 --> 00:48:15.519
year and see what happens. It
doesn't always have to start an end with

782
00:48:15.880 --> 00:48:20.800
a big alumni platform and a big
strategic program. It just starts. We've

783
00:48:20.840 --> 00:48:23.079
taken the first step, and I
think that's really important. Fantastic, what

784
00:48:23.079 --> 00:48:25.719
a great way to finish, James, you have been delightful. I'm so

785
00:48:25.800 --> 00:48:28.400
glad to have you in my life. And by the way, you know,

786
00:48:28.440 --> 00:48:30.519
now that we're connected, you could
run, but you cannot hide from

787
00:48:30.519 --> 00:48:31.039
me, right, you know?
I hope, so, I hope so

788
00:48:31.159 --> 00:48:35.039
good. I'm counting on it.
Good, good, good. I'm a

789
00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:37.599
pretty fast runner too, as it
turns out, So look out all right.

790
00:48:37.639 --> 00:48:40.360
So, ladies and gentlemen, if
you'll learn more about James really Alumni

791
00:48:40.360 --> 00:48:45.039
Network, go to their website.
It's EnterpriseAlumni dot com. Last week you

792
00:48:45.079 --> 00:48:47.880
missed the live show, you can
always catch it be recorded podcast we run

793
00:48:47.920 --> 00:48:52.039
her doctor Herb Senate, who's the
encouragement doctor, talking about the importance of

794
00:48:52.079 --> 00:48:55.960
surrounding yourself with people who lived and
can inspire you to take on life's opportunities.

795
00:48:57.679 --> 00:49:00.239
Next week will be on there with
Michael Oster talking about his book Level

796
00:49:00.320 --> 00:49:04.960
Up, which will help you regain
your forward momentum by using a personal and

797
00:49:04.960 --> 00:49:07.639
powerful method to become the best possible
version of you, both as a person

798
00:49:07.760 --> 00:49:10.480
and as a leader. See you
there. Remember that work is at least

799
00:49:10.519 --> 00:49:20.039
one in our life, So let's
work on purpose. We hope you've enjoyed

800
00:49:20.039 --> 00:49:23.280
this week's program. Be sure to
tune in too, Working on Purpose featuring

801
00:49:23.320 --> 00:49:29.119
your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on the Voice America Empowerment Channel.

802
00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:36.320
Together, we'll create a world where
business operates conscientiously, Leadership inspires impassioned

803
00:49:36.320 --> 00:49:40.280
performance, and employees are fulfilled in
work that provides the meaning and purpose they

804
00:49:40.400 --> 00:49:45.039
crave. See you there, Let's
work on Purpose.

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

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