Loving your ex's: How to keep
former employees working for you
By Pat Curry • Bankrate.com

Small biz pop quiz: How would you describe your relationships with your ex-employees?

A. Warm
B. Cool. They left me, didn't they?
C. What relationship?

If you answered anything but A, you're losing out.

With unemployment low, turnover high and careers looking more and more portable, companies are likely to have more ex-employees than current ones. There are several important reasons for maintaining a good relationship with your former workers.

For example:

• Whether you want them to be or not, they're your informal ambassadors. If your former foreman still works in the industry, chances are he'll be asked about you. What he says will have a ripple effect, influencing what people think about you and whether they'll do business with you.
• They can walk back in the door as clients.
• They're even a low-cost source of future employees.

A case study
When Jennifer Johnson was given the responsibility for the marketing launch of a new product for Novell, she knew she needed help. She looked to women who had left the company to stay home with new babies.

"I purposefully went after people who worked for the company," she says. "I was able to find people with an average of 10 years' experience instead of paying a high-priced firm with people straight out of college. It was a great way to be very, very effective."

It was a natural for Johnson, who now has her own company, to think that way.

As a former employee of Dahlin Smith White Advertising, she has seen how strong that connection can be.

"I have such a tight relationship with them still, I've gone back there and used their office space to have meetings," she says. "Two of the principals have spoken at our quarterly retreats. John Dahlin is on our board. I feel completely connected. I feel like an emotional stockholder in that company ... They created an amazing culture and extended that culture to a community of contributors."

In a recent study, Penn State management professors Martin Kilduff and Kevin Corley looked at the impact of former employees on the companies they left behind. They found that companies that pay attention to their ex-workers "are likely to create vibrant virtual cultures that extend the antennae of the organization in unforeseen ways."

By contrast, the researchers noted that companies that create a fortresses and bar communication with those who have left "may be depriving themselves of valuable resources."

The unvarnished truth
Because ex-employees know your company's culture, they can tell you how to make your company a better place to work, says David Siegel, a senior associate at Brecker & Merryman Inc., a New York-based human resources consulting firm. Chances are, though, they're not going to tell you what you need to know during an exit interview.

"They're not going to be as candid; many are afraid of possible ramifications," Siegel says.

Wait a few months, then make contact. "Six months down the line is the best time to find out what went wrong," Siegel says. "That information can be very, very valuable in terms of any human resource process."

Johnson suggests tapping ex-employees to form an informal board of advisers.

"One company I worked for occasionally calls me up to ask my perspective on everything from HR issues to business strategies," she says. "The same company is looking at creating a corporate university that would include former employees almost as mentors, with an online community of past employees as well as new ones, to help them."

Future clients, potential recruiters
Many employees who walk out the door will walk back in as clients. "Maintaining that relationship has an immediate effect on the bottom line," Siegel says.

Just as importantly, your former workers can help you recruit new ones.

Universities and the military use their alumni to approach new recruits; Your ex-employees can play the same role. Viewed by potential workers as unbiased, their opinions carry weight.

Also, by keeping the door open, you have the potential to re-recruit your own ex-employees, who have a shortened learning curve, a new set of valuable skills and a heightened sense of loyalty.

"They left the firm, saw the grass wasn't greener, and decided to come back," Siegel says. "When they come back, they consider it a long-term commitment."

What former employees want
When Brecker & Merryman surveyed ex-employees on what kinds of contacts they wanted with their former firms:

• 92 percent said they'd participate in a referral program that paid them for referring a new hire.
• 63 percent said they'd use a Web site.
• 58 percent wanted to receive a newsletter.
• 54 percent said they would attend an event.

In all, about half wanted to socialize and half wanted to continue their professional development. The best strategy, then, may be an invitation to an educational program that allows ex-employees to improve their skills and network at the same time.

Think about adding an alumni section to your company's Web site, with information on best practices, employment opportunities, notes on personnel changes, what former employees are doing now and news on how the firm has changed.

Make it easy for them to reconnect with a special contact person they can e-mail from the site.

"It's not necessarily about maintaining intense, strong relationships where you go to all these events," Siegel says. "As long as you can maintain a positive relationship, they'll remain ambassadors. They'll refer business, other employees and consider rejoining the firm."

The bottom line in building a relationship with former employees, Johnson says, is to think long-term.

"People stay less long within a company, but have a longer term impact on a company," she says. "Make it a strategy to leverage this talent. Be a good business. Treat people right throughout a life cycle, not just when they're on your payroll."

Pat Curry is a freelance writer based in Georgia

-- Posted: Oct. 18, 1999