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From Internet World New: Wednesday, March 7, 2001  · Vol. 3, Issue 44

Former Employees May Be Untapped Resource
By Ruhan Memishi

Even as Internet companies implement massive layoffs, many are still in 
desperate need of highly skilled technical workers. So it makes sense that 
executives who aren't nice to those outgoing employees or who take an 
employee's voluntary departure personally are only hurting themselves in 
the long run.
As expensive as it is to wage an all-out recruiting effort, companies of 
all types and sizes are taking a different view of departing employees, and 
companies like New York-based SelectMinds (http://www.selectminds.com/), an 
application service provider that allows companies to communicate 
electronically with different segments of their alumni populations, are 
capitalizing on the trend.

Even as the nation faces an economic slowdown, the company, founded in late 
1999, sees tremendous potential in the market, and so do research firms 
like Gartner. "Enterprises that scorn the rehiring model will limit their 
ability to respond to enterprise needs and unwittingly fuel the success of 
competitors for knowledge, experience and talent," Gartner said in a 
research paper issued on the topic last year.

A way to maintain healthy relations with outgoing talent is to keep the 
lines of communications open by doing such things as sending former 
employees e-mail notices about new job opportunities as they become 
available, according to Gartner. That's particularly important in a 
business climate in which all too often an employee leaves to take a job at 
a dot-com that a short time later goes belly-up. After dealing with the 
disappointment, many workers return to their previous jobs.

Larger companies, according to Gartner, would do well to create more formal 
relationships with past employees by forming alumni associations.

Through such alliances, companies may offer a variety of perks to former 
employees like online training programs, providing the person hasn't gone 
on to work for a competitor. "The incremental cost to that company is 
nothing, and I'm getting something valuable out of it" as the former 
employee, said Cem Sertoglu, managing partner and one of the founders of 
SelectMinds.

SelectMinds, which has 18 employees, doesn't limit its business opportunity 
to Internet companies; it has a total of 12 clients, mostly in the 
advertising, investment banking, law, and management consulting fields. 
"Since the IT sector is one of the sectors that's feeling the talent 
crunch, it's the most drastic" in terms of growth, said Sertoglu.

Many employees understand that today's economic realities are forcing 
executives to lay off workers. Letting them use computers, phones, and 
faxes for their job search also will go a long way in making sure the 
relationship ends on a more positive note.

"These are companies that know very well how difficult it was to recruit, 
locate, and attract talent in the last few years," Sertoglu said. "If you 
do not maintain a relationship with these people, you're basically taking 
all that effort and throwing it away."

If you do, however, the payoff will be great. You get to promote your 
corporate brand with these groups of people who already have an affinity 
toward your organization. Not only will some come back to work for you in 
the future, but they also are likely to refer other qualified candidates to 
your company.

In addition, there are business development benefits that shouldn't be 
overlooked. "These people can very easily go to positions where they can 
turn around and become a client of your organization, so it's a very 
relevant marketing audience for you," Sertoglu said.

Yet, there will be other instances when the former employees won't appear 
to be doing anything for you. But, Sertoglu noted, "They still remain out 
there as advocates and ambassadors of your organization."

Bye

Saundra