People management tools are a dime a dozen. Just Google “HR tools”; you’ll find miles of listicles on tools for managing all aspects of recruiting, placement, and for tracking internal employees as they jump around in your company. Unfortunately, one of the more important aspects of your job—tracking former employees—is often overlooked because the need doesn’t seem so prominent.
After all, what are you going to do with them? Send them a W-2? A corporate holiday card? a non-HR person might ask.
But you know better, know that, in addition to the that fact you have to maintain really accurate records about all employees (current and past) for accounting, recruiting, and personnel purposes, some of those former employees could be future MVPs for your company.
So what tools are you going to use for contact management and follow-ups? Your CRM and LinkedIn? Doesn’t that just sound like a profound waste of time? (It is).
Here’s what you should be using.
The Three Best Tools for Keeping Track of Former Employees
- CircleBack: CircleBack, at heart, is a contact management application tool that keeps contact information (including company name and job title) accurate and updated using artificial intelligence. However, its enterprise solution offers quite a bit more. In addition to providing those contact updates on a large scale (think your entire CRM at once), CircleBack can be configured to give job-change or position-change notices to specific employee lists so you can know who’s crushing it and might be worth recruiting back.
- Contactually: Contactually is a great tool for keeping track of things, scheduling follow-ups, etc. A kind of CRM (though much less involved than, say, Salesforce), Contactually allows you to schedule follow up times with former employees you’re keeping track of. Because, according to Ere, former employees are a lot less likely to boomerang if you don’t make the first move, a tool like this will be an invaluable resource.
- AlumniMagnet: Developed for universities with a large need to maintain a positive alumni relationship, AlumniMagnet offers a full suite of tools you can utilize to maintain really strong relationships with former employees. From web-publishing and email blasts to directories and membership management tools, AlumniMagnet serves your business as more than just a tool to catch potentially boomeranging employees; you can use it to build advocates and evangelists of your former employees who’ll continue to help with the brand, recruiting, etc.
The Bottom Line
With the right tools in place, it’s simple to track former employees, making sure that you can catch the superstars who want to boomerang as well as engage and make evangelists of those who’re happy with their new fit. By being able to track their contact and job information (without doing it manually through LinkedIn), create follow-up timelines and reminders, and build a positive, happy alumni network, you’ll create an efficient, painless system for maintaining those who’ve already left your company.
Do you have any favorite tools for tracking former employees?