经济学人下载:公司校友 离开但不会被忘记

Business
商业报道

Corporate alumni
公司校友

Gone but not forgotten
离开但不会被忘记

More firms are seeking to stay in touch with former staff
更多的公司正在积极尝试和以前的员工保持联系

COMPANIES do not like to be abandoned any more than lovers do.
公司可不喜欢被职工像背叛情人那样背叛它们。

Workers who quit are sometimes escorted out by security guards, their smartphones confiscated and their e-mail accounts deactivated.
有时候离职的员工是由保安陪同离开公司的，他们的手机会被没收，电子邮件账户也会被注销。

But in the professional services, former employees are increasingly treated as assets, not turncoats.
但是在一些专业的服务领域，先前的职员被越来越多的公司视为资产，而不是背叛者。

Borrowing the concept of alumni relations from universities, such firms are trying to stay in touch with departed workers, hoping to turn them into brand ambassadors, recruiters and salespeople.
这些公司正是借鉴了大学的校友关系这一概念，试图和离职的职员保持联系，希望他们能够成为自己品牌的宣传大使、招聘者和销售员。

The notion was pioneered by McKinsey, a management consultant.
这一概念最先被一家管理咨询公司麦肯锡所采用。

Its up-or-out promotion system generates a steady stream of staff leaving on relatively friendly terms, many of whom go to work for potential clients rather than rival consulting firms.
麦肯锡不升职就离职的晋升体系使得公司定期都会以相对温和的态势流失一批人才，其中的大部分人都选择了去为麦肯锡的潜在客户工作，而不是效力于麦肯锡的竞争对手也就是其他的咨询公司。

McKinsey has an online database of 27,000 former consultants.
麦肯锡拥有一个由两万七千名前麦肯锡咨询师组成的线上数据库，

They are given access to a website which posts alluring job vacancies and regular presentations on business trends from the firm's analysts.
麦肯锡给予这些前雇员一些权限，让他们能够在网站上看到一些吸引人的空缺职位信息和由麦肯锡分析师所做出的定期商业趋势预测的报告。

McKinsey's closest competitors have embraced this model.
麦肯锡最大的对手也采取了这一策略。

The Boston Consulting Group, for example, refers to its leavers as graduates.
例如，波士顿咨询，把这些离职者视为毕业生。

It helps them to find new jobs, and even to negotiate a good contract with their new bosses.
它能够帮助离职者找到新的工作，甚至能够和他们的新老板们建立一个良好的合作关系。

Once they have left, they continue getting free strategic advice from the firm's partners.
虽然他们离职了，但是还是能得到原来公司伙伴的免费战略建议。

In return BCG asks alumni to help it recruit new graduates, and to brief them on the state of the industries they are now working in.
作为回报，波士顿咨询希望离职者能够帮助他们招募新的毕业生，并向他们简要介绍各自工作的行业的现状。

And of course, it hopes they may send a bit of work in its direction.
当然，波士顿咨询也希望离职者能够给他们一些生意。

An obvious risk is that this makes businesses reluctant to hire ex-consultants, fearing that they will be double agents whose loyalty lies with the old firm.
建立公司校友网络的一个显要风险就是，因为害怕这些离开老东家但仍旧对旧主有很高忠诚度的员工会变成为双方服务的双重间谍，很多公司不愿意雇佣跳槽过来的咨询师。

The consulting firms argue that there is little danger of this:
但咨询公司却认为这样做并不存在什么风险：

few businesses hire, or buy advice, from just one firm, so it would be hard for one firm's alumni to get away with unjustifiably favouring their old employers.
很少公司会仅仅从一家咨询公司购买战略建议，所以能让这些公司校友侥幸助老东家一臂之力的机会是非常有限的。

I wouldn't say I'm blindly loyal, says Jim Whitehurst, a former BCG partner who runs Red Hat, a big software company.
前波士顿咨询合伙人、现红帽子软件公司老板吉姆·怀特赫斯特说：我不会说自己是盲目地忠诚，

But I do use BCG more than any other firm.
但是比起其他咨询公司，我的确更偏向波士顿咨询。

Among the biggest accounting firms, Deloitte helps departing employees update their curricula vitae in the hope this will encourage them to stay in touch and PwC has launched a recruitment campaign for former staff who want to come back and work part-time or do one-off projects.
在规模最大的几家会计事务所中，德勤帮助离职的员工更新他们的简历，希望能以此鼓励他们和德勤保持联系；

Linklaters, part of Britain's Magic Circle of prestigious solicitors, maintains relations with ex-staff by giving them a card that provides discounts on, or preferential access to, tickets for cultural events.
普华永道专门为想要回来工作或兼职或做一次性项目的员工发起了一项招聘会；年利达律师事务所是英国的神奇圈中的知名律师事务所，他们保持与前员工关系的方法是给他们一张卡，这张卡能够提供折扣优惠，或能够给他们优先访问的权利、或是能凭此参与文化活动；

Among the banks, Citigroup has held more than 150 alumni gatherings since its programme started in 2011, including golf tournaments and wine tastings. Goldman Sachs has long touted its alumni's public service as a branding tool—its five most recent ex-bosses include two treasury secretaries and a senator.
在众多银行中，自项目2011年启动以来，花旗已经举办了超过150场公司校友聚会，包括高尔夫锦标赛和红酒品酒会。长久以来高盛一直把它的校友公共服务看作是一项品牌竞争力—最近的五位前任老板包括两位财政部长和一位参议员。

Such close ties can be a double-edged sword. Goldman's brand as Wall Street's leading financial wizard suffered following the collapse of MF Global, a broker led by Jon Corzine, one of its illustrious ex-bosses;
这样紧密的联系可谓是一把双刃剑。高盛作为华尔街金融圈的领头羊，在全球曼式金融控股公司破产之后，自己也遭受了很大损失，而促成这桩合作的正是高盛一位出色的前任老板乔恩·科尔津；

McKinsey's reputation for integrity was sullied when Rajat Gupta, a former managing director of the firm, was convicted of insider trading.
麦肯锡因为处事正派在业内享有盛名，但这一名声却被前任董事瑞杰·笈多给玷污了，因为他被人爆出进行内幕交易。

The main drawback of running an alumni network used to be its cost.
运营成本是维持这样一个公司校友网络的主要缺陷。

But thanks to online social media, companies now need just one programme manager for roughly every 3,500 ex-employees.
但是多亏了线上社交媒体，公司现在仅仅需要一个项目经理就可以负责大约三千五百名前职员。

As a result, the trend is continuing to spread. Alumni at Procter & Gamble and Microsoft have set up their own networks, which they administer and fund themselves.
所以，建立公司职员关系网络的趋势正逐渐扩散。宝洁和微软的校友们已经成功建立了他们的关系网络，他们自己出资管理运营这一网络。

The founder of the Microsoft site, Tony Audino, has started a business, Conenza, that runs other firms' alumni websites.
微软网站的创始者托尼·奥迪诺正是借此创立他名为科内扎的业务，用以运营其他公司的校友网络。

It is hard to quantify the return that alumni networks earn on their costs, but businesses of all kinds are now being urged to set them up—not least by management consultants.
事实上我们很难去量化建设公司校友网络的投资回报率，但现在各行各业都被要求快速地将这一网络建立起来—尤其是受到了管理咨询者的鼓舞。

Paul Meehan, an executive at Bain & Company, says he advises clients that haven't done so that they should regard their former staff as an untapped, hidden asset that isn't fully exploited.
作为贝恩咨询公司的管理层，保罗·米汉盖尔建议那些还没有这么做的客户应该把先前的员工视为一项未开发的、还没被完全利用的隐性资产。