Providing Boomers with Encore Career Programming to Increase Engagement and Contributions

Transcription

1 Providing Boomers with Encore Career Programming to Increase Engagement and Contributions This report looks at the established trend of Americans who are seeing retirement on the horizon and are looking to give back to society without regard to the position title or pay. by Don Philabaum CEO/President

2 An encore career is a combination of personal fulfillment, social impact and continued income, enabling people to put their passion to work for the greater good. Marc Freedman CEO Encore.org don@talentmarks.com 2

3 Providing Boomers with Encore Career Programming to Increase Engagement and Contributions It s no secret that the advancement industry is entering a golden age. With 10,000 Boomers expected to retire DAILY over the next decade, colleges and universities have an enormous opportunity to build relationships with highly experienced, active alumni and engage them in their mission and goals. But how? Ironically enough, by providing career programming! Reaching out and involving alumni in homecoming, reunions and other activities is fine, but each are becoming less effective, as aging alumni distance themselves from their alma mater. An increasing number of Boomers are entering a stage in their lives where they have reached their career peak, acquired enough wealth, and are asking questions they might have struggled with the day they graduated like: What am I going to do with the rest of my life? This emerging group of alumni are looking at making a career change from one that focuses on their success, to one that focuses on the success of others. They are looking to: Give back in an effort to offset the gifts they have received in their career Leave a mark or a legacy that transcends their material wealth Make a difference in one, a dozen or a million people s lives And they are interested in leaving the rat race and stepping into a career that gives them time to smell the roses and when possible live for the moment. don@talentmarks.com 3

4 This group is not interested in moving to a mobile home community in Florida. They know they have 10, 15 even 30 years to give back. After being active for all of their lives, they can t envision themselves shutting down and doing nothing. They are interested in staying active, productive, challenged and continually learning. In short, they are less interested in leaving a legacy at this point in their lives as they are at living one. The encore career! This trend of giving up positions within the corporate world to take on positions within nonprofits, governments or even creating one s own position in a business built around ones passions, is being defined as encore careers. An encore career is work in the second half of life that combines continued income, greater personal meaning, and social impact. Encore careers enable experienced professionals to transition from the corporate sector to the social sector. The jobs Boomers are transitioning to include paid and non-paid positions, often in public interest fields, such as health, government, social services, nonprofits and even education. Many are finding way to exercise their entrepreneurial skills and developing their own organizations. Research suggest there is an enormous opportunity to engage your alumni In 2011, Penn Schoen Berland conducted research for Encore.org and MetLife Foundation to gain a better understanding if encore careers were in the emerging stage, or already an established trend. The research suggested the latter. The survey of over 2000 Americans aged found that as many as 9 million Americans in that age range are in encore careers, and another 31 million Americans want encore careers; they found the average person was 50 years old. From the time Boomers start thinking about an encore career to when they actually make the transition takes an average of 18 months. There is evidence that encore careers are providing more satisfaction then previous careers. The surveys mentioned in the beginning of this report show that people in encore careers express very high job satisfaction. Overwhelming majorities say they feel good about the work they are doing, see the positive results of their work, know that they are making a difference, feel appreciated, and like that they are able to use their skills and experience. In an effort to see how this financially impacted Boomers the researchers asked if the transition to an encore career affected their income. Apparently it does. Nearly 67 percent of those in encore careers experienced reduced, or no income during the transition. don@talentmarks.com 4

5 Encore careers are not a new thing! In 2008, Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., conducted a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,063 Americans ages about their interest in encore careers. Their research found that 5.3 million to 8.4 million of those surveyed were already in encore careers. The report offered this observation: "The survey results suggest that the number of people choosing encore careers could grow rapidly. Of those not already in encore careers, half say they are interested in moving into jobs in such fields as education, health care, government, and the nonprofit sector." New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof offered this thought: "If more people take on encore careers the boomers who arrived on the scene by igniting a sexual revolution could leave by staging a give-back revolution. Boomers may just be remembered more for what they did in their 60s than for what they did in the Sixties." Your college played an important part in the beginning of your Boomers lives and it appears you now have an opportunity to play an even bigger part by helping them understand the opportunities and paths they can take in the second half of their lives. Colleges that recognize and seize this opportunity will see increased: Engagement Contributions They will also have more opportunities to interact with alumni to share; estate planning, capital campaign initiatives, scholarship needs and other campus initiatives. In the remainder of the report, we ll look at what paths Boomers are taking, how your college can offer guidance, and channels you can deliver this as they move through this important end of career decision. You ll walk away with a clear understanding of this established trend so you can build an advancement strategy to be a resource to your alumni for generations to come. What are people doing? Philip Moeller shared in an article in The U.S. News and World Report a dozen interesting encore career changers! Let s take a look at four of them. don@talentmarks.com 5

6 Allan Barsema, 62, became so committed to helping homeless people in Rockford, Ill., that he closed his construction company and jumped full-time into creating and building Carpenter s Place outreach center. It has helped an estimated 10,000 people and has 17 paid staffers. Barsema has teamed with a widening circle of Rockford agencies. Through Community Collaboration, a non-profit organization, he also has exported his ideas and approaches to 140 other social-service agencies in five states. Barry Childs, 66, is the founder and executive director of Africa Bridge. After growing up in Tanzania, Childs left to attend college and returned 35 years later in 1998 when he was a healthcare executive. He was so moved by the nation s poverty and the devastating impact of AIDS that he quit his job and began Africa Bridge. Based neared Portland, Ore., the nonprofit has helped thousands of children and their families through a range of economic development and related social-service programs. Childs also has engaged Portland-area school children in fundraising and other efforts to help children in a growing number of Tanzanian villages. The Port of Oakland is one of the nation s busiest container ports and also a source of heavy industrial activity and pollution. Margaret Gordon, 63, a housekeeper, moved to West Oakland and realized that her asthma became much worse. Her family was sicker, too. As she looked into area health conditions further, she discovered numerous ways in which the Port s operations, including its truck traffic, were harming people. She began the West Oakland Environment Indicators Project. With growing community support, the organization has curbed or changed many unhealthful activities in the area. After a career in building operations for the Cleveland public schools, during which she raised five children, Inez Killingsworth, 72, saw how an organized neighborhood effort could improve services and make lives better for other children and their families. Her early efforts grew and expanded, and she became a housing expert and advocate just in time for the home mortgage and foreclosure crisis. As the founder, in 1993, and current board president of Empowering & Strengthening Ohio s People, Killingsworth has taken the organization statewide. Last year, its 11 offices provided foreclosure counseling to 8,000 families, helping more than 80 percent stay in their homes. These Boomers are just a few examples of the millions of Americans who are funneling their passions, interests, and finances in order to make a difference. You probably already have alumni who have taken the plunge and are living the dream through their encore careers! don@talentmarks.com 6

7 Research suggests alumni are looking for your help The concept of an encore careers although now established is relatively new. While there is an emerging body of information available, few alumni know about the options, issues and opportunities to transition to encores career. Most are having to walk through this transition on their own, and along the way risk making costly mistakes. You have an opportunity to deliver credible, professional, and trusted information that will help them make the right decision. Allow me to share with you why! About 10 years ago, a firm founded by professors from Harvard and Penn State, the Olson Zaltman Associates, was commissioned by the American Insurance Association (now called USI Affinity) and NEATrust to help alumni associations better understand the existing relationship between colleges and their graduates. ( me and I ll send you a link to a recorded webinar that details this fascinating study.) The professors developed an interview technique that gained deep seated insight from subjects by having them select 6 to 8 photographs from which the professors would ask them to describe their current and desired relationship with their alma maters. Alumni associations that participated in the research were interested in gaining this insight so they could build stronger relationships and engagement with alumni in the future. The findings of the research were somewhat predictable. Alumni felt that the alumni association s sole purpose was to raise money for the college. They cited mail, s, phone calls and events from the alumni association focused on fundraising. They shared that this constant ask was rarely balanced with offers to help them. They, like consumers, were looking for a return on their investment. The study suggests that the transformation from college to career will set the stage on how alumni will view the college for decades to come. If the first contact from the college after graduation is a fundraising request, it will essentially cast in stone the prevailing attitude that the alumni association is only interested in getting money from the graduate. It also suggested that alumni will be more likely give back to their universities when they feel there have been fair exchanges. But what is a fair exchange? The next question alumni professionals needed answered was, What can we offer alumni they would consider as fair exchanges? The study showed that alumni viewed their college experience as a transformative stage in the journeys of lives. This was followed by their first jobs, careers, marriages, families, finances, don@talentmarks.com 7

8 empty nesting, and eventually retirement. The research indicated alumni wanted the alumni association to help them in the transitions in their lives. The firm suggested that alumni associations use this information and find a way they could provide information and guidance and help alumni as they passed through each of these phases. Alumni indicated they would value this information as they have a high degree of trust in the information the college provided them in their undergraduate years. Alumni associations were advised to gain a better understanding about how they could: 1. Help with the transformation from student to alumni. 2. Be helpful to alumni on their journeys in life. 3. Provide valuable information and resources to alumni. Let s look at the first suggestion! The easiest place for alumni associations to begin implementing these strategies is with helping students migrate from campus to their first professional jobs. And the need is great! Grads are pretty clueless on what it takes to get a job. In fact the Career Advisory Board, conducted a survey of 600 career center directors. The survey found that: 55.4 percent didn t think grads resumes were ready to hand out percent didn t think grads were ready for their first professional job searches percent didn t think students grasped what it takes to get a job. It s no wonder it takes 7.4 months for a grad to find a job! That s why TalentMarks developed branded career communities. As students leave campus they traditionally leave the career center behind, but as the survey of career center professionals indicate, they still need career and job search training. Surveys alumni associations have conducted are showing alumni are also looking for career programming. They are looking for networking opportunities, career coaching and job placement help. Alumni Associations felt this was a perfect opportunity to step in and provide professional career training and job search knowledge for both alumni and grads. Our CareerCommunity program offers grads and alumni a series of career webinar series, videos, news and discussion areas to share ideas. Think of it as a career center in a box idea where we handle all the details so the alumni team can focus on their core competence. The goal of this program is to not only help recent grads and alumni build successful career strategies, but to effortlessly provide value added services that alumni need! don@talentmarks.com 8

9 In the report, Engaging Grads with Career Programing we detail a number of opportunities your college has in building on this research to provide career programming to help grads successfully migrate from the campus to their corporate life. ( me and I ll send you the report) There is a lack of knowledge You can be on the front end of this emerging trend. An article in Forbes magazine titled, Encore Careers for The Rest of Us, suggested colleges should teach mid-lifers the necessary skills to begin encore careers. Paul Irving, the president of Milken Institute was quoted; There s a huge hunger to use the facilities and intellectual capacity of colleges to retrain people, Irving said. The educational system must be a part of the encore movement. To fill this need 40 community colleges have already developed encore career programs. Another organization the Plus 50 Initiative organized by the Association of Community Colleges specializes in training, retraining and career development programs for students over 50. Keep in mind that the Olson Zaltman Associate study we discussed earlier indicated your alumni are looking for help in the transitions of their lives. When your alumni stepped on your campus as freshmen, your faculty introduced them to a new way of thinking and opened their minds to many possibilities. You need to consider doing the same as Boomers transition into their preretirement careers. Engaging alumni in Encore Careers Let s look at the different ways you could engage your alumni in encore careers. We see three areas in which you can play a part in this burgeoning phenomena. 1. Educate them and show the encore career opportunities available to them 2. Develop opportunities on and off campus to engage with your mission 3. Become a clearing house, to direct them to nonprofits and organizations interested in attracting encore career changers. 1) Educate them and show the encore career opportunities available to them The vast majority of your alumni will have no clue what an encore career is. You have the opportunity to be among the first to open their eyes to the possibilities. Surveys show that people interested in encore careers have misgivings about taking the plunge. They are worried if they will make enough money to support their needs, and they are concerned that they will not have the flexibility to take time off when they need to. They are also worried about maintaining their health care support, although the Affordable Health Care Act may alleviate that concern as more learn about it. And only a few understand the vast new opportunities that are available to them. don@talentmarks.com 9

10 The good news about this trend is that it provides a tremendous opportunity for alumni and development offices to step in and provide information, and access to experts and resources. It provides an opportunity to act on the Olson Zaltman research that suggests alumni associations provide valuable information to help alumni in the transitions of their lives. You could do that through a variety of methods. Articles in your newsletters, websites and magazines Webinars focused on encore career opportunities Offer links to resources on your website Develop handouts, Power Points, videos to include in mailings, add to your website and handout at events. The quick no cost way to put your toe in the water and begin to inform your alumni about encore careers is by adding a column in your newsletters, website and magazine focused on encore careers. Consider reaching out to your journalism students to research and report on this trend as well as interview alumni who are already moving in this direction. Use your website to gather information from alumni who can share their story. Webinars are a great way to introduce these opportunities. As you build your database of alumni who are leading encore careers, you could hold a series of webinars to highlight in detail, why they did what they did, what they had to overcome to be able to do it, tips they can offer fellow alumni. Not only are webinars excellent live events, but because of this topic area, they have an enormous shelf life. You can build on this series forever, and the content will never go stale. The content will offer new insights and possibilities to students who are interested in starting their careers to make a difference. Webinars could cover: Examples of what encore careers are How to determine what is the right encore career What one has to do to get started TalentMarks developed a career webinar series called CareerEncores specifically to bring this message to alumni. The firm sources out nationally recognized leaders, authors and experts on the topic and include the webinar series in the client s branded Career Management Community. If you don t want to spend a great deal of time in meetings and ramping up a career encores webinar series, or want to get to the market quicker to help more alumni, relying on a partner to help you get there makes a good deal of sense. Another easy to adopt strategy is to simply create a page on your website that will give alumni access to books, organizations and people they many find interesting. It s always helpful to have printed and electronic materials to inform and engage alumni. Flyers, Power Points and videos, are a great way to introduce encore careers. don@talentmarks.com 10

11 2) Develop opportunities on and off campus to engage with your mission Now, here is where things get really, really interesting for your mission and goals. It s well known that alumni have three options to give. They can give Time, Treasure and/or Talent. Your organization is already doing a great job in the treasure category. If you are like most, you haven t been able to scale the process of alumni giving time and talent. Let s think out of the box for a moment and kick around a number of ideas on how you could direct alumni interested in encore careers to participate in programs to strengthen the core mission of your college. A. Create a number of Visiting Alumni Sage opportunities B. Create Encore Career Fellowships C. Encourage your faculty to create some courses around retirement transitioning D. Ask alumni to participate in groups who are analyzing, solving and implementing solutions to some of your campus vexing problems E. Ramp up your mentoring program by assigning every student to an alumni mentor F. Invite your alumni to help place grads in their first professional job A. Visiting Alumni Sages Your campus probably has a visiting professor chair in a number of your departments. I d like you to consider adopting a program where you invite creative, accomplished and passionate alumni to come to campus for an extended period of time to provide insight, guidance and help to administrators, and/or students. Sages might be your alumni industry titans and entrepreneurs. This would represent a group of people that made it to the top of their industry. For all the reasons we ve been discussing there will be a number of alumni who will see this as a rewarding, enriching and a chance of a lifetime opportunity and they will happily donate to be a part of it. Visiting Alumni Sages could work in the career center coaching and advising students. They could work with department leaders on tasks forces designed to complete or solve issues that have been on the back burner for years. They might be assigned to a department chair who has a number of projects he/she has not been able to get off the back burner. Adopting the Visiting Alumni Sages not only builds loyalty, engagement and another way to recognize alumni for a lifetime of achievement, but it shows students examples of what they can be, it gives them a chance to touch, on their own turf, people who have walked the same paths, crammed for the same courses, but have come back with a lifetime of experiences and perhaps with answers to the questions students are struggling with today! B. Encore Career Fellowships A desire for an encore career is not limited to those who are approaching retirement with adequate financial reserves. It transcends economic security. However alumni with less financial security are going to be limited in what they can do. That s why I would encourage don@talentmarks.com 11

12 you to develop a pool of money via your fundraising efforts to support Encore Career Fellowships. Depending on their expertise and experience this group might be more focused on coaching and interacting with students. This program could be managed by alumni. Alumni who are interested in an encore career would be required to submit an application that identifies their need and what they would like to do. It s an excellent way to make sure all alumni regardless of their financial situation have the opportunity to act on their visions and passions. Marc Freedman acted on his desires and started an encore career when he turned his passion for mentoring others into an organization that helped others gain the resources and information they needed as they transitioned to encore careers. Marc s Encore.org also offers fellowships for people who have already retired and want to have an impact, but are not ready to get into the job market. Fellowships allow people to pick their own path and support them financially for six months to a year. His organization has already awarded 200 fellowships that are supported by generous contributions from sponsors like Agilent, Hewlett-Packard, Goldman Sach and Intel. Intel offers all employers who are eligible to retire the chance to apply for Intel Encore Fellowships which are six to 12 months assignments at local nonprofits that offer $25,000 in stipends and provides six month of paid COBRA health insurance. C. Develop courses You have very competent and nationally recognized faculty in human relations, psychology, and other fields. Consider reaching out to them to put together a series of encore career related courses, workshops or certificate programs they could take that would help them figure out the best strategy for themselves as they transition into their retirement years and possible encore careers. Your psychology professors can help alumni understand the transition, understand who they are so they can determine what they want to do. Your human relations and career center staff can provide assessments and advice how to interpret the assessment information. Marci Alboher, author of the Encore Career Handbook reminds boomers to invest in what could offer a much higher return than the one to two percent they are getting from bonds. She suggests boomers invest in themselves by taking courses or develop skills to become more employable. Alboher suggests: There s a big learning curve to stay in the game today. If you want to remain in the workplace for another five or 10 years or longer, you need retraining. Empowered Careers is an example of a new online program from UCLA that is helping boomers reinvent themselves by providing a certificate program in patient advocacy and global don@talentmarks.com 12

13 sustainability. Depending on the expertise of your faculty you might find niche areas that your college could offer similar online and in person certificate programs. Your business school could develop courses, workshops and webinars to provide help in evaluating their ideas and providing advice on writing business plans. According to Jean Setzland, vice president of financial security at AARP, "Of 76 million people above 50 and nearing retirement, about half have interest in entrepreneurship. One in six Baby Boomers expected to go into business for themselves." The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) are acting on this trend and are developing programs to help retirees transition into encore careers, as entrepreneurs. They are jointly promoting April as Encore Entrepreneurial Mentor Month, and developing program that featuring one-on-one instruction, classes, mentoring programs and help writing business plans. Information is available on both websites. D. Problem solving Another way to marshal the support of Boomers is to encourage them to solve some of the vexing problems your campus faces. And not just issues the college may face but issues students face, from misuse of alcohol, date rape to plagiarism and paying for an education. Your alumni can circle around issues that are important to them. Give them the tools to meet online, pay for their flights to campus to meet quarterly with their group and then get out of the way to give them the tools to solve your problems AND then provide the financial support and brawn to make it happen. E. Mentoring I d like to see your campus assign an alumni mentor to every incoming freshman. You have to decide what the mentor would do, but, as a starting point, I see the mentor responsible for a monthly phone/skype/google Hangout to connect and discuss career related things. Your students are getting an excellent academic education, but they are clueless how they will use that in their first professional job or anywhere along their career. In my opinion, the mentor would listen to what the student is learning, and challenge his/her mentee to view how their course information could be applied in their career. As the relationship grows throughout their college experience the conversation would include not only career paths, but encouraging the student to take ownership of their career. If this idea intrigues you, contact me as I have some very specific ideas on how this should be designed. F. Help grads get jobs In a blog article, I wrote a year ago I suggested that you take your annual giving telethon team in the spring and have them call alumni to ask them to help find jobs for the current graduating don@talentmarks.com 13

14 class. Alumni that are not able to give financially will be ecstatic to be able to use their connections to help graduates. It s really a simple low cost, yet effective way to transition grads to their first professional job search. Check out my blog at for details on this program. Way back in 1996 I founded a company that went on to build 300 alumni online communities for alumni associations in the United States, Great Britain and Australia. One of the innovative tools we created for a client was the functionality to enable alumni to select a call list from the alumni database and call alumni to encourage them to support the current goals and needs of the college. The tool gave advancement officers the ability to see reports on who called who and the outcome of the call on a daily basis. Our clients loved getting a report on a daily basis that should how many alumni were contacted and how many committed. It was free labor, but more importantly the ask was coming from a fellow alum. Clients used the tool to not only solicit contributions for scholarships, capital campaigns but they also used to increase participation at Homecoming and Reunions. When a fellow alum calls to invite you to these events, it s a lot different than coming from an anonymous alumni professional. 3) Become a clearing house to direct alumni to nonprofits and organizations interested in attracting encore career changers. I recommend this as a supplement to the information you are sharing with alumni through your newsletters, website and magazine. And it s simple too. All you need to do is create a page on your website that lists the groups, organizations, books, magazines, newsletters that focus on this area. Don t let your alumni have to do this research. Remember the third recommendation of the Olson Zaltman Associates study? Alumni are looking to you to provide information they need to migrate through the transitions in their lives. If you are looking for a cheat sheet to get started, contact me and I ll forward to you a list we ve compiled that will instantly get this off your things to do list. Why should your advancement office develop an encore careers strategy? First of all, because the research clearly supports that alumni expect it! Your alumni look to your college as a trusted source for information in the transitions of their lives. You educated them. Your President presented a prestigious diploma that has served them well throughout their career. If you don t move forward in this area, other nonprofits will offer this advice, engage them and have the opportunity to build a relationship that could result in your alumni contributing to them! Secondly, because it was part of the philosophy you pounded into them while they were in college. If your college is like most, you encouraged and in many cases required students to participate in volunteer activities. In fact, many colleges require students to require their graduate to complete a minimum number of community service/volunteer hours to graduate. don@talentmarks.com 14

15 So it s in their soul. It s part of their makeup, and it s causing them to reflect on their career as they reach their retirement years and think about what they could do, to give back. It s the right thing to do. More importantly it s easy to do. A successful giving relationship should always start with the premise of understanding what the contributor wants to achieve. Armed with this knowledge creative advancement professionals are able to build innovative, sustainable and rewarding giving programs. This is just another way for the advancement team to help build successful giving strategies for more alumni. Strategies that may result in more contributions, but more importantly touch the hearts and minds of more alumni giving them the knowledge they will need to finish their career with the satisfaction of knowing their education, their life made a difference. The potential to drive new life in your advancement plan is unlimited. Marc Freedman, wrote in the Encore Career Survey report: "What if, over time, 100,000 people interested in encore careers were persuaded to launch 10-year encore careers? That would mean one million years of service dedicated to areas like education, poverty, and the environment. What if we could persuade a million more to do so? Encore careers education and strategies will open up an exciting new area for advancement professionals. One that develops new relationships while at the same time gives back to alumni a gift that keeps on giving. Summary We looked at the established, yet emerging trend of encore careers and how your college has an opportunity to be a resource to Boomers who are finding themselves at the edge of retirement, but are looking for other ways to live a legacy, not necessarily leave a legacy. Based on the research we shared, you have a tremendous opportunity to provide the information Boomers need to determine if, as well as how they will implement an encore career. By providing alumni access to information they want, you will have multiple opportunities to share estate planning, planned giving and capital campaign giving opportunities. This is a win-win opportunity, with no risk, minimal investment of time and money that will keep on giving. don@talentmarks.com 15

16 Next Steps Congratulations on staying with me through this report. Your next steps are the most important one. You don t have two years to mull over this strategy. Over 3,000,000 million Boomers are retiring each year and tens of millions are right now thinking about what their next steps will be. Here s a quick and easy implementation plan. 1. Educate yourself on this exciting new trend 2. Pull stakeholders together to get their input and suggestions 3. Develop a three phase implementation process Let s talk. Contact me and let s kick around some ideas that will lead to a comprehensive strategy that requires a minimum amount of resources and diverted staff attention. You are facing an enormous new opportunity. We wish you great success! don@talentmarks.com 16

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18 About Don Philabaum is the President/CEO of TalentMarks, a worldwide provider of in the cloud career curriculum and e-learning platforms designed to help more students get internships, grads get jobs, and alumni lead successful lives. Don is also the author of a dozen white papers and the following books x 203 info@talentmarks.com don@talentmarks.com 18