Mastering the Employee Life Cycle
What is an employee life cycle? During their employment with your organization, a worker goes through various stages, starting with their first contact and continuing through their departure and moving forward. These stages together form the employee life cycle. As an HR professional, you can add significant value to an organization by managing how employees move through these stages.
Tips to Improve Each Stage of the Employee Life Cycle
If you’re a human resources professional, leaving the employee life cycle to chance is a missed opportunity. When you understand the stages and how you can positively influence them, it will benefit employees, your organization, and your career in HR. Here are the key stages and what you can do to optimize each one for highest employee satisfaction and a solid reputation as an employer.
Attraction
In the beginning of the employee life cycle, potential workers are just becoming aware of your organization. You can elevate the experience with effective employee branding, thoughtful marketing, and doing all you can to establish a sterling reputation with customers and employees. Be sure to listen to what people are saying on social media, including Reddit and Quora, as well as rating sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, CareerBliss, and Niche Pursuits. The human resources department should ensure that information about your company is complete and up to date.
Recruitment
The next stage is largely in the hands of your hiring managers. You’re looking to find and attract good candidates and put them through the hiring process. Tools that make applying easy, streamline the screening process, and automate keeping candidates informed at every step can make a substantial difference. Make sure you never ghost a candidate, even the most unqualified. Treating every applicant with respect goes a long way.
Onboarding
Once hired, bringing employees into an organization and integrating them into systems, processes, equipment, culture, and roles is the next stage of the employee life cycle. First impressions count, so you don’t want an employee’s first day to be chaotic. You might create an image of incompetence or lack of caring that could cloud the future of the relationship and destroy employee satisfaction from Day 1. A strong start creates valuable goodwill.
Engagement
Build enthusiasm and dedication among your staff with programs that involve employees in substantive decisions, work environment issues, and even fun activities and culture-building traditions. Programs that engage employees need to be authentically grassroots, not dictated from the top. Good programs ensure that employees know what their role is, are empowered and motivated to achieve in the role, are connected to co-workers and leaders, and feel like they are making a difference. The ideal is to make coming to work rewarding and enjoyable.
Development
When you invest in employees, they are more likely to invest in your organization. Employee satisfaction is higher when employees can take advantage of opportunities to add to their skills and knowledge with training and mentorship that supports their career growth. Keep your best employees loyal and motivated with programs that support their development.
Retention
The retention stage really starts from the day of hiring. When you onboard effectively, engage employees, and invest in their advancement, you have the best chance of holding on to your top performers. Human resources can regularly survey employees to find out what they like, don’t like, and wish they had. Employee reviews are not just to evaluate employee performance; rather, they’re an ideal time to learn what might interest and motivate them. Salary and benefits also play an important role. In this stage, consider the full employee experience to optimize it for retention.
Separation
Whether an employee resigns, retires, or is laid off or fired, it marks the end of their time as an employee. No matter the circumstances, human resources will want the parting to be smooth and respectful. Programs that help employees find a new position, recognize contributions, or facilitate keeping relationships can preserve your brand and keep things positive. The employee life cycle continues, in many cases, as employees become alumni, networking with each other, and ideally becoming advocates for your company and referring future hires.
What Are the Next Steps in Understanding the Employee Journey?
Learning how to optimize the employee life cycle and maximize employee satisfaction is just one part of what you’ll learn when pursuing your master’s degree in human resources. The benefits of earning your master’s in HR include acquiring knowledge and skills that take your career to the next level, preparing you to have a greater influence over the employee life cycle and a positive impact on employee satisfaction. You’ll also be fully prepared to assume rewarding leadership positions.
Knowing how to influence and improve the employee life cycle is a way to add value to your organization and to enhance the work experience of every employee. And for many, that is the main attraction to a career in human resources.
