The employee life cycle comprises seven broad stages, from attracting candidates to managing their departure. Each stage is crucial for the overall success of your organization. Understanding these stages will help you optimize each step for maximum benefit.

1. Attraction

The attraction phase aims to draw candidates interested in your job openings, company, and mission. Your communication strategy significantly shapes how candidates perceive your organization. Notably, 3 in 4 job seekers are likely to apply for a job if the organization actively manages its employer brand.

Key Strategies:

• Employer Branding: Develop a branding strategy that resonates with your ideal candidates. Understand what type of candidates you want to attract and craft messaging that appeals to them. Use channels that effectively reach these candidates.
• Authenticity: Be honest about your organization’s culture. Don’t misrepresent your company as offering flexible work schedules or remote work if that isn’t true.
• Highlight Company Culture: Show off your company culture in your employer branding communication to attract the best talent.

Metrics to Track:

• Candidate Demographics: Understand who your employer brand attracts. Are you attracting diverse candidates with the right skills and experience?
• Career Page Analytics: Monitor how many people visit your career page, their origins, the time they spend, and their actions.

2. Recruitment

The recruitment stage focuses on finding the right people to join your team while ensuring a positive candidate experience from job discovery to offer acceptance.

Key Strategies:

• Job Postings: Tailor your job ads to your target audience. Focus on responsibilities, opportunities, and ideal candidate characteristics. Use inclusive language to attract a diverse range of candidates.
• Application Process: Keep it short and effective. Avoid long, complex application processes that may deter candidates. Ensure the process is mobile-friendly as 67% of job applications are completed on mobile devices.
• Selection Process: Balance efficiency with effectiveness. Use an applicant tracking system, assessment tools, standardized interviews, and diverse interview panels to ensure a fair and inclusive process.
• Transparency: Be honest about the recruitment process, company values, benefits, and culture. Avoid overselling benefits or compensation that you cannot provide.

Metrics to Track:

• Candidate NPS: Measure overall candidate satisfaction with the recruitment process.
• Offer Acceptance Rate: The percentage of candidates who accept job offers.
• Time-to-Hire: The duration from application to offer.
• Application Completion Rate: The percentage of candidates who complete the application process.

3. Onboarding

Onboarding is about getting new hires up to speed on the company and their role, laying the foundation for a strong employer-employee relationship.

Key Strategies:

• Preboarding: Engage with new hires from the moment they sign the contract. Include them in team communications and events, and provide relevant reading materials.
• First Day: Ensure work equipment is ready and welcome new hires with personalized gestures and orientation sessions.
• Check-in and Adjust: Regularly check in with new hires to address any concerns and help them adjust. Plan feedback sessions after the first week, month, and quarter.
• Structuring Onboarding: Use onboarding software to automate processes, send timely notifications, and keep information up to date.

Metrics to Track:

• Time to Productivity: The time it takes for new employees to become productive.
• New Hire Satisfaction: Measures the satisfaction of new hires with the onboarding process, helping identify areas for improvement.

4. Retention

Employee retention is one of the longest stages of the employee life cycle, requiring continuous engagement to keep employees on board. This not only builds a stable, productive workforce but also saves time and money on recruiting new employees.

Key Strategies:

• Technology: Ensure employees have the right tools and information at the right times. The digital employee experience is crucial for engagement and overall satisfaction.
• Culture: Foster an inclusive culture that shapes how employees interact and contributes to a sense of belonging. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) are critical.
• Physical Space: Create a comfortable and welcoming workspace, regardless of location. A flexible approach to physical space is necessary post-pandemic.

Understanding Your Employees: Gather feedback on their experiences from multiple sources. Focus on understanding key moments and triggers that impact retention. Leverage employee data and feedback to address potential issues early on.

Metrics to Track:

• Employee Retention Rate: Percentage of employees who stay with the company for at least one year.
• Voluntary Turnover: Percentage of employees who leave on their own accord.
• eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score): Percentage of employees who would recommend the company as a great workplace.

5. Development

Employee development and retention are closely linked. If employees feel stuck without growth opportunities, they are likely to leave. According to a McKinsey report, a lack of career development is a top reason people quit during the post-pandemic period.

Key Strategies:

• Development Plans: Work with employees to create development plans that align with business and employee needs.
• Leadership Development: Prepare top talent for advancement with cost-effective training methods like peer coaching, mentoring, and job rotation.

Metrics to Track:

• Training ROI: Measures return on investment from training initiatives.
• Employee Performance Post-Training: Assesses the impact of training on performance.

6. Offboarding

The offboarding stage helps the organization learn from the employee experience and ensures departing employees leave with a positive impression. This includes arranging handovers, conducting exit interviews, and finding ways to stay in touch.

Key Strategies:

• Exit Interviews: Conduct exit interviews to understand employee experiences.
• Thank-You Notes: Send thank-you notes to departing employees.
• Maintain Contact: Find ways to maintain contact with former employees.

Metrics to Track:

• Exit Interview Completion Rate: Measures how many employees complete exit interviews or surveys.
• Offboarding Score: Assesses the effectiveness of the offboarding process.

7. Alumnus Stage

Treat employees well throughout their lifecycle to create a positive relationship and potentially welcome them back. Corporate alumni platforms can help keep in touch with former employees and engage them with company updates.

Key Strategies:

• Alumni Network: Make it easy for departing employees to stay in touch and proactively reach out to alumni.
• Regular Updates: Send regular updates on company progress.

Metrics to Track:

• Registrations to Alumni Network: Indicates the effectiveness of alumni outreach efforts.
• Email Open Rates: Gauges alumni interest in staying connected

By optimizing each of these seven stages, you can create a more effective and engaging employee experience that supports the overall success of your organization.