The Employee Lifecycle
Take a moment to reflect on any role you have had in your career. What do you remember? Is it a significant leader? Or is it an awesome development opportunity? Or was it a less-than-optimal exit experience?
Whether you realised it or not, you went through a journey of experiences – from reading the job ad in the recruitment process to your last day of employment. What sits in between these moments are a range of touchpoints that the People & Culture (P&C) team is responsible for driving & optimising.
These touchpoints (or initiatives, programs or processes) can range from interpreting changes to employment law to communicating best practice thinking in well being or having an eye on future trends as well as the traditional P&C tasks of hiring & firing.
With so many ‘things’ sitting under one function, it is useful to reflect on the framework that encompasses it all. This is where the Employee Lifecycle comes in.
The employee lifecycle is a framework that outlines the stages a person goes through during their time with an organisation, from applying for a role to how they leave the organisation. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it’s essentially the employee version of the customer journey, but with a focus on creating a positive experience for individuals as they move through their professional life with a company.
From an P&C perspective, understanding and managing the employee lifecycle is critical for fostering a productive, engaged, and motivated workforce. At Nine Yards, we work with clients to optimise every stage of this journey to create a great employee experience.
So, let's understand a bit more about each stage of the journey.
1. Attraction
The first step in the employee lifecycle is attraction. This is when potential candidates become aware of your organisation and consider it as a place they might want to work. For P&C, this stage is all about employer branding or EVP (Employee Value Proposition) and recruitment marketing. A strong employer brand can help attract top talent, positioning the organisation as a desirable place to work by showcasing its culture, mission, values and benefits of working there.
2. Recruitment
Once you have attracted interest, the next step is recruitment. This includes the entire hiring process, from posting job descriptions to conducting interviews and making job offers. P&C plays a key role in ensuring this process is fair, transparent, and efficient. A well-structured recruitment process ensures a great candidate experience, more qualified hires and lower turnover.
3. Onboarding
After a candidate accepts an offer, the onboarding process begins. This stage is often overlooked, but it’s critical for helping new hires feel welcome, equipped, and ready to contribute. In fact Gallup recently shared a statistic that only 12% of employees thought their company did a good job at onboarding. Flip that around and that means 88% of new hires think their company did a lousy job of welcoming them and getting them started in their new role.
Onboarding involves introducing new employees to the company culture, providing the necessary training, and ensuring they have the tools and resources they need to succeed. A robust onboarding program ensures the experience you have worked hard to create in the recruitment process continues into employment.
4. Development
Once employees have settled into their roles, development becomes the focus. Research from Culture Amp has found that development is the number one reason employees join an organisation, and it is also the number one reason they leave.
Development is about growth, both professionally and personally. P&C supports development through training programs, mentorship opportunities, performance feedback, and career pathing. Employees who feel like they have opportunities to learn and advance within the company are more likely to be engaged and loyal.
5. Retention
Retention is the stage where P&C focuses on keeping top talent engaged and satisfied within the company. This involves employee engagement initiatives, fostering a positive work environment, and addressing concerns related to job satisfaction, work-life balance, and remuneration and benefits. Regular feedback, recognition, and opportunities for advancement are key to this stage.
6. Offboarding
Offboarding refers to the process when an employee leaves the organisation, either by resignation, retirement, or termination. A thoughtful offboarding process can ensure that the transition is smooth for both the employee and the organisation and the employee is treated with respect throughout the process. P&C typically conducts exit interviews, ensures the manager has a process for handover, and provides final paperwork.