A strong employee experience makes your company attractive to the talent you are seeking. By focusing on and mapping the employee lifecycle, companies can better understand the employee journey and ensure talent retention. Employees give different kinds of feedback along the different stages in the employee lifecycle, so be ready to listen to this valuable feedback and make adjustments accordingly.
Attracting Talent
Having a strong employer brand is key to attracting the right type of talent. As a company, it’s critical you manage your reputation and maintain an attractive image that makes potential hires aspire to join. Having a solid and transparent vision, mission, and organizational values that you communicate in all your brand communications will ensure the right type of talent will be aligned. Be careful how you manage feedback and manage your online reputation proactively so you are perceived in a positive light.
Employee Application
Keep your employee application processes simple and uncomplicated. Communicate at all stages of the recruitment process as this is a sign of respect. Respond to all candidates, including unsuccessful candidates because they may re-apply later or even become customers down the line. Remember, people talk and share their experiences. You want to make sure you shape their experiences to be positive and maintain a good reputation as a company.
Employee Onboarding
Employees onboarding is a critical stage of any company’s talent acquisition, development, and retention strategies. Poor onboarding processes can result in higher employee turnover rates and more recruitment costs. To ensure new employees remain engaged and committed, companies need to create a comprehensive onboarding program. Be sure to seek feedback on their onboarding experiences and integrate this to improve your processes. Use online software to guide the pre-boarding and onboarding processes and to gather valuable feedback anonymously.
Employee Retention
Talent acquisition is fiercely competitive. To make sure you can access the best talent and retain them, you need to routinely seek feedback from your staff throughout the employee lifecycle. Meet any employee lifecycle challenges head-on and resolve them. If staff feel respected and heard along with seeing evidence that the company is doing its best to address any concerns, then they are more likely to overlook issues and remain committed to the organization.
Development Plans
Invest and support employee professional development. Ambitious talent are hungry to keep growing and developing, and this in turn continues to motivate them. Make sure there’s a budget for learning and development. A lack of progression may increase boredom and spark your talent to look elsewhere. Instead invest in your staff development which will in turn boost morale, retention and productivity, with benefits for your workers and the wider company.
Offboarding
Many companies fail to seek feedback & listen to departing employees and yet it is an essential part of the employee lifecycle. Exit interviews can be insight and valuable, giving your organisation a chance to improve things. This vital information can help to increase your employee retention and improve your employer brand. It also leaves a more positive impression on the existing employee.
Employee Exit Surveys
The employee life cycle continues beyond exiting. The business world is interconnected and a staff member leaving doesn’t mean it is the end of employee engagement. Be mindful that the exiting employee may be asked for their opinion on your company by other potential applicants, one of your customers, or they may even rejoin your company in the future. Reach out to your employee alumni and gather their feedback via surveys to improve your employee’s experiences.
Create an employee lifecycle roadmap, respectfully seek their feedback then use the insightful information you gain to improve operations and management. Invest in the right technology to manage the employee lifecycle, to help you collect and act on feedback. You’ll be able to better engage with your people and retain them for the long-term.