How To Understand And Optimize The Employee Life Cycle

Anyone who owns or manages a business knows that their employees are their greatest asset. Understanding how to manage them will help you get the most from them, and help them grow. Your management should focus on their needs at every stage of the employee life cycle, to help get the most from them. What is the employee life cycle, and what does it mean to you? Here's what you need to know.

What Is The Employee Life Cycle?

Firstly, what do we mean by 'the employee life cycle? When you hear employers referring to their employees 'like family', that's not the case. An employee will usually go through a whole life cycle when they work for you, and often at some point they will leave.

“As such, you'll want to know where your employees are at in the life cycle, so you can tailor your management technique towards them. That way, you'll get the most out of them in terms of performance, and you'll see that they feel more valued and respected in the workplace,” explains Diane Worson, an HR manager at Paperfellows and Essay Services. As such, understanding the life cycle is crucial.

Importance Of The Employee Life Cycle

As a manager, you will want to understand the importance of that employee life cycle. While you cannot guarantee that you'll keep every employee as soon as you employ them, you'll want them to stay with you for as long as possible. To do that, you need to meet them at whatever stage they're at in the life cycle, and ensure that you're getting employee loyalty.

This is even more important when you consider the cost of bringing on new employees. On average, it can cost between $4,000 and $6,000 to onboard a new employee. Keeping this to a minimum will be in your company's best interests.

The Employee Life Cycle

It's important to note that the employee life cycle will look a little different from company to company. However, in basic terms your typical lifespan will look like this:

1. Attraction: Where your employee first learns about your company and decides to interview for an open role.
2. Recruiting: The process in which the employee meets with you for the first time, and gets more familiar with your culture and what you do.
3. Interviewing: This is where both the employee and the employer will meet and ask questions of each other, to see if the role is a good fit.
4. Onboarding: The beginning of the employee's time at your company, including training and meeting the rest of the team.
5. Engagement: Once the excitement of starting a new role wears off, a strong company culture will be needed to keep the employee engaged in their role.
6. Development: Some employees will be happy in the same role, while others will want to move up the ladder. At this point, you as a manager will need to recognize this and give them the opportunity to advance.
7. Retention: Not all of your employees are going to stay with your business, and that's normal. However, managers do need to do their best to retain employees.
8. Recognition: As a manager, you'll need to be aware of what makes an employee come to work every day. Many are happy to come in in return for that paycheck, but others will want recognition for their work.
9. Offboarding: At some point, that employee may decide to leave your company. At this point, you'll need to ensure that transitioning the role over to someone new goes smoothly.
10. Separation: At this point, you'll want the employee to leave your company with good feelings towards you. You'll want to perform an exit interview to get their feedback, which will help you improve the employee life cycle for others.
11. Alumni: Once an employee leaves, they're not gone forever. They should still be in your network and could be a source of future referrals.

Improving The Employee Experience

Now you have an understanding of the employee life cycle, you can use it to meet your employee's needs and keep them with your company for longer. Having that understanding will benefit you both in the long run.

“The way you approach this will be different at different stages of the cycle. At the recruitment stage, for example, you'll be making that employee familiar with what you do, so they can make an informed choice about whether you're the right fit for them,” says Timothy Kirson, a business writer at Boom Essays and Essay Writer. At the development stage, you'll be looking to see if the employee wants to advance, and how you can help them with these goals.

Meeting your employee at their stage of the life cycle makes their experience with you much more positive, and will assist a lot with employee retention. As such, you'll want to keep track of where your employees are in the cycle and use this to help improve the overall employee experience.

To learn more about CareerCircle and how to become an employer partner contact us at gettinghired@careercircle.com.

 
Content Contributor:

Jenny Han is a writer for Write My Dissertation and Buy Dissertation. She covers business management and advancement, helping business owners find success. She is also a blogger at Do My Assignment.