6 Stages of Employee Life Cycle

One of the most crucial elements of having good organisational performance is creating an engaging employee experience. An employee’s level of involvement with the company is represented by the employee life cycle. It provides a clear understanding of what needs to be addressed by mapping out their journey through your organisation.

What is  Employee Life Cycle (ELC)?

Employee Life Cycle (ELC) is an HR model that tracks an employee’s entire career within the company. It begins from the time a prospective employee learns about the brand and lasts until the day they leave the company. In addition to hiring and compliance management, the ELC takes into account hiring and onboarding, retention, career development, and the entire employee experience throughout their time working with the company. Once a company understands how to engage with the employees at every stage of the employee life cycle, it can attract and keep the right individuals and boost the business’s overall performance.

Stages of Employee Life Cycle

An employee life cycle consists of 6 stages. These are:

1. Attraction:

Attracting new employees is the initial phase in the employee life cycle process. The corporate industry must recognise the pool of highly skilled professionals available for selection. For this purpose, the company advertises the position together with its mission, goals, and objectives to draw in the top applicants. One way to begin is by promoting staff advocacy, referral programs, or social media posts. However, a company must make sure that the right individuals are seeing the job postings and that they are aware of the requirements for hiring. To create a strong employer brand and succeed in attracting employees, the following tips must be considered:

• Raise Brand Awareness: Encourage the managers to attend seminars and conferences frequently, explore speaking engagements, and contribute to or fund well-known industry magazines, websites, and blogs on a regular basis. This will enhance the company’s reputation as a great place to work in the industry.
• Be known to have a Great Culture: Employees continue to be a company’s most important and effective marketers, regardless of external marketing strategies. The likelihood of a company’s current employees speaking highly of it increases with a strong corporate culture. Additionally, a company can strengthen these initiatives by employing company social media profiles to openly share cultural insights.
• Provide Appealing Benefits and Compensation: Providing a competitive salary is absolutely crucial to securing the best talent in your field. This does not imply that you must spend the highest price to secure the top candidates, instead, you should never pay the price that is lowest. It is highly recommended that you include extra benefits, such as team meals and birthday leave, in your current benefits.

2. Recruitment:

The second stage of the employee life cycle is the employee recruiting stage, during which a company searches for and attracts the best people to work for the company. The need for recruitment may arise from the opening of a new position or the vacancy of an existing one. The most effective recruitment strategies prioritise candidate experience, and collaborative hiring based on established standards and procedures, and provide actionable insights to improve hiring outcomes over time. Here are some essential tips to include in the recruitment stage if the company wants to find the perfect candidates for the team:

• Request Recommendations from the Existing Team: An employee referral is undoubtedly one of the strongest ways of recruiting. Since they are engaged in the sector, they probably know a few individuals who would be ideal for the position that a company wants to fill. Avoid hiring close friends or relatives of current team members, as it can complicate relationships and lead to shared values.
• Explore different Recruitment Platforms: It is recommended to explore multiple platforms when searching for new talent. Using only one major recruitment platform or media outlet significantly restricts the potential candidate pool. 
• Be Clear about who and what you’re Searching for: Usually posting unclear job advertisements will decrease the chances of hiring top candidates for the position. Although it may seem beneficial to have a broad advertisement, it’s important to clearly outline all requirements to save time for both, the company and potential candidates during the application and evaluation process.
• Include the Employees in the Organisation: Asking existing employees to assist in choosing the ideal qualifications for the position in addition to encouraging them to recommend possible candidates also helps in better recruitment. If required, the team members can help the company analyse the qualifications and resumes of suitable individuals. Besides, asking someone in a position quite similar to their own to participate in the interview process can help in identifying candidates who will fit in with the team the best.

3. Onboarding:

Employee onboarding is the next stage in the employee life cycle model. The onboarding process comes after hiring the top talent and is crucial to ensure that the new hires are as quickly and smoothly adjusted to the organisational environment and performance components of their new position as possible. During the onboarding stage, new workers learn more about their role and identify attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviours needed to function effectively inside the organisation.

To encourage long-term contributions and engagement, it is essential to make new workers feel welcomed in the group and well-acclimatised to both the nature of their role and the organisation. Here are some essential strategies a company can use to make sure that everyone involved has a smooth experience throughout the onboarding phase of the company’s employee life cycle:

• Create a Job Description: It does not have to be a lengthy and academic study of the job’s requirements; instead, attempt a one-page outline that highlights the most important functions of the role, as well as any related experience and skills.
• Describe the Mission and Values of the Business: A key part of any onboarding process is explaining the company’s vision and values to the new hire and going over what they all communicate. Make sure their perspective is successful by answering any queries they may have and learning what the values mean to them.
• Give a detailed description of the company’s Goals: Although some of the job requirements will be outlined in the description, it’s essential to personally guide each new hire through the expectations and emphasise their importance for the company’s success.
• Follow up Frequently: When the first week of induction is finished and the new hire gets off on their own, there will inevitably be a sharp fall in performance. After a few weeks, set up one-on-one meetings with each new hire to check in on how they are doing, what difficulties they may have had integrating with the team, etc.

4. Development:

The employee life cycle also includes a stage for employee development. Employees are constantly looking for opportunities for professional development and strategies to improve their job proficiency. Hence it has become important for everyone to stay up with the changes as a result of the new advancements in technology that are emerging.

Employers can offer training and skill-development initiatives that enhance the knowledge and abilities of employees. This allows them to improve their domains of knowledge and skill sets in various departments. Furthermore, it enables people to develop and learn continuously over the course of their work life. The following are some important points that can be used to enhance the professional development stage in the employee life cycle model:

• Promote External Learning: This includes giving team members the chance to participate in relevant conferences and seminars that are extremely beneficial for their skill development (many are offered online as virtual offers). The best way to do this is by sending them on a regular basis at the expense of the firm or by providing all employees with a company-funded budget for self-initiated event participation.
• Evaluate Knowledge and Talent: Managers should work closely with employees to determine their main skills and areas of expertise. It comprises assessing the company’s performance and ranking areas for development. This is also one of the best ways to build a relationship with employees that is based on open communication and honest feedback.
• Encourage the team members to take ownership of their Own Development: It includes motivating each employee to create a professional action plan in order to ensure that they stay focused. The goal of this strategy should be to aid in their skill development and improve their chances of job growth. The company has two options: either collaborate on this process or provide a broad template for each team member to create their own straightforward plan.

5. Employee Retention:

The fifth stage of the employee life cycle is employee retention. Employers should focus on keeping their excellent employees during this time. It is essential for employers to keep in mind that their employees should be satisfied with their work.

Employee turnover is the complete opposite of employee retention and frequently results in significant costs that every organisation seeks to avoid over the long term. The benefits provided and the company culture both have a big impact on employee retention. Following are some points to make sure the company is keeping its key employees and enhancing the employee retention stage of the life cycle model:

• Select the Best Candidates: To retain valuable skills within the organisation, it is crucial to attract and recruit the best talent available. It also includes hiring thoroughly from the start to retain the right team members. This is where the effectiveness of attraction and retention stages can be evaluated.
• Develop a Close Relationship with the Team Members: It is essential that all team members have open, honest, and respectful relationships with one another in order to remain motivated to work for the business.
• Be Transparent about the Objectives of the Team and the Organisation: In order to retain employees, a company should ensure that the employee understands and is committed to the same objectives as the company wants. For this purpose, employees are kept informed about their roles, and responsibilities, and how their individual successes directly contribute to the overall purpose of the company.
• Seek Employee Feedback and Measure Team Morale regularly: A weekly face-to-face team meeting can be helpful for smaller businesses. During these meetings, team progress is discussed and any concerns are addressed. Additionally, employee pulse surveys provide valuable insights.

6. Offboarding:

When an employee leaves for personal reasons, retires, or accepts a new position, the employee life cycle comes to an end. It’s crucial to maintain the same strategic approach in both onboarding and offboarding procedures. It is the responsibility of the HR manager to keep a record when one employee leaves as this may have an impact on specific team members. To ensure a smooth offboarding process, it’s important to understand the reasons behind an employee’s resignation. For this, the company can ask for candid feedback while keeping the process simple to avoid confusion among the team. There are a few essential strategies a company can employ to reduce the effects of that disruption:

• Recognise the Reasons behind the Resignation: The actual reasons for resignation and the ones the employee gives are frequently not the same. To prevent such situations from occurring again, try to find the root of the separation.
• Remain Optimistic: When a top employee leaves the team, it does not imply that another outstanding employee can not be found who can take their place.
• Request Honest Feedback: The exit interview with departing employees is one of the best ways to learn the truth about what it’s really like to work for a company.

The employee life cycle model is one of the greatest ways to imagine and prepare for each phase of an employee’s interactions with the company. It gives insight into every phase of their time with the business as productive as possible. Performing at its best at every level is crucial if a company wants to attract and retain a great team.