Employee Lifecycle - Satisfied employees throughout the entire employee lifecycle
The topic of employee satisfaction is playing an increasingly central role in the daily work of HR managers. The Employee Lifecycle maps the individual phases that employees go through during their time with the company. Analyzing these phases can provide important clues for optimization measures to improve employee satisfaction. Which phases belong to the Employee Lifecycle? What expectations do employees have in the individual phases? Our guide sheds some light on the subject.
Delve deeper into Employee Lifecycle
Table of contents
What is the Employee Lifecycle
The Employee Lifecycle is a model from the HR area. The Employee Lifecycle maps the entire journey of an employee through the company. This journey is divided into individual phases.
The phases follow each other and each brings different expectations, challenges and tasks, both for the employer and the employee. The phases follow each other and form a circle, which is why it is referred to as the employee lifecycle.
What is the importance of the Employee Lifecycle?
Today's working world is characterized by an increasing shortage of skilled workers. Human resources departments face the two challenges of preventing employee attrition and attracting the best talent.
Employee Lifecycle Management focuses on the needs of employees at all times. It is therefore a suitable method to achieve both goals in a natural way. By increasing employee satisfaction, fluctuation in the company is reduced. At the same time, higher employee satisfaction strengthens employer branding and leads to advantages in attracting new employees.
Ultimately, employee lifecycle management has direct benefits for the company. Satisfied, healthy employees are ultimately more productive and are characterized by a higher level of commitment. By reducing churn, recruitment costs are lowered as positions do not need to be filled as frequently.
The stages in the employee lifecycle - the 7-phase model
There is no uniform use of the Employee Lifecycle model. Depending on the perspective, there are therefore a different number of phases.
Depending on which phases are included in the model, there are the following different employee lifecycle models:
- 5-phase model: Starts with recruiting and ends with the exit
- 6-phase model: Starts with Attraction and ends with Exit
- 7-phase model: Starts with Attraction and ends with Alumni
In this article, we use the 7-phase model to provide as comprehensive an overview as possible.
1. Attraction
The relationship between companies and employees does not begin with the first day of work or the application. Rather, it begins the moment people come into contact with your brand for the first time.
A strong Employer Brand ensures that potential employees become aware of the company and are interested in working for the company and getting to know its culture.
2. Recruiting
In the recruiting phase, this interest should be utilized and applicants should be convinced of the position and the work at the company. To achieve this, the recruiting and HR teams have the task of communicating the employer branding and corporate culture in the best possible way.
An essential component of a positive user experience in the recruiting process is a professional, uncomplicated and always transparently communicated application process.
Important: The positive experience should not only be reserved for candidates who ultimately get the job. Rejected applicants also have a positive influence on employer branding, provided they have good experiences in the application phase.
3. Onboarding
Your new employees have their first "real" contact with the company culture during onboarding. A professionally organized onboarding process is therefore essential. From an employee experience perspective, it's less about technical integration and more about social integration into the company. Create a welcoming atmosphere from day one and show your new colleagues that they are welcome and valued.
Close and regular contact in the first few weeks is an important basis for this. Give your colleagues feedback in regular meetings and be available to answer questions. Development opportunities can also be identified during the induction phase.
4. Development
The opportunities to develop further are an essential cornerstone for employee satisfaction. You should pay particular attention to the development phase together with the area managers and team leads.
What talents and skills does the employee have? How can these be specifically promoted and developed? These questions need to be answered and suitable measures implemented together.
5. Retention
After you have invested time and money in the development of your employees, you want them to stay with the company in the long term. This is precisely the aim of the retention phase.
Individual development measures, targeted further training and, in particular, the identification of career opportunities are among the most important tools available to HR managers. In order to take the right measures, you should regularly obtain feedback from your employees on their satisfaction and current situation.
Used correctly, the result is not only more satisfied employees, but also increased employee commitment.
6. Offboarding & Exit
Whether due to dissatisfaction on the part of one of the two parties or the desire for a new challenge, separations are part of working life. However, the exit of an employee should not be a reason to lose sight of the employee experience.
Departing employees should therefore be given a professional and structured exit management program. This shows your appreciation for the work they have done. At the same time, this type of offboarding, for example in the form of an offboarding meeting, offers you the opportunity to identify important optimization potential with regard to the corporate culture and processes.
7. Alumni
Professional offboarding is the basis for winning over your alumni. As satisfied (former) employees, they can serve as brand ambassadors for your company. They can positively influence your employer brand through word-of-mouth recommendations or positive reviews on company portals. Strengthened employer branding in turn offers advantages in terms of attraction and recruiting, which closes the employee lifecycle.
Employee Lifecycle Management
It is primarily the task of the HR department to take care of the needs in the individual phases within the framework of Employee Lifecycle Management. The aim is to make the employee experience as attractive as possible throughout the entire employee cycle.
For this purpose, the phases of the Employee Lifecycle are iteratively processed
- regularly examined for the status quo
- compared with the wishes and ideas of the employees and evaluated
- and optimized by means of suitable measures.
The better you succeed in identifying the requirements and optimizing each individual phase, the greater the positive impact on the employee experience.
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