From Hire to Retire: Managing the Employee Life Cycle

A strong team is the backbone of every successful company. Even though employees come and go, improving each stage of the employee life cycle–from hiring to retiring–can help create happier and more productive employees.

The employee life cycle is a model that describes the different stages that employees experience with their employer.

From attracting talents to recruiting, onboarding, and exiting, the steps vary depending on the company size. Regardless, the overall path from the start of the employee’s contract to its end is often similar for most companies.

Monitoring the key stages of every employee’s journey helps managers and business owners identify where the company is heading and develop a strategic plan to fill in the needs and skills gaps across teams.

How you treat your employees greatly affects your organization’s long-term success and profitability. For example, the lack of an organized onboarding plan may disappoint new recruits, leaving them confused, alienated, and frustrated.

Once new employees start work, their initial outlook is crucial because it may inspire them to stay longer or look for another job.

Without giving them the proper assurance or a sense of fulfillment from the very beginning, you may lose your chance to retain top talents who would’ve helped your company succeed.

Some benefits of proper employee life cycle management include:

Excellent employee engagement practices demonstrate how much a company values its workers and puts their needs above all.

For instance, higher promotion rates can reveal your organization’s dedication to taking your employees’ careers to greater heights. Without ensuring these key aspects of your employee lifecycle, expect your attrition rates to go down and retention rates to go up.

Employee retention can be challenging, but it’s worthwhile to hold on to your employees rather than let them go.

One way to retain top talents is by adopting employee-centric benefits such as flexible work hours, wellness programs, education assistance, and unlimited paid vacation.

These perks ensure that your employees feel appreciated and respected so they can stay with your company for longer.

Hiring new employees is more expensive than upskilling and retaining your existing staff since replacing workers takes a lot of effort.

The time and money it would take to run through job applications, interview candidates, and onboard new recruits would be better spent making sure your current workforce has everything it needs to work efficiently.

Furthermore, a high turnover rate may lower morale among remaining employees, further lowering your retention rate, decreasing productivity, and making it difficult to acquire or retain top talent.

High turnover rates can disrupt productivity in the workplace. When an employee leaves, it’ll take some time to fill in their role, leading to more work for the other employees or a gap in the position.

But retaining your current workforce allows you to avoid overburdening the workload of your current staff and lessen or eliminate the gaps in their positions.

Understanding the employee life cycle can help businesses improve workforce management. The different stages are listed below:

The first step in the employee life cycle is the attraction phase. While many companies can easily tap talents across their socials, most organizations have to create job postings and ensure they reach the right people.

Recruiting offers an opportunity to speak with prospective hires for the first time. This is your chance to introduce them to your company culture and help them understand their new role.

This step also includes interviewing candidates to determine whether they’re a good fit for the company. It is just as crucial for the interviewee since it helps them find out if the culture and job requirements coincide with what they want in a role.

This point of the journey marks the start of your new hire’s relationship with the organization. It’s an incredibly exciting yet stressful period for them, which is why it’s important that they get off to a successful start.

A smooth onboarding process is possible through efficient collaboration between human resources, hiring managers, and the IT department. These teams need to ensure that the new recruit is properly informed about their roles and responsibilities and connected with their coworkers.

Once new employees settle into a routine, they may feel apathetic toward their role. Having a strong company culture that prioritizes employee engagement can stave off these feelings and help keep them excited to come to work every day.

Some employees may be content with staying in the same role for many years, but others may want to gain new skills and move up within the company.

For this reason, it’s important to conduct regular feedback sessions and check-ins to develop the skills of team members further and help them grow within the organization.

It’s natural for people to want to leave and pursue new opportunities elsewhere. But with proper guidance and engagement and a solid retention strategy, you can retain your best performers for many years to come.

Besides regular pay raises and valuable benefits, recognizing a job well done can motivate your employees to stay longer.

Providing them with constant feedback on their performance and acknowledgment of their progress can boost their productivity and keep them engaged.

Sometimes, you can’t really stop an employee from leaving, and you can only hope they do so on good terms.

During this time, it’s best to plan for a smooth transition of duties, prepare for final payroll and benefits, and cross-train employees who may need to take over their role temporarily.

Employees who leave the company can provide valuable information that helps you make your working environment better for future hires. Schedule a one-on-one session to receive honest feedback and end things on a good note.

Sprout’s complete ecosystem of HR solutions enables organizations to attract, manage, engage and retain their employees in a streamlined and cost-efficient way.
With a solid hire-to-retire plan, HR leaders can create a better people-centric strategy that leads to better hires and an empowered workforce. Visit our blog to learn more about HR trends, employee benefits, labor relations, and other work hacks.