6 Stages of Employee Lifecycle That You Need to Know

“An employee’s job is to give his or her best work every day. A manager’s job is to give the employee a good reason to come back to work tomorrow.” -Liz Ryan

The pillars of a great organization begin with excellent company culture, the perks and benefits, and good leadership. But an organization is incomplete without its valuable assets, the employees. Your employees work hard day in and day out to fulfill the organization's objectives.

As soon as a new employee joins, the employee lifecycle begins. A cycle is about learning how to complete tasks, understanding new possibilities, and becoming proficient in their job.

But when you come to think of it, from where exactly does this employee lifecycle start? To understand how it works, you first need to understand what exactly it is.

What is Employee Lifecycle?

The employee lifecycle is about the different stages that an employee goes through during their time at an organization. And every HR team needs to make the steps more beneficial for the employees.

Each stage of the employee lifecycle has its challenges, and every organization needs to make the process better and improve it.

It's a gradual process, and it does take time. But a good employee lifecycle program helps the employees to bring the best in them.

It would be best if you made the lifecycle process more efficient for better recruitment and retention in your organization.

Stages involved in ELC (Employee Lifecycle):

1. Attracting:

The first step that starts the process of the employee lifecycle is attracting. The corporate market has a vast pool of talents out there. And attracting candidates with potential is very important.

Candidates with potential are enthusiastic thought leaders and foster innovative ideas.

To attract suitable candidates, you need to advertise the job vacancy. Along with it, you need to showcase the organization's goals, objectives, and mission. This can start with employee advocacy, referral programs of an organization, or any social media posts. But it would help if you kept in mind that you post about the right job to the right people.

2. Recruitment:

The second stage involves hiring the right people for the right job. It would help if you had a sound hiring strategy to make the most out of the recruitment process. Recruitment can be a very daunting process for both the recruiter and the candidate.

To conduct a good interview, you need to be specific and relevant about the job you have to offer. This will help you to choose the right candidate for the job.

Also, make sure to provide the candidates with constructive feedback and criticism and criticism. And be prompt to carry with your hiring processes once the hiring is complete.

3. Orientation

After the recruitment process, it comes down to the next phase of the employee lifecycle- the onboarding process. During onboarding, employees get to know the new workplace and everything around it.

A smooth onboarding process is essential for an employee to fit right in the organization. It will also determine their ability to carry out their tasks. Not only will it ease up their anxiety, but it will also increase employee engagement.

In the long run, an onboarding program helps recruits grasp the organization's primary goals.

4. Development:

Employee development is another stage that happens during the employee life cycle. Employees want career growth during their job tenure. And with the new advancements on the rise, it has become necessary for everyone to keep up with the changes.

Employers can provide training and developmental programs to update existing knowledge and skills. This way, they can expand their fields of expertise and skillsets in various departments. It also allows them to continuously learn and grow throughout their tenure.

5. Retention:

The employee retention stage is the fifth stage in the employee lifecycle. This is the stage where every employer focuses on retaining their top employees.

Employers should keep in mind that their employees' job satisfaction levels are high. You have to make sure that their job does not become monotonous over time.

Employee turnover is the exact opposite of retention. It often leads to high costs and a headache every organization tries to avoid in the long run. Company culture and the benefits that you provide play a significant role in employee retention.

Another critical point to remember while improving retention is to provide a good work environment. Good company culture will always lead to more retention.

6. Offboarding:

The final stage of this lifecycle ends when an employee leaves due to personal reasons, retirement, or a new job. It would be best if you kept your offboarding processes as strategic as your onboarding process.

When an employee leaves, it can affect certain team members. It becomes the responsibility of an HR manager that they keep everything on track.

To keep fluency in the offboarding process, you can dig deep into why the employee resigned. Or ask for honest feedback from the leaving employee. Keep the process simple so that there is no panic within the organization and does not disrupt the flow of work.

It’s a never-ending loop

Once an employee joins any organization, their job lifecycle starts. A lifecycle that begins with recruiting and ends with them leaving a company.

It always runs in a loop (no wonder it's called a cycle after all). When some employees leave, new ones join, and the cycle continues.

Moreover, the structure of the cycle is in such a way that every stage compliments each other.

And if there is one broken link in that cycle, it will be incomplete, and the program will not function well. E.g., after the recruitment process, employees have to go through a good onboarding program.

These programs help the employees to perform well, increasing productivity and morale. Thus, leading to low turnover and high retention.

So, it depends on the organization and the human resource department to make the employee cycle program run without any hiccups to make the most out of it.

Mrinmoy Rabha is a content writer and digital marketer at Vantage Circle. He is an avid follower of football and passionate about singing. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com