The Worker Life Cycle

To ensure the long-term success of your business and maintain high levels of employee satisfaction, you must
adopt a long-term approach to employee experience design and implementation. Rather than seeing employee
engagement as a one-time exercise during poor morale, the worker life cycle model sees engagement as a
planned experience woven throughout every individual's progression in your firm.

What is a Life Cycle Model of an Employee? The worker life cycle model is a business approach for visualizing
how an employee interacts with the organization to which they are assigned. This approach consists of six
stages: Attraction, Recruitment, Onboarding, Advancement, Retention, and Segregation.
The worker life cycle model is designed to incorporate all stages of an employee's experience inside a firm,
structuring that progression into a framework that offers a unique engagement approach for each location the
person enters. For instance, if a firm has a solid and engaging recruiting strategy but high turnover, they might
concentrate on the retention stage of their ELC to design a solution that addresses the problem.
The worker life cycle model resembles the conventional consumer experience, and this is deliberate!
Essentially, developing a worker life cycle plan is based on the premise that an organization's staff experience is
equally crucial as their customer experience. Many significant firms lack a clear understanding of the benefits of
employee engagement, preferring to concentrate on customer happiness and seeing employee engagement
initiatives as temporary projects rather than a persistent corporate philosophy. Your organization must transform
engagement data into actionable insight at all management levels, assisting workers in recognizing their
commitments to the organization and promoting engagement and success.

The Benefits of a Life Cycle Strategy for Employees

By mapping the employee trip in the same way you map the consumer journey, your organization will notice
two primary benefits: increased talent retention and improved reputation. The capacity to properly devote
resources and efforts toward resolving turnover problems minimizes the time and money lost due to turnover
expenses. Similarly, a more substantial reputation boosts the likelihood of recruiting fresh talent, which results
in a more engaged and motivated team.
The Six Stages of the Employee Life Cycle
To better understand how each step of the worker life cycle might impact employee engagement, let's take a
closer look at each stage.

1. Allurement
It is at this point that a company's ability to recruit and retain employees begins. If you can't recruit and retain
top-notch employees, your business will fail, no matter how unique and excellent your service or product is.  As
a result, the attraction stage is a critical component of every organization's growth plan.
The only step that happens before an available job in the organization is the attraction stage. Employer branding
is a term used to describe a company's efforts to portray itself as an attractive workplace to existing and
potential workers and essential stakeholders in the marketplace. It implies that passive and active talent
applicants, clients, customers, and future stakeholders have a good perception of working inside your firm.
Some of the most effective ways to develop a strong employer brand and recruit the best employees are as
follows:
• Raise Brand awareness. Mandatory attendance at seminars and conferences, seeking speaking opportunities,
and contributing to or sponsoring major industry periodicals, websites, and blogs should be encouraged. It can
assist build up your profile inside the industry as a beautiful place to work.
• Be recognized to have a fantastic culture. Independent of external marketing strategies, employees remain the
most valuable and persuasive advocates for their employers. By establishing a great business culture, you only
improve the possibilities that your current workers will routinely tell everyone how amazing it is to work inside
your firm. Publicizing your company's culture on social media may also bolster these efforts.
• Offer good perks and compensation. Being competitive with salary is one of the most apparent steps your firm
can take to appeal to the best personnel in your field. Paying the most to lure the finest isn't necessary, but never
delivering the least essential. Seek chances to add softer perks to your current ones, like team meals and paid
birthdays.

2. Recruitment
When it comes to employee life cycles, the second stage is the employee recruiting location, when you search
for and attract the most outstanding individuals to join your firm. Recruitment may occur due to a current post
being vacant or even a new one being formed completely. The most acceptable recruiting strategies enable an
ideal applicant experience, promote collaborative hiring based on defined criteria and procedures, and provide
valuable data to enhance hiring outcomes over time.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when you're trying to find the best people for your team:
• Ask for references from your current team. Perhaps one of the most robust recruiting methods out there is a
reference from one of your workers. As active business participants, they certainly know numerous individuals
who may be an excellent match for the post you attempt to fill. It's best to avoid bringing on close friends or
relatives of those already on the team since this might strain the team's dynamics even more." These referrals are
likely to have a comparable set of values as well.
• Try out several recruiting portals. Sticking to just one big recruiting website or medium restricts your applicant
pool. The best place to look for your prospective prospects is in the areas where they spend the most time. It
might be a networking event for industry professionals or a lesser-known but rising industry publication to
which many new prospective industry leaders subscribe.
• Be explicit in who or even what you are searching for. A sure-fire strategy is to publish imprecise recruitment
adverts To decrease the odds of obtaining the best-qualified people for a post. To save both you and the
applicant time, make sure to define all the pre-requisites in your job description. • Involve your staff. It will help
you find the best candidates. For example, you may ask your current staff members to assist in determining the
ideal qualifications for the position. Your team members may even help you examine the resumes and
credentials of possible individuals if you consider them suitable. Your workers may be an essential part of the
hiring process, so it's a good idea to have one or more of them join you in interviewing potential employees.

3. Onboarding
A new hire's onboarding process is the next step in this model's progression. As soon as you have hired the best
people, the onboarding process is crucial to bringing them up to speed on their new position's organizational and
performance components as fast as possible. During the onboarding step, new workers cover more in-depth
parts of their role and define the attitudes, knowledge, abilities, and behaviors necessary to perform successfully
inside the business.
Creating a welcoming environment for recruits and ensuring that they are well-acquainted with their position
and the business is crucial to their long-term success. Your company's employee life cycle may be smoother if
you follow these steps to guarantee a seamless onboarding process for your new hires:
• Have a position description. Rather than a lengthy and scholarly study of the job's requirements, strive for a
one-page summary that highlights the most critical responsibilities of the position and any connected experience
and abilities.
• Discuss the company’s goals and values. It's essential to layout your company's principles and goals to your
new employee and explain what they imply. Clarify any queries they may have and understand what the
objectives mean to them, making sure their viewpoint corresponds with success.
• Outline your requirements clearly. In addition to the job description, it is crucial to walk each recruit through
the needs you have for them and explain why they are critical to the company's success.
• Do follow-ups routinely. Leaving a new worker to fend for oneself beyond the first week of induction is a sure
way to see a loss in performance. A few weeks into their employment, schedule appointments with each new
worker in person so that you can get an update on how things are doing, ask about any difficulties they've had
integrating into the group, etc.

4. Development
The next phase in the worker life cycle model is the stage of employee growth. In this stage, you begin to
continuously promote professional growth within your staff, which functions as a catalyst for their skill
development and also helps to give them a potential career path inside the firm.
A few helpful hints for enhancing the professional growth of your employees are as follows:
• Encourage external learning. Providing your team members with the opportunity to attend relevant
conferences and workshops delivers enormous advantages for their skill development. An intelligent approach is
to send them regularly at the business expense or to provide all staff with a company-funded budget for self-
initiated events.
• Assess skills and knowledge jointly. To better discover an employee's essential abilities and specializations,
managers should interact with the person directly. It's possible to identify and prioritize the areas of
improvement based on their assessment of performance. One of the most acceptable methods is to develop an
open, genuine feedback-driven connection between you and your staff.
• Encourage your teammates to be accountable for their growth. If you want to keep your staff motivated, you
should urge them to design their professional action plans. This strategy should set out to assist them in
enhancing their talents and boost their prospects of job progression. You may either engage with them on this
process or offer a basic template to the whole team that they can use to finish their simple plan.
• Reward the personnel that studies in their own time. Many of your teammates undoubtedly take part in
frequent informal advancement outside of their typical work hours. When you hear about a staff member doing
something, take the initiative of figuring out more about it, and genuinely congratulate them for their efforts and
ensuring they know they are appreciated.
5. Retention
Employee retention is the fifth stage in the lifecycle model. Here, you spend your resources on maintaining your
best personnel and ensuring they are pleased and adequately challenged in their particular responsibilities within
the company. The effect of business culture counts for a lot in this stage. If your organization's culture is
unhealthy, it will undoubtedly result in a high staff turnover rate, which means you will frequently face
replacement charges. Enhancing retention is an excellent method to mitigate this risk and ensure the duration
and pleasure of your team's career pathways.
Employee retention is a critical part of the lifecycle model; therefore, here are some recommendations to help
you keep your best employees:
• Select the appropriate personnel. To retain great talent, it is necessary first to attract and acquire top talent.
You can gauge the effectiveness of your recruitment and retention efforts. If you were meticulous in your
personnel's selection and selection process, you'd have a greater chance of retaining the best people.
• Develop positive connections with your teammates. Building and maintaining a respectful and open
relationship with your employees is essential to their long-term success at your firm.
• Communicate openly about your organization's purpose and team goals. To increase employee retention, you
must first ensure that your workforce fully understands and is dedicated to the company's goal and vision. It
would help to communicate with them frequently about their position within the firm and how their tasks and
successes contribute to its mission execution.
• Frequently solicit employee input and assess team morale. For smaller businesses, a weekly face-to-face
meeting with the team may be beneficial when you can review the team's progress and identify any difficulties
or challenges. Employee pulse surveys are another valuable tool. If you want to monitor team morale frequently
and seek continuous practical input, shorter staff surveys or an online feedback system such as Sprigg's
Continuous & 360 ° Feedback tool may be beneficial.
• Gain an understanding of your workers' motivations. Each employee is unique, and as a result, no one factor
will encourage every worker to perform diligently. Understanding what inspires and drives different team
members enables you to engage and, ideally, retain your staff.

6. Distancing
The worker separation stage is the last step of the lifecycle. At some time in their working careers, most people
are forced to leave their current position, whether it's due to retirement, a change of jobs, or other personal
considerations. It is critical to treat the separation process as seriously as the orientation program and be equally
as tactical in your approach to this stage. We all feel the loss when one of our coworkers departs our group of
people.
As a manager or HR professional, you must guarantee that an employee's departure does not create a significant
amount of harm to the firm. If you found yourself in a scenario where a critical person leaves your business
abruptly, there are a few vital techniques you may utilize to mitigate the disruption's effects:
• Comprehend the resignation's rationale. An employee states the reasons for resigning, and the valid reasons are
sometimes inconsistent. Pursue an in-depth examination of what exactly caused the split to prevent repeating the
same conditions in the future.
• Remain optimistic. It's natural to be sad when one of your best employees leaves, but it doesn't imply you'll
never be able to find a terrific replacement.
• Solicit candid feedback. Conduct an exit interview when someone quits a firm since this is one of the best
times to elicit direct comments about what it's genuinely like to work there.
• Encourage the team to have a forward-thinking attitude. Team morale might suffer as a result of the departure
of an important employee. Concentrate on reassuring surviving team members of their commitment, telling
them that although their leaving is upsetting, the team will eventually heal and flourish as a consequence of it.

In Summation
The worker life cycle model is a powerful tool for visualizing and planning for each step of an employee's
interactions with your firm, giving you the information essential to ensure that each stage of their stay with your
company is as effective as possible. By concentrating on excellence at each level, you significantly increase
your chances of attracting and retaining excellent staff.