As a consultant, I work with many different companies in varying industries and markets. Because of this broad exposure, I have seen or experienced all the stages people go through as employees, from beginning to end. If you’re a leader responsible for hiring and managing people, a recruiter who is looking to hire, or someone searching for a new job – this topic will interest you. There’s a lot to this, so this is another blog series. I hope you’ll follow along.
In this first blog, I need to start with first things first, so the focus is on the ten areas that I think companies need to care about when it comes to their employees. Each of these is a phase in the employment lifecycle. Here’s a brief description of each and why it’s crucial in the employment process:
Attracting
Before you can hire employees, they first need to know about you. Organizations can tackle this in several ways. One method is to have a strong, recognizable brand. As a well-known organization, you will attract candidates without even trying.
If your brand is less familiar or unknown, you need to do something that helps your company stand out amongst other employers. Focus on one or two unique selling points for choosing your company. It could be an unusual benefit, the promise of a flexible schedule, higher-than-average pay, or anything else that sets you apart. Whatever your value proposition is, you need to focus on your external communications to attract new employees.
Recruiting
Recruiting is different from attraction because it involves going out and finding candidates. Attraction is a pull mechanism, whereas recruiting is a push. Most companies have one or more recruiters whose sole job is to bring in top talent. This is more difficult than it sounds. Qualified, quality candidates aren’t idly sitting by waiting for you to find them. It takes a lot of hard work to sort through the myriad of information online to locate good potential employees.
If you do find someone promising, don’t forget that you’re competing with every other employer out there now. It used to be that your only competition was other local companies, but COVID has completely shifted this paradigm. Everyone on earth is potentially an employee, so it’s that much more complicated. Still, it also significantly widens the pool of people, which could help or hurt, depending on your goals.
Interviewing
Assuming you have attracted or recruited someone whose interest in your company is piqued, you can start them on the interviewing path. This process, too, has dramatically changed since the pandemic began. Interviews used to be very formal and nerve-wracking. You can now interview candidates from wherever they are, and there’s no need to meet in person since you can do it all online via audio and videoconferencing. It’s a much faster process to sift through candidates, but it’s also more challenging for the interviewee to make a good first impression. Interviewing is like a delicate dance, and you have to read your partner’s moves.
The problem I see now is that hiring processes used to be very vigorous (maybe too much), and companies are still expecting this kind of rigor. As most people recognize, this is an employee’s market. There are millions more job openings than candidates are looking for new jobs. The impact is that the early bird gets the worm – cliché, I know, but you have to move fast in today’s talent market. You can’t wait and force the person to jump through too many hoops or “poof” – they’ll have accepted another offer. Don’t let good talent slip through your fingers because you’re too slow on the draw.
Hiring
Once you have qualified a candidate and want to make an offer, you must move fast. As mentioned in the last section, talented people often have multiple offers on the table. If you want the candidate to choose yours, it had better be competitive.
Speed matters when hiring, so don’t let red tape within your company slow you down. You should make the offer and get verbal approval as soon as possible. People like to be recognized, so be sure you communicate how happy you are to have found them and that you’re excited to have them join your company.
Also, make sure you include critical information like salary, other benefits, expected bonuses (if any), job title, and job description to confirm that the person is accepting the correct offer. Somehow, I ended up as a Project Manager when I was last hired – and that was never my intended career path (lol – just kidding – I knew what I signed up for).
Onboarding
If you made it this far, you’re doing something right, and if the new employee bails at this point, you didn’t do an excellent job with onboarding. What is onboarding, exactly? It’s the process of bringing a new person into your organization and immersing them into your culture, helping them get to know your company’s people, processes, and tools. Assimilation might be a strong word for this (Borg, anyone?), but that’s what it is.
I have had some great onboarding experiences and some poor ones. Companies that do this well recognize the investment they have made to get this far – it’s expensive to attract, recruit, interview, and hire people – super expensive. Your onboarding plan should be well-defined, with clear steps and expectations for day 1, week 1, month 1, and so forth. New hires are generally in information-absorption mode for at least a week or two, so don’t expect them to be productive right away. It takes time to assimilate, so be patient and supportive during this delicate time.
Performing
So, your new hire didn’t quit after three weeks or three months? Good job! Now, keep the momentum going. Keep the promises you made, and your employees will keep their commitments, too.
Some jobs are easily measurable in today’s world, and some are not. For jobs where performance can be quantified, measurement is straightforward. You either meet expectations, or you don’t.
With knowledge work, it’s more difficult to gauge how successful someone is at their job. To get a sense of this, the person and their leader should have an agreed-upon performance development plan and regular touch bases. If you want your employees to succeed, you need to give them all the tools, resources, and support they need to get there. Give feedback regularly and immediately. Don’t wait for the dreaded “annual performance review” to let people know how they’re doing (in fact, my last company abolished that practice many years ago, and it was the best thing ever).
Growing (or Developing)
While a paycheck might seem like the main thing that motivates people to come to work and perform well, it’s not. Daniel Pink‘s book entitled “Drive,” says it best. People are motivated not by the carrot or stick but by having autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Give your employees an aspirational vision. Inspire them to do their best instead of dictating how they should do it. Make sure you cultivate and provide an environment in which people can thrive.
You may have heard of the concepts of a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. People with a growth mindset are open and eager to learn new things and discover better solutions. They are not afraid of change and quickly adapt to it when it happens (and it always does). In contrast, those with fixed mindsets like the status quo and are complacent. They actively resist learning new things or changing how things have always been done. You want to hire people with a growth mindset, not fixed.
Rewarding (or Recognizing)
All right, I admit it; this somewhat contradicts what I said in the last section about what motivates people. Yes, primary human motivators tend to be intrinsic rather than extrinsic. That said, people also like to be recognized and appreciated. Even a simple “thank you” can make a huge difference. Little tokens of thanks are inexpensive and can build strong loyalty with your employees.
At my last company, I went above and beyond firm-building, and more than once, I received a hand-written card in the mail from our CEO thanking me for my efforts. I didn’t get paid anything extra for it, but knowing that someone was paying attention to my contributions meant a lot to me.
My current company has a fantastic recognition and reward system to recognize anyone else for their hard work and effort. As you get kudos, you accumulate points and can exchange them for various things. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s a little thing that makes the work feel worthwhile.
Retaining
If you have a loyal, hard-working employee who consistently performs, you want to retain them. I think this is where a lot of companies fail. They spend all this time and energy finding people and bringing them onboard but then neglect the employee’s continuing experience.
Companies that seek regular feedback from their employees are a step ahead of other organizations, but ONLY if they take action. Honestly, the lack of action was one of the primary reasons I left my former company. I had been there for almost eight years and provided candid feedback, but it went nowhere. No changes happened, and I felt like I no longer mattered or had a voice. So, listen to your employees and do something about what they say! If not, they’ll be joining the Great Resignation like so many others are doing right now. They’re fleeing companies in droves to find companies that are willing to adapt to the new normal. Don’t be the dinosaur that won’t flex to meet the needs of your most important asset – your employees.
Resigning (or Removing, or Retiring)
Lastly, sometimes you lose the battle to keep your best people. The sad part is that there were probably clues that the person was thinking about leaving. When your best people stop talking, and silence ensues, you are in trouble. Rather than assuming everything is OK (it’s not), you should be proactive about people who seem to be pulling away. If not, you will get the dreaded resignation letter. I was very blunt in my most recent one, stating much of what I have shared in this blog. I felt unappreciated, undervalued, and unheard.
When you receive a resignation letter, you have a couple of options. One is to accept the resignation with grace and understanding. The other is to fight to keep the person with your company. I have seen first-hand that people who are convinced to stay generally only remain for a short time because no one addresses their grievances. Your response is your choice, but just like snotty teenagers (who don’t want to be there), don’t try to retain unhappy employees. They might discover that the grass isn’t greener on the other side and come back to you, but don’t count on it.
There may also come a time when someone isn’t working out at your organization for some reason. It’s best not to let situations like this persist. If it’s beyond repair, you should kindly sever the relationship. While it might not seem like it at the time, it’s usually best for all parties involved. When this happens, be genuine in your feedback so the person can learn from the experience.
Finally, people at the end of their careers deserve to retire after their many years of hard work. In this instance, celebrate the person’s accomplishments and wish them well in their golden years. These are the seasoned alumni of your organization, and their contributions should be recognized as they depart.
Final Thoughts
I know this was a long blog, but to find and keep good employees, it’s critical to understand the stages employees go through. As a hiring manager or leader in your organization, you are responsible for taking care of your people. And they should be treated as people, not just as easily replaceable resources, because they’re usually not. There’s a considerable cost to attrition, and most companies seem to ignore this metric, but they pay the price in the end.
I would love to hear what you think about the employee life cycle. Are there any stages I may have missed? Do you agree or disagree with anything I said? Are you considering leaving a job or did you recently quit? Do you recognize that you are in one of these stages? Let me know in the comments below!
Now that you have a general understanding of the employment life cycle, my next blog digs in deeper on each of the stages so you can learn tactics to support your hiring and employee retention strategy. First up on the list is: Attracting Potential Employees, so visit again soon!
Disclaimer: This is my perception of an employee life cycle, based on my experiences as an employee and a consultant. If there is a well-known methodology behind this, I’m unaware of it, and I don’t claim to be an HR expert – I’m just someone who has been in the workforce for about thirty years (can you believe that?!), and I have seen a lot during my career.