Comprehensive Guide For Attracting and Retaining Top Talent Through The Employee Life Cycle

The employees are the backbone of an organization. A set of talented, hardworking, and efficient employees can help a business grow phenomenally. That being said, a learning curve is attached to an employee joining an organization. They learn multiple things like the hierarchy, how things function, and most importantly, what is expected of them. This process is repeated every time an employee quits and leaves a position vacant. It takes a while for the new employee to get settled in and understand the working culture of their new place of work. Retention of employees saves the organization the hassle of finding new people and training them to fit the role they’re assigned. 

What Is The Employee Life Cycle?

An employee life cycle is the various stages an employee goes through while engaging with a company. It covers the entire relationship between a company and an employee. The employee life cycle consists of six stages of contact between an employee and the organization for which they work.

The Six Stages of an Employee Life Cycle

As stated above, the employee life cycle is divided into the following six stages:

1. Attraction: The employee life cycle begins with attraction, the stage where the employee gets attracted towards a company. The company entirely carries out this step as the potential employees are to be attracted towards a brand to fill the vacant position in the company.

2. Recruitment: In this stage, the organization recruits the best talent to fill a job opening. A smooth recruitment process creates a significant impact on an employee. The clarity in criteria, the recruitment process, and maintaining clear communication with potential employees pave the way for a smooth recruitment process.

3. Onboarding: Onboarding involves getting employees to start and adjust in a company after they have been recruited. In this stage, the employee learns about their role, the knowledge and skills they need and everything else they need to know about the company. 

4. Development: This is the stage where employees learn and develop their skills and pave the way for themselves in an organization. The company can help by rewarding the employees for their development, avoiding micromanaging the employees and encouraging them to perform better.

5. Retention: The most critical stage in an employee’s life cycle, a company, focuses on having the employees continue being a part of the organization. A company may achieve this by having the employees feel content within the organization and rewarding their hard work; It is pretty essential to retain employees because the entire hiring process has to be repeated, and the new employees take time to reach their optimum performance in the company, for obvious reasons like their newness and unfamiliarity with how things work.

6. Offboarding: This is the stage where employees make up their minds and decide to part ways with the company. It is the company’s duty to make the offboarding process as smooth as possible because the employees carry the impression forward and portray it to the world. This stage marks the end of the employee life cycle in a company. 

Attracting Top Talent

Attracting top talent is the first step to getting people to work for you. People apply for a position when they are interested in a job, a particular field, or the company offering it. These are the following steps you can take to attract top talent within the industry: 

1. Increase Brand Awareness: Job seekers tend to take more interest in companies they’ve heard of than those they haven’t. Brand awareness can be increased by attending conventions, and seminars, getting featured in blogs and magazines or creating a solid social media presence on popular apps.

2. Develop Amazing Work Culture: Having a great company culture helps attract more potential employees than you think. A company would attract employees by offering an outstanding work-life balance, valuing employees’ opinions and offering a positive environment. People give much importance to employee reviews and are inclined to work in a company with good reviews. 

3. Offer Handsome Compensation and Benefits: Good compensation is one of the most important factors people look out for a while searching for a job. A company that offers handsome compensation to its employees instantly attracts talent as the employees feel that the company appreciates their hard work. Other benefits like paid vacation time, sick leaves, bonuses, etc., add to the company’s appeal and attract more talent. 

4. Start Internship Programs: Internship programs are a great way to attract new talent in the industry. The programs attract candidates for entry-level positions in your company with an opportunity that could turn into a full-time job. 

5. Offer Flexibility: Many people prefer flexibility in work timings, location, etc., post the pandemic. Offering flexibility in certain areas helps employees feel they’re in control and keeps them happy. New talent prefers flexibility and gets attracted to companies that offer flexibility. 

Retaining the Employees

The next challenge after attracting top talent and employing them is to retain them. When the employees leave, the entire recruitment process has to be repeated. A lot of time, money and energy gets wasted in the process, making employee retention even more important. You may take the following steps to retain the employees:

1. Sound Communication: Good communication within the company ensures that the employees understand the work assigned to them and delegate it better. It also entails that the employees feel heard and, in turn, valued. 

2. Boost Their Morale: People can achieve wonders with proper motivation. With high morale, the employees are motivated to work harder and perform better. The feeling of being productive at work keeps them interested in their work and increases the chances of their retention.

3. Seek Feedback: Seeking feedback from employees makes them feel heard. They feel like they are contributing to the company by sharing their opinions. The feeling of validation gives them a sense of belongingness and increases their chances of staying in the company. 

4. Offer Appraisals: Besides competitive compensation, employees love appraisals. The added raise is an advantage the employees seek. It makes them feel valued and that their efforts are being appreciated. 

5. Provide Transparency: This is one of the most important factors for employees in a company. Transparency ensures fair procedures and practices in the company and keeps company politics in check. Lack of transparency makes the employees feel undervalued and makes them want to switch jobs, decreasing their chances of retention. 

Attracting and retaining employees in a company helps the company and the employees. It helps job seekers find various opportunities to kick-start or elevate a person’s career. Both these steps are equally necessary and in sync with each other. Attracting employees ensures the presence of some talent in the talent pipeline and saves recruiters’ time. Similarly, retaining employees ensures that they stay in the same job and leave a gap that would be difficult to fill. Employee retention says a lot about the company. It shows prospective employees that your company is a safe workplace where employees are valued and respected.