Stages of employee experience

An effective onboarding process translates into enthusiasm for the new job. [iStockphoto]

Employee experience is a worker's perceptions about his or her journey through all the touchpoints at a particular time.

Recruitment

This includes all the steps that lead to hiring a new employee. Considerations are how long and how much it takes to hire, the rate of offer acceptance, and the hire's quality.

Were your job ads attractive and clear enough to catch the attention and applications of the best candidates?

Did your interview process engage and reassure great candidates so they quickly accepted your job offer? How was the entire candidate experience?

Onboarding

A new hire gets up to speed with the systems, tools, and processes and comes to grips with the role's expectations. Most new employees need "ramp time" to get up to speed and become productive in their job.

Obviously, the quicker they can do this, the more profitable it is for your organisation.

An effective onboarding process translates someone's initial enthusiasm for their new job into a more meaningful, long-term connection to the brand and a commitment to doing great things while they're there.

Development

Employee development is an ongoing stage in their career journey, with individuals developing at different rates across a variety of skills.

As employees develop within their roles, you need to quantify their productivity, ability to be a team player and promotion aspirations.

You also want to offer them the chance to expand their skill sets, an increasingly important differentiator for many employees looking to have a "portfolio career" consisting of many different experiences.

Retention

Employees are now fully ramped and integrated into the organisation. With a strong people retention strategy, you can keep them performing, developing, and contributing to the company's success, as well as ensure they're inspired by and connected to the company's core vision.

It makes economic sense for a company to do all it can to keep hold of existing employees. It can cost up to 50 per cent to 60 per cent of an employee's annual salary to replace them.

Exit

Employees can leave for a whole host of reasons: They may retire, move to another employer, or make a life change.

Every employee will leave your company at some point, and finding out why is an opportunity to improve and develop the employee experience for current and future workers.

Leavers may be more candid in exit interviews about why they're going as they may feel they have nothing to lose by being brutally honest.