Amid the Great Resignation, businesses all around the world are scrambling for methods to attract, retain, and develop their talent pool. Because of these circumstances, we’ve seen the increased integration of various employee experience strategies.
However, only some organizations have truly grasped the concept of implementing employee experience methods for their talent pool. If you want your business to thrive, adopting new strategies for the rapidly changing workforce is the way to go.
In this article, you’ll learn the different stages of employee experience and some tips to improve it within your organization.
First Stage: Recruitment
In the human resources world, recruitment is the process of finding, attracting, and selecting the most qualified candidates from either within an organization or outside of it.
During the recruitment stage, numerous factors are considered. These may include the duration of the contract, budgetary requirements, qualification considerations, and more.
Building a talent pool that is high-performing and diverse yet collaborative starts with a strong recruitment strategy in place. Listed below are some recruitment strategies to attract candidates who are suitable for both the job and the organizational culture.
- Refine your employer brand – Your brand is what attracts people to want to work with you. Work on your identity, mission, and organizational voice. These three factors will help your organization stand out in the industry.
- Establish an employee referral program – One of the most cost-effective recruitment strategies to implement is the employee referral program, which incentivizes current employees to recommend professional connections to fill positions within your company. To make the program more effective, consider adjusting the incentive amount according to the quality of the referral.
- Nurture previous employees – Another often-overlooked source of qualified candidates is your organization’s previous employees. Stay connected with talent, even after they leave the company, to leave the door open for future collaboration. When the time comes, you can weigh the pros and cons of rehiring a previous employee in a new role.
Second Stage: Onboarding
After deciding on a qualified candidate, it’s time to welcome them into the organization. This is called the onboarding process. At this time, the new hire is introduced to the processes, employees, tools, and expectations of their new role.
Keep in mind that onboarding plays a huge part in creating lasting impressions of an organization and is critical in establishing an impactful employee experience. Here are some methods you can try.
Connect the new hire with the team before their start date – Allowing the new hire to connect with immediate team members or their supervisor prior to their start date may lessen anxiety and dissipate some of the tension that comes with starting a new job.- Send them company-branded items as a welcoming gift – Though it may sound simple, it wouldn’t hurt to send your new employee some swag that allows them to feel as if they’re truly a part of the organization. This has the secondary benefit of reinforcing your brand identity.
- Communicate employee benefits in an interactive presentation – If you want to keep new hires motivated and excited about working at your organization, remind them of all the perks and benefits at work in a memorable manner – such as a compelling, engaging communication experience.
Connect the new hire with the team before their start date – Allowing the new hire to connect with immediate team members or their supervisor prior to their start date may lessen anxiety and dissipate some of the tension that comes with starting a new job.
Third Stage: Development
As human beings, we are naturally bound to grow and develop. When employees feel as if they’re stuck in a professional rut or left to improve on their own, they may be inclined to leave the organization.
A recent survey found that feeling stuck or not learning new skills is the primary reason why employees may leave their job. This comes in ahead of low salary or a lack of monetary benefits.
As such, organizations should prioritize providing avenues for employees to expand current skill sets, be challenged with new tasks, and contribute to the company’s success. Here are ways to bump up development opportunities for your employees.
- Simulations – Simulations are effective and interactive avenues to learn new skills and expand current skill sets. The process can be likened to role-playing, wherein an employee takes on a task and learns from the process.
- Self-study – This method of development is ideal for both remote and onsite employees as it’s self-paced. Employees can choose which skills to improve and which new knowledge to pursue. Because self-study hours aren’t compensated, companies can offer this benefit by way of paying for the course.
- Coaching – In this setup, senior employees work one-on-one with less experienced teammates. It is an effective method of skills expansion and allows for teammates to establish collaborative relationships.
Fourth Stage: Retention
Now that your employees see themselves growing with the company, it’s up to you to put a retention strategy in place to retain the current talent pool. The retention stage of the employee experience emphasizes the methods wherein companies keep their talent pool for the longest amount of time possible.
While planning for retention strategies, organizations should consider maternity and parental leave, salary increases, work-life balance, and performance management processes. Listed below are retention strategies you can implement to improve the employee experience within your organization.
- Improve the onboarding process – When an employee feels as if they are welcomed to an organization engagingly and memorably, their work anxiety is minimized, empowering them to more comfortably establish connections.
- Promote a healthy work-life balance – Wellbeing, physical health, and mental wellness are essential for employees to perform at their best. Especially in this time of pandemic, employers must prioritize the health of their workforce above all.
- Implement performance management processes – Performance management is the process of continuously improving performance across individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole. This can be done by aligning organizational goals through performance assessments, reviews, and skills development.
Fifth Stage: Exit
Otherwise known as employee offboarding, the exit process is when an employee leaves the organization for any variety of reasons. An employee’s exit can be voluntary or involuntary.
Since it’s the last interaction between an employer and an employee, the exit process commonly involves an exit interview. Here are tips on ensuring these interviews are effective.
- Conduct a one-on-one interview in a comfortable atmosphere – Exiting employees are more likely to tell the truth, since they will no longer have to answer to the company. Ensure they feel comfortable sharing their true thoughts by creating an atmosphere of sincerity and confidentiality.
- Ask consistent questions – To compare information and arrive at a definitive trend, ask a set of predetermined questions for every exiting employee.
- Express support for their new opportunity – As we mentioned earlier, the exit interview is an integral part of the offboarding process. If you truly care about your employees, wishing them the best and sending them off with a smile and gratitude will make their stay with you even more memorable.
An organization can better plan and implement employee experience strategies by better understanding the various stages. During these pivotal stages, it is the organization that can encourage diverse, inclusive, and appropriate employee experiences that will affect an employee’s performance, growth, and relationships within the company.
Always remember that employee experience is not something that can be bought or added to an employee’s salary. It is an outright expression of how a company intends to value, motivate, guide, and keep its employees.
With the right employee experience methods in place, your organization can reap the benefits in skillful human resources, productive work culture, and increased revenue. Indeed, the employee experience is the ultimate indicator of whether an employee will fully commit to your organization or not, so be sure to invest in strategies that can improve yours.
