Recent research suggests the human resources (HR) department’s increasing impact on an organization’s bottom line and its ultimate success. Basically, your organization’s success or failure will depend on how it manages its people and job candidates during the stages of their life cycles with your organization.
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While experts sometimes vary on what they call each stage in an employee’s life cycle, they typically include the following stages:
- Recruitment
- Onboarding
- Development
- Retainment
- Offboarding
Here’s how you can link each employee life cycle stage to the success of your organization.
Recruitment
When reaching out to and touching base with potential job candidates, it is important to make your organization look as appealing and competitive as possible while treating each candidate equally and fairly.
The reputation of your organization can still hinge on this stage, even when candidates don’t end up becoming full-time employees. Each candidate should still learn about your benefits packages and what your organization offers, as well as about its interview process and how it makes its hiring decisions.
You don’t want to risk being rude or dismissive to any job candidates or individuals who are interested in working for your organization during this stage because they will still be able to tell others about how your organization is during the recruitment phase. Instead, use the recruitment phase to get anyone and everyone excited about your organization and its job openings.
Onboarding
Did you know that nearly a quarter of all new hires quit within their first 2 years with an organization? And typically, this is because their new employer doesn’t offer an adequate onboarding program. Be sure to learn more about Why Your Onboarding Program Should Last at least 1 Year.
Be sure to make a big deal out of introducing your new employees to your organization and their roles, to make sure that they are welcomed and have the tools and information they need to do their jobs.
Development
According to Gallup research, 32% of employees are leaving the companies they work for because they aren’t receiving career advancement or promotional opportunities. So, if you want your employees to stay with your organization long term, offer them long-term career paths and continually develop their skills.
Retainment
This stage is pretty straight forward. If you want your company to be successful and to consistently have a healthy bottom line, you need to retain your employees. Employee turnover costs employers a lot of money—as much as $15,000 per employee.
Offboarding
When an employee leaves your organization, make sure to have a strategy for offboarding them. You want them to leave your organization with a good impression of your organization, and you want to learn about the experience and situation so that you can prevent it from happening with another employee.
Be sure to carefully consider each stage of your employees’ life cycles as detailed above to ensure the success of your HR department and, ultimately, your entire organization.