Employee Life Cycle

In a minimum of 500 words, identify and explain each stage of the employee life-cycle as discussed in class and found in the readings. Be sure to provide at least 1 (one) example of BEST practices for each stage of the employee life cycle. As with all writing assignments, this paper should be written in APA format. This assignment is due on Wednesday, June 16th before midnight. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

ANSWER

Employee Life Cycle

Overview

The employee life cycle is a model used to envisage workforce engagement with an organization. The cycle encompasses six stages: attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, and separation. Understanding these phases is a crucial way of accelerating employee engagement because it allows corporate leaders to make effective decisions. Overall, the workforce life cycle accelerates talent retention and advances an organization’s reputation.

Attraction

This is the first stage in the cycle and revolves around the brand image that a company develops in the public domain. It exists even before a business has an open position. At this stage, a firm’s chance of targeting and quality candidates depends on its culture, brand awareness, and compensation benefits. These are some of the key tactics that can boost an organization’s chance of accessing quality talents. For example, by developing competitive salaries and other compensation benefits, a business stands a higher chance of attracting excellent talents. This is because most potential workers would show greater interest in offering their services in the company.

Recruitment

This is a phase where organizations target and recruit talented professionals to join their team of professionals. The main aim is to reach out and recruit individuals who are enthusiastic about their work as they will potentially assist an organization in meeting its desired milestones and objectives. Recruitment directly and significantly affects corporate performance (Ekwoaba, Ikeje & Ufoma, 2015). Businesses incorporate various tactics to recruit talents. For example, through recruitment platforms, a company has the opportunity to recruit excellent talent.

Onboarding

The onboarding stage is where the newly recruited workers familiarize themselves with the working environment. They effectively fit in their positions depending on how well they adjust to the new setting. Corporate leaders should ensure that recruits adjust accordingly to enable them to familiarize themselves with their roles. For instance, outlining the job expectations will make workers learn about their roles.

Development

This is the stage where businesses develop professional skills and abilities among their professionals. The central focus is to ensure that workers accelerate their capabilities due to improved skill development. As a result, they stand a better chance of building their personal and professional growth. For example, a company can reward workers who learn on their own time to boost skills development in the workplace.

Retention

The retention phase revolves around accelerating long-term relationships where employees can deliver their services for a long time. It entails creating a happy and challenging environment that allows the workers to handle their roles effectively. Leaders focus on employee engagement tactics that help accelerate talent retention (Kwon & Park, 2019). For example, when the top-leadership level understands the motivational elements that apply to their workforce and integrate them, this is an excellent way of retaining talents.

Separation

This is the final stage of the employee life cycle and revolves around a worker’s service in a company comes to an end. It mainly occurs through resignation, retirement, seeking new opportunities, and other personal reasons. Leaders should always treat this process with utmost importance as they do with other phases as it can have a greater impact on the remaining workforce. One of the critical ways of facilitating this process is by asking for honest feedback from the workers exiting their business perception.

Overall, the six stages of the employee life cycle are of paramount importance in building and sustaining quality talents in the workplace. Therefore, leaders should always ensure that they facilitate these phases effectively to stand a higher chance of accessing, recruiting, and retaining top talents.

References

Ekwoaba, J. O., Ikeije, U. U., & Ufoma, N. (2015). The Impact of Recruitment and Selection Criteria on Organizational Performance. Global Journal of Human Resource Management, 3(2), 22-33.

Kwon, K., & Park, J. (2019). The life cycle of employee engagement theory in HRD research. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 21(3), 352-370.