The Employee Experience Lifecycle: Retention
A quick reminder about the Employee Experience Lifecycle
If this is your first experience with the Employee Experience Lifecycle model, I highly recommend checking out our video series and my previous blog posts introducing the model and on recruiting/hiring and onboarding/engaging employees. But if you’re short on time and just want a quick review, here you go!
At Bright Talent, we use the term “employee experience” to describe the journey of an employee from new hire to being engaged and retained. The employee experience is managed by a well-crafted ecosystem of processes and people that work synergistically to create opportunity for every employee. The Human Resources function typically develops and stewards these practices to support both employees and managers. It establishes your employment value proposition and culture. And all of this translates to your employment brand—how your company is viewed by candidates, employees, and former employees.
In short, this is the all-encompassing, soup-to-nuts process for every interaction with employees, from the initial job posting all the way through the exit interview. The goal is for employees to start—and end—with nothing but positive impressions about you and your company. Why? Because in our current world of post-pandemic job opportunities and fast-moving conversations on social media, your employees can help or hurt the reputation of your company. So it’s advised to treat your employees well, or some other company will!!
In this blog post, we’ll talk through the third and final part of the Employee Experience Lifecycle, focusing primarily on the retention of valued staff members.
Retention is key—and cost-efficient
For any successful business—large, small or somewhere in the middle—establishing and staying within profitable margins while investing in your people is a critical pathway to sustainability and growth. When good employees leave, even the most savvy of CFOs can be caught off-guard by the unexpected costs and cascading effects of lost productivity due to turnover. As mentioned in my last post on the Employee Experience Lifecycle, research shows that organizations may spend six to nine months of an employee’s salary to replace them. This is because it costs a heck of a lot more to recruit, hire and train a new employee than to simply implement smart business practices that keep your existing employees happy and engaged with their work.
The formula used to manage profitability margins and people investments is not a static exercise. It needs to be evaluated regularly against sales and turnover numbers to ensure you’re keeping pace with your client and workforce demands. Think of this as your “experience metric” which aligns both customer and employee experiences.
The truth is, although we’re experiencing some layoffs and economic uncertainty, skilled employees still have the upper hand when it comes to hiring. Due to the ongoing labor shortage, there are a plethora of jobs available across most industries. Loyalty aside, your best staff may feel no obligation to stay with your business when another one is offering a better quality of work—and life. So there’s no time like the present to examine your company’s approach to retaining its top talent and making the necessary changes to keep them supporting your organization’s mission.
The need to meld traditional and new retention strategies
Gone are the days when a simple raise, promotion or salary negotiation would be enough to reel a wavering employee back into your pond. Especially when it comes to Gen Z and Millennials. This group makes up 46 percent of the current workforce and their priorities are firmly grounded in their work experience, alignment with the company culture and the sense that their employee truly cares about their wellbeing. In addition, for Gen Z and Millennials, as well as the Gen X and Boomer generations, ethical, inclusive, stable and transparent leadership is the expectation. And as a whole, the younger crowd will not have an issue calling out their company’s leaders for falling short on the job.
So when we talk about retention, we need to look at ALL aspects of the employee experience to ensure we are supporting them with a safe and productive work environment.
Let’s take a look at one particular hot topic for all employees—regardless of generation—right now. Even before COVID-19, health and wellbeing was a “top three issue” for employees, according to The Gallup Organization. But the pandemic has driven this home in ways we never could have imagined. The “Great Resignation” has its roots in this, as many people no longer will tolerate untenable work situations or “burnout,” and others reimagine their life and how to live it with more purpose.
So it is critical that we revisit how we engage and communicate with employees, and establish boundaries and guidelines to keep people safe. For example, when you think about health and wellness, it’s imperative to think about your staff and their needs beyond just their work day. How do you care for your people—physically, mentally and emotionally—in a way that allows them to be their authentic selves and to do their job well? How do you ensure they are being heard? And if they’re struggling, what’s the plan to help them?
Consider a young, entry-level employee. They may be physically healthy, but struggling to afford the high cost of living in their city. Or perhaps the remote measures we’ve been living with have wreaked havoc with their social support system. Either of these scenarios may be leading that team member down a path of isolation and/or burnout. This can affect their emotional health, which in turn can impact their performance and productivity at work. How you approach this situation can mean the difference between a happy and loyal employee and one who leaves for greener—more supportive—pastures.
Off-boarding is just as important as onboarding
While the Employee Experience Lifecycle is focused on keeping folks engaged and employed with your company, the reality is that people do leave. For many different reasons, folks move on to other opportunities. And the experience they have when leaving can have a significant impact on how they feel about, support and promote your brand to others. So it's important to remember that when we are off-boarding an employee, we must do it with dignity! Please don’t overlook this crucial part of the lifecycle if/when it arises for you.
If a staff member is leaving involuntarily, how are you helping to bridge to their next opportunity? In contrast, if they’re leaving voluntarily, are you treating them well on their journey to the next destination? The old saying “treat others as you would like to be treated” applies here. And you never know—a valuable employee who leaves with a positive off-boarding experience might find out how good they had it with your company and express a desire to come back. That’s an easy hire!
Summing it all up
Your people are watching how you treat others and how you treat them. Retention happens when employees feel safe and healthy, when they feel heard and when they observe congruence in our words and actions. This section of the experience lifecycle is critical to the vitality of your employment value proposition and culture. If you want an authentic employment brand that attracts—and retains—the right people for your organization, I cannot stress enough the importance of developing and continually improving the Employee Experience Lifecycle ecosystem.
If you’d like to learn more about how we help HR leaders and their teams, please give us a call or shoot over an email. We can help you with the right expert to solve your current challenges on an interim, outsource, or project basis.
We look forward to hearing from you!
