It’s surprising that even today most of the organizations give their utmost attention to hiring the right candidates for their workforce but fail to work on what follows which maintaining their end to end Talent lifecycle.

Having just over a year of work experience, I’ve realized this fact at an early stage in my career and I’m not alone in thinking this way. After speaking to a lot of my peers working in large companies, I’ve understood that they face issues that force them into thinking about an early resignation. Lack of engagement, monotonous work life, insufficient training and development opportunities and stringent and strict deadlines are some of the complains given by them which leads me to think that companies take fewer effective steps and focus less on understanding and managing something called the Employee Lifecycle (ELC)

The concept of Employee Lifecycle (ELC) eludes an alarming portion of the HR workforce today. However, the truth is that understanding and tending to the same is essential for continuous employee development that, in turn, can boost the overall productivity of the entire company.

While different experts have different views on ELC, it can be broadly divided into five stages:

• Attraction

 
(Source: JImmintz)

There is no dearth of brilliant and skillful individuals in today’s era of globalization. However, you can’t tap into that market unless you stand out and they show interest towards getting employed by you. This is where Employer Branding comes into the picture. To explain this concept, Google serves as a quintessential example.

The fact that Google was listed as the no. 1 company to work for 6 times in a row by Fortune, alone speaks volumes. Apart from the worldwide recognition, Google has gained, its work culture is also what makes it stands out and glorifies the essence of the very enterprise.

Google offers an enticing employee-friendly work environment along with unimaginable perks viz. afternoon volleyball breaks, subsidized massages, free gourmet food, TGIFs etc. It follows the mantra that hard work and fun go hand in hand.

Understanding that happy employees are 12% more productive, Google is always working towards increasing the overall satisfaction of their staff. So, it’s not hard to imagine why the top talent from all corners of the world dream of receiving an employment letter from this software giant.
 

• Recruitment

(Source: Talk Business)

While the “attraction” stage is largely passive, “recruitment” needs the highest level of active participation and involvement. Its ideal requirements go beyond just the standard pre-employment testing and verification of credentials.

Red Adiar, founder of Red Adair Co. Inc., put it in the best way possible:

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.”

Bad hiring decisions can cost you more than you can imagine. In fact, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, himself can back this as he estimated a loss of $100 million solely because of this reason.

While finding the right talent is important, it doesn’t have to be so difficult. There are several things one can do to make the process easier. For starters asking for referrals from your team is one. Another way to go about it is extending your reach to social media, where it’s easier to peek into a candidate’s true-self.

Lastly, if you want to minimize the risk of a having a bad hire on your team, then involve your current employees in the process. For instance, you can draw in your senior software developer while screening programmers or your system administrator while screening network monitors etc. This will make the recruitment process more risk-free.

• On boarding

This is one of the simpler stages of the employee lifecycle which is commonly known as “employee orientation” or “employee induction.” This is the part where you tell your newly hired employee what’s expected of him/her and brief him/her on the values and mission of the company.

In this part of the process, transparency is vital. Nothing should be left to the employee’s interpretation and the new hire should be able to settle in without any major issues.

• Training and Development

 
(Source: LinkedIn)

“Training and development” is the longest stage that spans across years or decades and requires a high level of focus and effort.

Whatever the current position of the newly appointed employee, there is always room for improvement. So, it’s important that you nurture every talent to help them contribute towards the company in the best and biggest way possible.

88% of the employees feel that there is no point in sticking with a job if there are no opportunities for growth. So, its in the best interest of the company to ensure that every employee is reskilled to tackle the challenges that come his/her way.

Conferences, seminars, workshops etc. can add value to your employees and equip them with much-needed skills and attributes. However, be sure to monitor the progress of the employees individually rather than assessing the overall growth to identify the problems pertaining to that individual.

Since managers and team leaders play an important role in the development of the talent, they must be easily accessible and open to hearing about the issues faced by their workforce. Don’t let your team slip into that half who quit their jobs because they hate their boss.

• Retention

 
(Source: Vennli.com)

Now that you have hired the right talent and put a system in place, it’s time to bolster their retention, especially considering that about 50% of them are confident that they can find another job at the same level within six months.

With the gig economy already shaking the world, it helps to understand the following:

• Recognition: Giving the employees due to recognition through visible appreciation go a long way. Even a pat on the back can increase an employee’s level of satisfaction and motivate him/her to push beyond their limits.
• Flexibility: Almost half of the employees feel that they don’t get enough breaks and this is one of the reasons why they get attracted to other companies that offer a less-restrictive work environment. So, try to be cordial and understanding if an employee wants to leave early to be at their child’s first football game or to help their parents move to a new home etc. After all, they are entitled to a comfortable and stress-free life like everyone else.
• Engagement: 51% of the workforce is not engaged in their roles today. This causes organizations to lose about $450 to $550 billion annually. It would be safe to say that talent engagement should be one of your priorities and you can start by managing employee stress levels. For instance, you can encourage occasional 15-minute yoga sessions in the mornings and even some harmless chats between employees can ease up the mood and increase engagement. I recently published a blog – “ How to drive productivity at the Workplace.” which might give your more insight into the practice of employee engagement.

Conclusion

Learning about the different stages of the talent lifecycle can help you close the gap between you and your staff. With appropriate strategies to maximise results at every stage, you can easily create and retain a dream-team for your company that can, against all odds, take it to new heights.

The post A Complete Guide to Improve the End-to-End Talent Lifecycle appeared first on Cavantics.