Employee experience: how do you create a smooth, seamless employee career path?

Talent shortages, well-being in the workplace, employee retention... these are just some of the issues that regularly make the headlines in the HR press, and which demonstrate the extent to which human resources are becoming more central than ever.

In short, they have their work cut out for them, and must now focus on new strategies to stand out from the competition. One of these is the employee journey, directly inspired by marketing.

By determining which operations to carry out at each stage of an employee's life cycle within the organisation, using targeted and relevant actions, HR can better attract candidates, as well as retain and engage their current employees.

But what exactly are we talking about, and what are the different phases along the way? And how do you create the best possible employee experience?

Follow our complete guide 👇.

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What is the employee journey?

The employee journey, also known as the employee life cycle, defines all the stages in an employee's life with their employer, from recruitment to offboarding.

More specifically, it covers the following phases

• attraction ;
• recruitment ;
• onboarding ;
• development
• retention ;
• career development;
• off-boarding.

The concept of the employee journey is therefore similar to that of the employee experience, which relates to their interactions with the organisation, and their feelings about their company.

💡 All this is obviously reminiscent of the concepts of customer experience and customer journey so dear to marketers! The principle remains the same: to gain a better understanding of an individual's expectations at a given moment in time, in order to provide responses tailored to the context.

The objective for HR is then to think about how best to act at each of these stages, with a view to guaranteeing the well-being, commitment and productivity of teams.

The 7 stages of the employee journey

Stage 1: attraction

The attraction phase of the employee journey marks the first contact between a company and its future talent. This is where everything comes into play: brand image, employer promise and visibility.

How do you attract the right profiles? By looking after the employer brand! For example, an engaging careers site, authentic testimonials and sincere communication clearly make a difference.

In fact, the aim here is to put in place actions to attract talent even before they apply, because successful recruitment starts long before the interview!

Stage 2: recruitment

This stage encompasses the entire recruitment process as perceived by the candidate, from the moment they learn about the advert or vacancy to the moment they sign their contract.

It encompasses several strategic moments:

• the first contact ;
• the various job interviews (during which the candidate is often invited to see the premises for the first time);
• meeting the teams, etc.

In other words, at this stage, the future employee is already forming a precise idea of you... good or bad. That's why it's so important to take great care with the candidate process.

Stage 3: Onboarding

This is when the new employee is integrated into the company and gets to know his or her colleagues, working environment, equipment, etc.

This phase is crucial, because a "poor welcome" clearly affects the employee's desire to continue the adventure.

In fact, according to Workelo, 80% of new recruits decide whether or not to stay with the company within the first six months. And those who have benefited from a proper onboarding are 58% more likely to continue than others.

Unfortunately, many recruiters still neglect this stage...

Stage 4: Development

This period corresponds to the employee's day-to-day work and development within the organisation. This is an ongoing stage in the employee's career.

Your objective here can be summed up in one sentence: do everything you can to make them feel at home with you and want to stay.

As we shall see later, there are a multitude of actions you can take to achieve this, in order to act on :

• their well-being
• their working environment
• their skills development and desire to progress, etc.

Stage 5: Retention

Working to retain employees means working to reduce high staff turnover, which has a significant impact on the company, particularly in terms of :

• costs (the recruitment process has a price!) ;
• productivity ;
• retaining know-how.

And let's not forget that too many people leaving a company can have a negative impact on morale, creating a negative climate which, in turn, encourages other employees to do the same.

Stage 6: Career development

An employee who stagnates often ends up looking elsewhere. To avoid this, offer them clear prospects.

Career development is based on a number of levers:

• internal mobility;
• training;
• managerial support, etc.

The aim? So that everyone can grow without leaving the company. A motivated employee is one who sees a future with you. So define a career plan with them , offer them stimulating challenges and reward their achievements.

Stage 7: Off-boarding

This is when the employee leaves: new opportunity, retirement, etc.

It's an opportunity to make one last good impression! But despite the stakes, too many companies still miss the boat.

And yet, a botched offboarding can lead to a disgruntled former employee tarnishing your image.

Why is the employee career path important?

A well-optimised employee career path, in which the company invests, helps to attract, engage and retain talent over the long term.

You need to invest human and financial resources at every stage:

• A strong attraction promotes the employer's image and attracts the best profiles;
• a well-executed onboarding process speeds up the integration and skills development of the employee;
• a motivating working environment boosts productivity;
• real prospects for career development prevent demotivation;
• good retention limits staff turnover, and therefore preserves know-how within the company.

If you ignore the importance of this process, you will see more and more people leave the company, and valuable skills will be lost. What's more, recruiting and training new employees all the time is expensive.

Ultimately, investing in the employee experience means ensuring the company's long-term viability and competitiveness by focusing on people.

The challenges of the employee journey

To understand and optimise the employee pathway, the right questions need to be asked at each stage, in order to provide responses aligned with the employee's needs depending on where they are in their life cycle.

💡 This is also why some companies map out this career path, in order to:

• understand the key moments ;
• better structure their processes
• prioritise their actions.

Once the contours of the employee journey have been mapped out, the ultimate aim is to improve the employee experience from start to finish, without focusing on a single stage. It's a good idea to ask yourself what the employee's specific characteristics are today, and what their expectations are at each stage, with the aim of :

• make it easier to recruit the best talent
• get the best out of your employees
• retain them.

☝️ This is a major challenge, given the many issues facing HR:

• recruitment difficulties, particularly in certain sectors such as tech
• increasing staff turnover
• disengagement of some employees, as evidenced by the Quiet Quitting phenomenon, etc.

How can you improve the employee experience? 9 tips to follow

Tip 1: Develop your digital transformation

Optimising the employee experience now involves the digital transformation of the HR function. The need to streamline processes in the face of the increasing complexity of the profession requires the use of appropriate software, such as HRIS.

These tools have the advantage of transforming the employee experience at every key stage, thanks in particular to the automation of operations that make many phases of the process (onboarding, skills management, appraisals, etc.) more fluid. What's more, managers have access to precise data to ensure personalised monitoring, while employees benefit from more dynamic interactions.

💡 Examples of software:

• Lucca is a comprehensive, modular HR suite that simplifies, modernises and humanises human resources management. Using an attractive and intuitive interface, as well as extensive functional coverage (employee file, talent, time and activities, etc.), manage all activities related to the employee path. You can also give employees the autonomy they need, and boost their commitment!
  
  
• UKG saves you precious time on time-consuming tasks, so you can focus on higher added-value missions . What's more, the fact that employees can manage their own requests and have access to a knowledge base means that they can easily obtain the information they need to improve their experience.

Tip 2: Map the employee journey

As mentioned above, this mapping of the employee journey serves to define, prioritise and deploy your actions more intelligently.

To do this, start by segmenting your employees according to their position in their lifecycle, so that you have a precise idea of their desires according to their situation.

Then, to identify which levers to activate at each phase, use :

• employee feedback;
• analysis of your HR indicators, including those collected using your software.

Tip 3: Communicate your employer brand and corporate culture

Faced with an increasingly tense job market, every HR department has to ask itself how it can stand out from the competition to attract the best talent.

That's why the employee experience and the employer brand go hand in hand, because it's through the employer brand that :

• your corporate culture
• the working conditions on offer
• the managerial practices in place;
• the values and raison d'être of the organisation.

Through all these components, you therefore enhance the value of your company, right from the start of the process, at the time of recruitment.

💡 What's more, strengthening the corporate culture inevitably means moving more in line with the aspirations of today's workforce, and therefore improving the working lives of existing employees.

Tip 4: Optimise your recruitment process

It is often through your recruitment process that the employee interacts with the employer for the first time. Don't neglect it!

💡 Here are a few tips along these lines:

• Be clear and transparent about your expectations as soon as the job is advertised, to avoid wasting time on a candidate who ultimately turns out not to be aligned. For example, working people appreciate it if you mention the salary (or at least a range of salaries)... a fact that many recruiters have unfortunately failed to take on board.
  
  
• Be modern and playful in the way you conduct interviews. Of course, design professional tests that match the skills required for the job.
  
  
• Inform the candidate in detail about the stages in the process, the deadlines and the people in the company involved.
  
  
• ALWAYS reply to applications, even if they are rejected. Nothing is more frustrating for an applicant than to be constantly waiting for a reply.

💡 Once again, the use of specialised software will help you in your approach. Not only does data automate the identification of the right profiles in line with your expectations, but these tools also streamline operations as a whole, to improve responsiveness.

Tip 5: Take care when integrating new recruits

It can't be said often enough, but the onboarding of a new employee is PRI-MOR-DIAL.

So make sure that their first day in the company, and the weeks that follow, go off without a hitch.

To start with, make sure they have all the information they need before they arrive: how the company works, working hours, etc. Why not prepare a welcome booklet, with a list of employees, for example?

On the big day, remain available and make sure that your new employee's manager is available too, so that you can provide them with the best possible support and answer their (many) questions. In fact, keep these moments of exchange going afterwards, through regular meetings.

Of course, everything needs to be in place as far as preparing the workstation, installing software, etc. is concerned.

Last but not least, don't forget the traditional welcome drink or lunch, the perfect way to integrate the new recruit into the new team.

Tip 6: Improve the Quality of Life at Work (QWL)

OK, so we may be stating the obvious, but the employee's development within the company (in other words, their day-to-day life once the rush of the first few weeks is over) requires a high quality of working life at all times.

To achieve this, there are a multitude of levers to activate. But here are the main trends at the moment:

• Offer greater flexibility and teleworking. Every HR manager knows that work/life balance is now one of the main aspirations of working people.
  
  
• Develop a modern management style, such as participative management, holacracy or the liberated company.
  
  
• Offer fair remuneration, commensurate with the work done, and equitable between the various employees.
  
  
• Don't neglect the working environment, both in terms of premises, spaces, and the hardware and software made available.

💡 For inspiration, take a leaf out of our box of ideas for well-being at work!

Tip no. 7: Support employees' development within the company

Many employees end up leaving their company, despite good working conditions, because they get bored. They can no longer find meaning in their work.

That's why it's worth thinking about how to offer real prospects for development: promotion to a higher position, taking on new tasks, etc.

💡 To do this, deploy a solid skills management system, to best meet your needs while satisfying certain employees' desire for change. Complement this work with a training plan used to establish what the needs are in this area and then take the necessary measures.

Tip no. 8: Encourage HR/employee communication

By gathering feedback, you can pinpoint the bottlenecks that stand in the way of a good employee experience. Not to mention the fact that an employee who feels listened to will be more committed.

The first things that come to mind here are professional interviews and annual appraisals. Although the latter are not compulsory, they are still recommended as a way of taking stock of operational performance and the achievement of objectives. What's more, they provide an ideal opportunity to find out how the employee would like to develop.

But once a year is not enough! That's why more and more organisations are introducing a system of regular feedback, via software, to get people talking.

Tip no. 9: End on a high note with offboarding

Missing an offboarding, and leaving the employee with a tarnished final image, means running the risk of bad press.

Communication must therefore remain optimal and healthy right to the end. Listen carefully to the reasons for the employee's departure, and be transparent with them and the rest of the team.

You should also ensure that the handover goes smoothly and without a hitch, so as not to overburden the remaining employees and the successor more than necessary.

On his or her last day, the employee will appreciate the presence of his or her manager, as well as the thanks for his or her good and loyal service. As far as HR is concerned, remember to prepare all the administrative documents the employee will need, so that he or she doesn't come running to you afterwards.

Finally, if the person concerned agrees, organising a farewell drink, accompanied by a small token of appreciation, is always welcome 🥂🎉.

See all software Recruiting

What should we remember about the employee journey?

Attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, career development and offboarding - these are the 7 stages of the employee journey. For each of these stages, just like for a customer, a targeted strategy is needed to offer the best possible experience. The aim: to attract the best talent... and keep it!

To achieve this, you can take action on a number of factors: quality of life at work, employer brand and corporate culture, recruitment processes, skills management, etc. It's up to you to define your priorities in the light of the challenges you face and the feedback you receive.

However, one thing is certain: using the right software solution can make a real difference. By centralising your data and automating a large part of your operations, you'll have more bandwidth to tackle higher-value tasks... to pamper your teams in short 😉.