What is an Employee Journey and How You Can Map it

The journey an employee takes during their time with a company is known as the employee lifecycle. It is made up of various stages, including onboarding, employment, and offboarding. At each stage, it is essential to engage and develop employees to ensure their satisfaction, productivity, and ultimately, retention. In this article, we will explore what an employee journey is, why it matters, and how to ensure a positive employee experience at every stage of the journey.

You may ask why it is so important to understand the employee lifecycle journey, and the reason is that as a HR / L&D at your organization, it is crucial you understand the points throughout the employee journey where you could make a significant impact.

Ultimately, you can impact every stage of an employee’s lifecycle.

The Importance of mapping the Employee Journey

The employee journey is essential to creating a positive work environment that attracts and retains top talent. By understanding each stage of the journey, businesses can make targeted improvements to create a more satisfying and rewarding experience for employees. As noted by Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, “Employee engagement and retention is all about making sure that employees feel that they’re growing and developing in their roles, and that they have a path forward.”

What are the stages of the employee lifecycle journey and why are they significant?

1. Onboarding

The onboarding stage of the employee journey is critical for setting the tone for the employee’s experience with the company. A positive onboarding experience can lead to increased engagement and loyalty, while a negative one can have the opposite effect. During the onboarding stage, employees should be given the tools and resources they need to succeed in their roles, as well as be introduced to the company’s culture and values.

By organizing all onboarding materials in one easy to access space, both employees and managers can feel in control of their learning journeys and subsequently shape their learning throughout their time at your organization, influencing the lifecycle as a whole.

Dont forget about the importance of pre-onboarding, making sure your new hire is in touch with your organization even before day 1. This not only ensures your new hire feels welcome upon arrival at your organization, but also creates a lasting first impression at the very beginning.

If you want to learn more about how to plan a successful onboarding for your employees, check this out 👇

10 Tips to Improve Your Employee Onboarding

2. Employment

During the employment stage, employees should have opportunities for growth and development within the company. This can include training, mentoring, and other career development opportunities. Investing in employee development not only benefits the employee but also the company, as it can lead to increased productivity and retention.

Developing your employees could take the form of an Learning Experience Platform (LXP), enabling you to train and upskill employees based on their specific roles and skill gaps.

Within the employment stage of the employee life cycle sit three pivotal stages:

i. Training

• Providing your employees with all the tools they need in order to be able to effectively carry out their job on a day-to-day basis
• Skills-based training to suit different employees strengths and weaknesses within the organization

ii. Development

• Formulating personalized professional development plans for each employee, hearing where and what they want to grow into
• Offering your employees the opportunity to upskill and reskill where they may have skill gaps, aiding their day to day work

iii. Engagement

• Engaged employees are critical for your organizational success. If they aren’t engaged with the training materials and development plans youre creating for them, the value is lost.

All of these features are pivotal for the retention aspect of the employees time at their organization. If an employee doesn’t feel that their organization is adequately training, developing and engaging them, this would subsequently influence the retention of the employee at the organization, having a greater impact on the entire employee lifecycle.

3. Offboarding

Offboarding can be a challenging stage for both the employee and the company. It’s important to ensure that the process is handled in a professional and respectful manner to minimize any negative impact on the departing employee and the company. Conducting exit interviews can provide valuable feedback on areas where the company can improve.

Want to learn more about offboarding? Check this out👇

How to Offboard An Employee

4. Separation as an Employee Lifecycle Stage

The separation stage should not be overlooked as it can provide valuable insights into why employees are leaving the company. By understanding the reasons behind employee departures, companies can make changes to improve retention and employee satisfaction.

Learning and Development Within the Employee Journey

Employee learning and development is an integral part of the employee journey, and businesses should invest in programs and resources to support it. Offering training and development opportunities can help employees feel valued and engaged, leading to increased productivity and retention.

How to design an employee journey map?

In conclusion, the employee journey encompasses the entire experience that an employee has with a company, from onboarding to offboarding. Each stage of the journey is essential for creating a positive work environment that fosters engagement, retention, and productivity. Investing in employee development and engagement is key to creating a successful employee journey and should be a priority for any business looking to attract and retain top talent.

FAQs

How do you create an employee journey map?

1. Identify key employee personas: Segment your employees into groups based on roles, departments, or experiences.
2. Define the journey stages: Outline the major stages employees go through, like recruitment, onboarding, development, promotion, exit, etc.
3. Map touchpoints for each stage: Identify all interactions employees have with the company at each stage (e.g., interviews, training, performance reviews).
   
4. Gather employee feedback: Conduct surveys to understand their experience at each stage.
   
5. Analyze and identify opportunities: Analyze the feedback and identify areas for improvement to enhance the employee experience.
   
6. Design and implement improvements: Create solutions to address the identified opportunities and implement them.
   
7. Monitor and iterate: Measure the impact of your changes and refine the journey map as needed.

How many steps are there in the employee journey?

1. Pre-Onboarding: Connecting with new hires before their first day.
   
2. Onboarding: Setting the tone for the employee experience with introductions, resources, and company culture.
   
3. Employment (Training): Providing tools and skills for effective job performance.
   
4. Employment (Skills Development): Upskilling and reskilling based on individual needs and strengths.
   
5. Employment (Engagement): Ensuring employees are enthusiastic and connected to training and development opportunities.
   
6. Performance Management: Feedback, goal setting, and development discussions.
   
7. Career Development: Personalized plans and opportunities for growth within the company.
   
8. Retention Efforts: Initiatives to keep valued employees engaged and satisfied.
   
9. Offboarding: Handling departures professionally and collecting valuable feedback.
   
10. Separation: Understanding reasons for employee exits and using insights for improvement.

Remember, some stages have further sub-steps specific to your organization’s practices.