The Life Cycle of the Employee and the Role of Mentoring

You want to attract and retain the best employees. A good start is to take a close look at the employee lifecycle in your company. It is important to find weak points and areas needing improvement in order to have the employees that your company needs.

Attracting & Recruiting

In order to attract good employees, it would be wise to pay attention to reviews and publicly available data on your company. Most careful employees do their research on your company ahead of time, and poor reviews will steer good employees away. Although a company never wants to hear negative commentary, it is best to address the issues and face them head on. Use criticism constructively, and take action to resolve issues within the organization.

When recruiting, it is important to give a clear timeline and expectations. Be communicative with potential candidates, and follow through with set expectations. Once expectations are set, the applicant will have a clear understanding of when they can expect to hear feedback. The candidate’s overall view of your company will be far more positive.

Onboarding

Giving new employees a positive first impression is paramount in the onboarding process. Employee documentation should be given to the employee as soon as they have signed an intent to join the company. An orientation program should be set up for new employees to feel welcomed and cared about from day one. Providing new employees with company branding gear is a nice way to get the newly onboarded employees to feel excited about joining the company. The first couple of days that an employee joins should be spent learning about the history and company values. Setting the standard for company culture should start on day one.

Developing Talent

The first step in developing talent is identifying how the employee works. Certain employees will take initiative and have a self-starter mentality. For this type of employee, it is important target early on their potential leadership qualities. Other types of employees may include thorough and detail-oriented individuals, who need specific instruction before completing any task. Understanding how to develop different types of employees is crucial to building a successful company with a culture of stability and growth.

Retaining Employees

All employees should be evaluated on a biannual or at least annual basis to review progress and accomplishment during the year. For individuals targeted as leaders, there will most likely be an expectation on their end for advancement and promotion. Encourage other employees who may not be seeking a leadership position to develop and train in areas that they are most comfortable in. If the expectation of the employee is not met by the employer, then high turnover will follow, and vice versa.

Separation

Of course, you want to do your best to retain employees, but people come and go for a variety of reasons. It is important to remain invested in the employee during the offboarding process, and provide exit interviews to get feedback on the employee’s experience throughout their life cycle with the company. Use feedback to drive reasonable changes and improvement within your organization. Doing so will help you retain your best employees.

One final point is to acknowledge the employee’s freedom to leave, and do not try to threaten with unrealistic noncompete expectations. This will further sever the employee’s relationship with your organization and detract good employees from wanting to join.