The employee life cycle is a human resources tool meant to identify stages in the career of the employee in order to adjust their management and optimize the resources at a given time.

Stages in the employee life cycle

Although each person enjoys considering themselves as irreplaceable, it is worth knowing that from the perspective of the employer, an employee goes through pre-established stages:

  1. Recruitment: this step includes the processes and time prior to, but related to the hiring.
  • As an employer, one should make sure that the person best fitted for the job is hired. E-recruitment software may be used to narrow down applicants through “smart searches”, as well as personality tests. HR should be instructed about the interview process, with a clear description of the intended role and responsibility.
  • As an employee, one should review the benefits plan as well as compensation package, as well as inform the employer of career goals and discuss a development plan inside the company.
  1. Onboarding: it is the period in which the new employee join the company and assesses his/her future inside it.
  • It has been established that most employees decide in the first 90 days whether they would like to continue with the company or not.
  • Also called orientation, at this stage, it is important the support the employee receives and how they handle learning their new responsibilities, the relationships with other team members, developing a niche.
  1. Career planning and development: both the employer and the employee are engaged in an open discussion about the role of the latter and opportunities for growth.
  • in achieving their development plan, employees might receive the support of the employer, but they need to remember it is their plan and they are investing into their own person.
  • the employer might invest in additional training with the aim of employee engagement and retention.
  1. Recognition: fundamental for the employee, it is a stage in which the employer acknowledges the success of the employee and rewards their efforts through an award system (e.g. bonuses and discounts) in order to maintain or even increase performance.
  2. Offboarding: also called termination or transition, it is the stage at which the employee ceases their contract with the employer, which could be due to different circumstances, such as retirement, firing, resignation or even family leave.

These are the most significant stages in the life cycle of the employee, and if both the employer and the employee are aware of them, they could potentially identify the best strategy to complete each one successfully.