The employee experience refers to every interaction an employee has with your organization and its people. Each workplace exchange, reward and relationship has the potential to positively or negatively impact this experience and your company’s reputation as a whole.

Therefore, proper evaluation and optimization of your employee experience strategy is crucial. However, before you start adjusting your strategy, it’s important to first understand each stage of the employee experience timeline.

A strong employee experience is first cultivated at the executive level. Discover tactics to enhance your company culture from the top down in our webinar, Top-Down Retention Tactics: How to Support & Empower Your People Leaders.

Stage 1: Attraction & Recruitment

A potential new hire’s first impression of your organization is formed during the recruitment and hiring stages, before they even become an employee. Professional, thoughtful interactions with recruiters, interviewers and other parties throughout the recruitment process can positively impact candidates’ perceptions of your organization. In addition, your company’s careers page, social media accounts and other aspects of your digital footprint will affect the way potential new hires view your organization. Ensure these elements are polished and present your organization in a positive light.

A strong employee experience can also serve as an impactful value proposition for your organization as you strive to attract and recruit top talent. Showcasing competitive compensation and benefits paired with a positive workplace culture in which individuals are supported, celebrated and encouraged to grow can tip the scales in your favor during this crucial stage of the employee experience.

Stage 2: Onboarding

The onboarding process kicks off your employees’ introduction to what it means to be a member of your workforce. However, it’s rarely done right. A study conducted by Paychex found that only about half of all new hires felt satisfied with the onboarding experience at their current job, while 32% found it confusing and 22% found it disorganized. If an employee’s onboarding experience is chaotic or different from what was advertised to them, it can jeopardize your ability to retain them long-term.

Stage 3: Development

In the development phase, employees begin to get a true sense of their future at your organization. Throughout this stage, ample opportunities for continual learning and internal advancement are key to showing your employees that you’re committed to growing their career.

Stage 4: Engagement & Retention

Once employees have progressed to the engagement and retention phase, it’s essential to ensure their experience continues to be a positive one that reinforces the value they bring to your business. Don’t take long-tenured employees for granted; they serve as signals to candidates and new hires that they’re joining a company where retention and treating employees right are prioritized.

Stage 5: Offboarding

When an employee retires or pursues an opportunity elsewhere, their employee experience should not abruptly conclude. The offboarding stage presents a valuable opportunity to gather feedback on what went right and what could have gone better during their time at your organization. Don’t underestimate the power of an effective exit interview.

As retaining and attracting top talent becomes increasingly challenging, the importance of offering a solid, positive employee experience grows — as does the importance of evaluating the effectiveness of your employee experience on a regular basis. Use these key metrics as a starting point and connect with our team at CBIZ Employee Benefits for more tailored guidance on your employee experience strategy.

How Can Employers Enhance their Employee Experience?

Gaining a better understanding of each stage in the employee experience timeline is crucial to building the foundation for a strong employee experience strategy, but how should employers go about making measurable improvements?

We recommend taking a total rewards approach to optimization, as this comprehensive tactic will allow you to hone in on the key drivers of employee attraction and retention. Think of total rewards as the “total package.” When you offer the total package, employees are likely to stick around long-term, engagement is likely to be high and your organization is likely to succeed as a whole.

When portions of the package are absent, employees notice, and they gravitate toward organizations that offer what you don’t. An effective employee experience is one that delivers on each element of total rewards: compensation, employee benefits, growth and development opportunities, a sense of purpose and a sense of community.

Looking for more actionable employee experience guidance? Click here for more insight into optimizing each aspect of your organization’s total rewards.