The Employee Life Cycle Is Dead: We Should All Be Celebrating
Jacob Morgan
5x Best-Selling Author, Futurist, & Keynote Speaker. Founder of Future Of Work Leaders (Global CHRO Community). Focused on Leadership, The Future of Work, & Employee Experience
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What stage are you in?
Sounds like a weird question to ask right?
And before you’re wondering if I hit my head, I want you to consider that every single one of you reading this right now who are working for a company, are in a “stage.”
You might not know it, but you are. You didn’t ask to be in it and you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but your HR team does.
What stage am I talking about? The employee life cycle. This is how your company views you and how all companies out there view their employees. They are tracked, monitored, and identified as they go through different stages while they are working for a company.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the life cycle was created or who even created it but it emerged in the late 70’s, and then really took off in the 80’s, and 90’s as a general framework.
Granted, this model, was once vital for understanding and managing the employee experience, it’s now obsolete. This made sense in a linear world where everyone had one career path, one ladder, one employer, one path to success, and where employees were viewed like expendable cogs who could easily be transitioned and replaced when need. It’s no wonder they call it “human resources.”
So if the employee life cycle is obsolete, then what should we be using instead? Let me answer that question by asking you another question.
How are things going for you at your company right now?
If you had to answer this question in a few sentences you might respond something like:
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“I just got promoted into a new role and I’m a little bit nervous.
“I’m struggling with there I am and am looking for some guidance and development from my leader.”
“I’m really finding my stride and crushing everything that comes my way, I’m engaged and excited for my next challenge.”
“There’s a lot going on, my wife and I just bought our first house and we have a baby on the way so I feel overwhelmed'.”
What do all of these things have in comment? They aren’t about a life cycle but about Moments That Matter. The employee life cycle is how HR teams view their people but if you ask employees how they view their time with an organization their response will always come back describing moments and experiences that they are in or going through.
The beauty of this approach is that not only does it allow HR teams to be more flexible but it also gives more accountability and responsibility to leaders to create better experiences for their direct reports. The leaders are ultimately the ones who have the greatest impact on the experience of their people.
Employee Experience is the #1 battleground and priority for organizations around the world right now and all of this starts with Moments That Matter.
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Independent Consultant at the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP)
1 年The Employee Life Cycle is I think still alive or gasping for breathe depending on age (young new hire or middle age professional) and on family status i.e. married or single. The pressure for career advancement somehow differs in terms of trajectory. A married one may choose a more stable career path and the single one may tend to experiment depending on his age, goal and purpose. It tends to be obscure today because of change in work arrangement i.e. work from home, anywhere or hybrid or back to the office but definitely the world of work has changed and it is up to HR to consider schemes that allow workers to be productive for the organization and for oneself or family. Some pay and benefit schemes may have to be changed depending on what is best for the organization and management. I guess it’s a test of leadership styles or balancing acts that are best suited to the work and employee situation.
Country Club Fitness Staffing & Wellness Program Manager | Certified Leadership & Employee Performance Coach | Community Health Educator | ISSA Personal Trainer & Nutritionist
1 年I think if the employee life cycle was enacted by companies many employees wouldn't jump ship. For me personally I left a Fortune 500 company because of no growth opportunities 16 years ago. And I believe the Post-covid migration was due in large part of companies ignoring "development" and "retainment" employee life cycles. Such a shame because of the time and money it takes for attracting, onboarding, and training new employees for a role. Invest in you people! It will pay you back 5Xs.
Human Resources Manager at Hedgeway Group
1 年Beautiful share
I use AI to help organizations conquer culture, people, product, process, and tech challenges. Fractional CHRO, HR Innovation Consultant, HRTech Product Manager, Remote work expert. productizehr.substack.com
1 年This is a great analysis. Although if we're being fair, the employee path was never linear. We just pretended that it was. Or at best, it was one of those lines that when you zoom in have all kinds of bends and twists, so what we thought was a straight line was instead an overall trajectory. I think the differences today are: -the acknowledgment that the employee lifecycle is more like a fractal line, with lots of loops -the understanding that in a VUCA environment, careers will not be linear -the recognition that in skills-based organizations you not only make job descriptions more flexible, you also make careers more flexible.
Employee Retention Specialist: Helping organizations improve employee retention | Bottom-Up approach to cultivate rewarding work experiences, stronger working relationships and trust | Attractive Benefits/ROI's |
1 年Great article Jacob. I do believe EX is a critical factor not only to retention (and commitment and loyalty) but learning and development, motivation and performance, onboarding, etc. I would also agree 100 % that organizations should look not only at how they can improve the ESX but who is in the best position to influence and impact a positive EX - this is almost always the managers and direct report. Thanks for sharing.