The complete employee life cycle is made up of multiple different stages. Understanding how each stage in the employee life cycle works is the best way to make sure your employees are engaged and invested throughout that stage.
So in this post we will be covering the definition of the employee life cycle, also referred to as ELC, what each stage in it stands for, as well as best practices for each and every one of those stages in the ELC.
The employee life cycle describes the journey an employee takes with an organization, starting from their initial awareness of the company as a potential employer through to their ongoing relationship as alumni after they leave.
Understanding the complete employee experience provides the foundation for creating better outcomes at every stage of the employment relationship.
Among different employee life cycle models, the 7-stage model is the most widely used framework because it comprehensively captures all critical touchpoints where organizations can positively influence employee experience and outcomes.
The stages work together as an interconnected system, where success in one stage supports success in the next, fostering continuous workforce engagement and retention.
Each stage of the employee life cycle presents unique opportunities to create positive experiences that drive engagement, performance, and retention. Understanding what matters most at each stage helps you focus your efforts where they'll have the greatest impact.
The attraction stage determines whether top talent considers your organization a desirable place to work. Your employer branding and Employee Value Proposition (EVP) play critical roles in shaping candidates' first impressions through your career site, social media presence, and overall reputation in the market.
Candidates form opinions about your company culture long before they apply, making this stage crucial for building a pipeline of qualified, engaged candidates who align with your organizational values and goals.
Best practices to attract top talent:
Key metrics to track during this stage:
Examples of Companies with Strong Employer Brands
The recruitment stage focuses on selecting and hiring the right people while creating an excellent candidate experience that reinforces your employer brand. The recruitment process often provides candidates with their deepest insight into how your organization operates and treats people.
Best practices to optimize recruitment
Example of company that excels in the recruitment stage: Patagonia
Patagonia’s recruitment focuses on “culture add,” attracting candidates who align with its strong sustainability mission. Rather than hiring solely for “culture fit,” Patagonia’s HR chief Dean Carter reads résumés from the bottom up, looking first at hobbies, volunteerism, and personal passions. This ensures candidates are committed to the company’s environmental mission but also bring unique perspectives and additional values to enrich the workplace.
What can HR professionals learn from this example?
Onboarding lays the foundation for long-term employee success by helping new hires become productive quickly while feeling welcomed and prepared. A structured onboarding process, which can be streamlined further by an employee onboarding software, significantly reduces early turnover and accelerates the time it takes for new employees to contribute effectively.
Effective onboarding goes beyond paperwork and compliance to include cultural integration, relationship building, and clear goal setting that connects individual roles to organizational objectives.
Best to follow during the onboarding stage:
Key Metrics to track during the onboarding stage:
The retention stage focuses on keeping employees engaged, motivated, and aligned with your organization's values and goals over the long term. Successful retention strategies address both tangible factors like compensation and benefits and intangible elements like recognition, growth opportunities, and cultural fit.
Building strong retention requires understanding what motivates different employees at various career stages while creating consistent experiences that reinforce why people choose to stay and contribute to your organization's success.
Best practices to follow to achieve high employee retention rates:
Key metrics to track in the retention stage of the employee life cycle:
The development stage keeps employees engaged and growing through continuous learning opportunities, regular feedback, and clear career progression paths. Supporting professional development goals helps employees see a future with your organization while building the capabilities you need for business success.
Best practices to follow for the talent development stage:
Example of company that excels in the development stage: Bell Canada
Bell Canada's "Bell U Academy" created structured upskilling pathways that led to a 98% retention rate for program graduates, demonstrating the power of intentional development investment.
Key metrics to track during the talent development stage:
Offboarding ensures departing employees leave with positive impressions that protect your employer brand while gathering valuable insights for organizational improvement. Well-executed employee offboarding processes can transform potentially negative experiences into opportunities for learning and relationship preservation.
Thoughtful offboarding also facilitates knowledge transfer, reduces operational disruption, and maintains professional relationships that can benefit your organization through referrals, partnerships, or future rehiring opportunities.
Best practices to follow in during the employee offboarding stage:
Key metrics to track to ensure your offboarding process is effective:
The most important section of employee offboarding is the exit interview. Conducting exit interviews effectively has a positive effect on all the other stages of the employee life cycle going forward.
Not only do exit interviews help organizations understand the reasons behind employees leaving their jobs but they also provide insight into the employee experience within the company.
Lessons learned from exit interviews can and should be analyzed and turned into action plans in order to help the organization grow.
Here is a free exit interview template that you can either download and use separately, or better yet, integrate into Microsoft Teams and Outlook:
Not every departure represents a failure. Many former employees become valuable brand advocates, referral sources, or eventually return with enhanced skills and experience. Nurturing alumni relationships creates long-term business value that extends well beyond the traditional employment relationship.
Strategic alumni engagement recognizes that careers are fluid and maintaining positive relationships benefits both individuals and organizations through expanded networks, business opportunities, and talent pipeline development.
Best practices to ensure alumni advocacy:
Key metrics to track when measuring alumni advocacy:
Example of a great alumni program:
McKinsey has built a thriving global alumni community that regularly generates business referrals, client relationships, and high-quality re-hires who bring external experience back to the firm.
The most widely used employee life cycle model includes seven stages. While some organizations use simplified 5-stage models or expanded versions, the 7-stage framework (attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, offboarding, and advocacy) provides comprehensive coverage of all critical touchpoints in the employee experience.
The employee life cycle is important because it directly impacts employee engagement, retention, and performance. Organizations that optimize each stage create better employee experiences, which lead to higher productivity, lower turnover costs, stronger employer branding, and improved business results.
Employee life cycle metrics help measure the effectiveness of each stage in the employee journey. Key metrics across the employee life cycle include:
Attraction Stage
Recruitment Stage
Onboarding Stage
Development Stage
Retention Stage
Offboarding Stage
Advocacy Stage
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