With countless employee lifecycle models at your disposal via the World Wide Web, it’s unsurprising that every organization looks at this fundamental function slightly differently.
That said, in the interest of operating from the same baseline throughout this blog, let’s agree that for the vast majority of businesses out there, the employee lifecycle likely looks a little something like this:
- Brand attraction
- Recruitment
- Onboarding
- Development
- Retention
- Exit
- Advocacy
Take note of the first and last phases of the lifecycle, because they come into play in a larger way than you may think and have a major impact on the way employees, not just employers, view the employee lifecycle.
“The employee life cycle is how HR teams view their people,” says Jacob Morgan, Founder of Future of Work Leaders, “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.”
Transforming your focus to what Jacob calls “Moments That Matter” can have a profound impact on the employee experience, which contributes to a brand’s reputation when attracting talent, and how employees speak about the brand when they leave.
“Employee Experience is the #1 battleground and priority for organizations around the world right now and all of this starts with Moments That Matter,” he adds.
Leaves of Absence: Employee Moments That Matter
When talking about foundational moments throughout an employee lifecycle, it’s common to focus primarily on the obvious. The events that every employee goes through no matter what, and given that’s the case let’s not gloss over their importance.
Raise your hand (we’re on the honor system here) if you’ve had a poor onboarding experience. Have you ever had a promotion or were hired into a role and weren’t exactly confident in your abilities to achieve success? What about an experience where you or a colleague was terminated unexpectedly, regardless of the reason?
An employee’s experience with an organization has many potential inflection points that need to be addressed in a way that instills confidence and trust to keep the foundation of the business from cracking.
Now raise your hand (if it wasn’t still raised) if you or someone you know has ever gone through a pregnancy, had to take care of an elderly family member, had to recover from a serious injury, or had to deal with the loss of a loved one.
While a more holistic view of the employee experience has been building alongside the move toward HR technology for years now, it can feel overwhelming for People Ops leaders to be responsible for every moment in an employee’s lifecycle.
“Start with what you can control,” says Lance Haun of TSC “Focus on a handful of undeniably defining moments. Like, ‘What does the first day of work feel like?’ Or ‘What does a promotion feel like?’ Or ‘What happens when you go out on leave when you have a child or one of your parents has fallen ill?’ These defining moments are touchstones to be thoughtful about thinking about what that experience is like for them.”
The way in which an organization handles leave of absence can make or break an employee’s perception of the organization. If it matters to them, it should matter to you.
Tilt Recap: Leaves of absence are moments that matter to employees, which is why it’s critical for People Ops teams to treat the employee experience when taking leave as foundational to the employee life cycle.
Make Defining Moments For Employees Better
The first strategy toward transforming your employee lifecycle is to make the shift from viewing it as a linear process that goes from brand attraction to advocacy once they’re out the door, to one that focuses on key moments that an employee may experience.
The next strategy is to take an honest evaluation of your current processes and identify gaps in the employee experience.
For those of you managing leaves of absence on a spreadsheet or with an ineffective third-party administrator, the gap might feel more like a Grand-Canyon-sized chasm.
To help ensure the employee experience doesn’t sour when life happens to your employees the hardest, address the following:
- Build out robust leave policies that are clearly defined and easy for employees to find.
- Familiarize yourself with the latest leave laws in the states where your employees reside and work.
- Make the leave request process simple and straight-forward.
- Provide a clear roadmap for what the employee needs to do and when.
- Educate managers on the dos and don’ts so they don’t accidentally (or intentionally) discriminate against the employee taking leave.
- Be available to answer questions.
- Ensure they’re getting paid accurately and on time.
- Quickly adapt to changes in a leave (surprisingly common).
- Have a reintegration plan in place for their return.
Of course, effectively managing a single leave of absence requires a lot more than these 9 steps, but if you can make these processes smooth to the point employees feel empathetically supported with ease, you’ll find it results in gaining an edge in the employee experience battle and strengthening the employee lifecycle in the process.
Tilt Recap: Identifying where friction exists in your leave of absence process today is the first step toward making this “moment that matters” a better experience for all employees. It will signal to your employees that you understand the importance of an easy transition from work to life (and then back to work) when life’s most impactful moments occur.
Advocating for A New Leave Management System
To truly transform your employee lifecycle by addressing the foundational importance of a leave of absence, you might be looking at the list in the previous section and thinking there’s just not enough bandwidth to effectively make the employee experience better than it is today.
Your leave of absence process is most likely already so time-consuming for your team.
Your leave of absence process might be “sorta” working for employees.
New leave software might be just what the employee lifecycle doctor ordered.
Tilt’s leave management system provides HR teams with the streamlined efficiency of integrated software with the foundation-strengthening impact of an easy and empathetically supported leave journey.
While the software makes requesting a leave of absence and providing a comprehensive (and compliant) leave plan complete with a click, Tilt’s humans deliver empathetic 1-1 support throughout the leave journey for employees in this moment that matters.
“The Tilt site is intuitive and easy to use. The progress bar and outlined steps are fantastic features! Each step included clear instructions, need-to-know information, and actions required by me. Paired with my Leave Success Manager Alexandra's thoughtful communication and responsiveness, I felt well supported and impressed with my Tilt experience!”
Tilt’s platform allows employers to deliver the level of service that employees need for a positive leave experience without lifting a finger, all while providing People Ops leaders complete visibility into each and every leave within their organization.
“My Leave Success Manager Catrina and the team displayed the best combination of professionalism and compassion during a very difficult time for me. I felt supported during my time away and felt prepared for my return when time came.”
The perception of the employee lifecycle is transforming from a linear flow to one that focuses on the most impactful moments an employee experiences on their career journey.
How you manage these impactful moments can make or break the employee experience and can be the reason why employees are attracted to your brand, and why they’ll sing your praises when their journey continues elsewhere.
Tilt is leading the charge in all things leave of absence management through easy-to-use tech and human touch. Since 2017, our proprietary platform and Empathy Warriors have been helping customers make leave not suck by eliminating administrative burdens, keeping companies compliant, and providing a truly positive and supportive leave of absence experience for their people.
