Why do organizations like “shooting in the dark”?

It’s not breaking news that we are about to experience a massive exodus of Baby Boomers from the workforce which cannot be adequately replaced by younger workers (e.g., Gen Y). We’ve known this for a while now.

And there certainly has been no shortage of great ideas to combat this potential crisis. Examples include integrating social media into talent attraction and creating café-like lounges in offices where employees can work.

Frankly, though, it really doesn’t matter what organizations are doing because there are two absolutely critical things they must understand first.

1. Understand the profiles of each demographic employee group – Traditionalist, Baby Boomer, Gen X and Gen Y – and where each of their own employees fit.
2. Use the data from Step 1 to design, implement and execute strategies and programs that align to the “employee experience life cycle.”

This article is an introduction to the process that enables organizations to optimize the investments they make in attracting and retaining employees, particularly Gen Ys.

Demographic profiling

Before you can address the issue at hand, you need to understand the specifics of each demographic group. Our workplaces today are so diverse – if you don’t understand the ins and outs of your employees, you are basically “shooting in the dark.” You have no idea where the target is let alone aiming in the right direction.

Employee experience life cycle

What the heck is the employee experience life cycle? It is basically a road map of how employees move through the organization, from recruitment all the way to succession (moving to a new role).

The key to understanding this model is to ensure that everything an organization does on a daily basis keeps the level of employee engagement, satisfaction and performance at a consistently high level. Employees come into an organization highly motivated, driven, engaged and committed, but once they start work, it slowly declines over time and this is not what you want.

The employee experience life cycle model is made up of five stages:

1. Attraction/Recruitment – attracting new talent and “sealing the deal” by bringing on the new employee
2. Engagement – starts on Day 1 where the goal is to orient and set mutual expectations (e.g., performance goals) as quickly as possible
3. Retention – the honeymoon period has ended, the employee has a solid understanding of how things work, what is expected of them and how they fit into the organization – need to keep them highly engaged, motivated, feeling recognized and valued.
4. Development – the employee has nearly mastered his or her job and is being evaluated on readiness to move into a higher level role – focus on skills development.
5. Succession – employee is ready to succeed, and the opportunity to do this exists.

The following articles in this series will delve into further detail about demographic profiling and the components that make up the employee experience life cycle.

At the end of the day, organizations that “get it” and “walk the talk” will be able to most effectively attract and retain Gen Y employees.