Understanding the Employee Life Cycle

Question:

Discuss about the Human Resousce Management-Employee Life Cycle.

Human resource management is an approach that aims at studying the behaviour of employees in a working environment and taking all the necessary steps that can help in improving the work conditions for them and achieve higher efficiency and productivity. Human resource management helps in optimisation of the workforce performance levels by improving the work conditions and by establishing strong relations between employers and employees (Hendry, 2012).

The employee life cycle, commonly known as ELC, is a popular model under the management of human resources that divides the career of employees into different stages so that they can be guided and can be managed by the management while walking on their career paths (Rouse, n.d.). The different stages in an employee life cycle are listed below:

• Recruitment
• Onboarding
• Orientation
• Career planning
• Career development
• Termination

The above stages are the most commonly accepted stages accepted under the employee lifecycle model but the stages can vary from company to company or from managers to managers. For example, some companies might consider onboarding and orientation as one stage and use specific stages, such as talent development and retention in place of career development.

ABC Hotel Pvt. Ltd. is a hotel based in Sydney that was started in 1992 by an Australian. The hotel started as a small hotel that offered some basic amenities and around 30 rooms to its guests and has grown to become one of the most reputed hotels in the location. The hotel now offers all the amenities that a five-star resort is bound to offer and has 10 luxury suites, 12 cottages and 30 luxury rooms. The hotel has a workforce of around 800 staff members that handle different operations of the hotel, such as laundry, housekeeping, services, food, reservations, etc. The excellent managerial skills of the human resource management department of the ABC Hotels Pvt. Ltd. has proven to be one of the key factors that has helped the company in growing at such a faster pace and in becoming one of the top hotels in Sydney. This report has been prepared to gain a better understanding of the employee life cycle and how the hotel management can adopt some of the best practices that can contribute more towards the success of the hotel.

Some of the best practices that the human resource management of ABC Hotel can undertake to ensure better understanding and execution of employee life cycle stages are discussed below:

ABC Hotel Pvt. Ltd. Success Story

Recruitment and selection is defined as the process of forecasting job vacancies or the human resource requirements in the near future, inviting applications by advertising the identified human resource demands and selecting the right candidates to fulfil the demand identified (Newell, 2005). Some of the best practices that the hotel management can use to make their recruitment and selection stages more effective are discussed below:

First of all, to fill up the higher level human resource demands, the hotel management should always go for internal recruitment methods as it will help them in keeping the employees engaged and selecting potential candidates from an existing workforce who have already blended into the organisational culture and have an experience in the industry.

Secondly, wherever internal recruitment is not possible, the hotel management should adopt external recruitment strategies such as employee referrals and job portals. In hospitality industry, it is very important that the employees are experienced and can deal with practical issues within real time (Reddy, n.d.). Using employee referrals and job portals will allow the hotel management in making the recruitment and selection process easier, cheaper and more effective because online job portals will provide greater details about the candidates while employee referrals are highly accurate. Further, employee referrals can also help in keeping the existing workforce engaged.

Lastly, the hotel management should standardise a selection process for every field in which they operate, such as housekeeping, room service, etc. The hotel management can include simulation tests, case study tests, mock tests, etc. to test the practical problem solving ability of the candidates, which is of utmost importance in the hospitality industry (Sullivan, 2006).

Onboarding or orientation is a process that helps business organisations in introducing the new employees to the workplace environment, which in turn helps the new employees in adopting to the new conditions and dealing with their anxiety levels. Orientation and onboarding processes are a necessity because new employees need time to adjust in a new environment, which would otherwise lead to reduced performance levels and lack of job satisfaction (O’Toole, 2016). Some of the best practices that can help the management of ABC Hotel in strengthening its orientation and onboarding processes are discussed below:

First of all, to ensure effective orientation and onboarding of new recruits, the hotel management should make it a necessity for the new employees to take an entire tour of the hotel and get to know more about it. Further, the new employees should should also be introduced with the work operations and the processes of the hotel during the guided tour or in a separate introduction presentation. The management should welcome them on their first day and make it memorable for them so that they feel motivated and look forward to working with the hotel.

Best Practices for Recruitment and Selection

Secondly, the new employees should be made clear about the expectations of the employers and should be handed papers that have a detailed account of all their job duties and responsibilities (Halvorson, 2015). The employers or the management should also introduce the new employees with the work culture and customs of the hotel so that they do not end up doing something wrong or offending somebody unintentionally.

Thirdly, the management can divide the new employees into different teams and can assign a mentor to them. A mentor will act as an experienced and trusted advisor to the new recruits and the new recruits will be able to reach out to their respective mentors in case they are unable to carry out their job duties or responsibilities properly. The mentors will also be helpful in keeping a continuous check on the progress that the new recruits make in the workplace.

Employee services can be defined as anything that the employer feels are necessary to provide as a perk to the employees who are working for their companies. In the real world, there is no limit to the employee services or the perks that the employers can offer to their employees in exchange of their services. Employee services can be a burden on the profitability of a company as it can bring about an increase in the operational costs (Lewis, n.d.). Therefore, it is must that the employee services are carefully planned and managed to avoid wastage of resources and still be able to keep the employees motivated and satisfied with their jobs. Some best practices that the ABC Hotel management can implement to increase the effectiveness of their employee service program are discussed below:

First of all, the hotel management should carefully design the perks in such a way that they are in accordance with the culture of the hotel or the industry in which the company is operating. The benefits of such practices will not only be in favour of the employees but even the employers can reap the benefits in terms of reduced turnover rates, greater productivity, etc. (Principal, n.d.)

Secondly, showing concern about the health of the employees can help the hotel management in gaining their trust and long term loyalty. The hotel management can invest in employee health insurance plans, which is one of the best perks that the employees require. It will help the hotel management in keeping the employees motivated and in optimising their performance levels, while the rate of employee absenteeism will also decrease.

Best Practices for Onboarding and Orientation

Performance management is an approach that allows business organisations in bringing the employers and employees together to plan, monitor and review the performance objectives of the entire workforce. Using performance management programs, it becomes easier for the companies to identify the gaps between actual performance levels and expected performance levels (Heathfield, 2016). Some of the best practices that can help ABC Hotel management in strengthening their performance management strategies are discussed below:

First of all, a continuous and systematic system of performance management system should be implemented in the hotel so that a performance oriented environment can be established in the workplace. It is also important that the performance management system is practical and intends to measure the right behaviour in the employees because dysfunctional performance management systems can cause more damage to a company than the possible benefits of an efficient performance management system (Bruce, 2012).

Secondly, performance appraisals should be combined with the performance management system so that the employees who contribute towards the fulfilment of organisational goals and objectives can be adequately be rewarded for their efforts and the behaviour of those employees who fail to meet their performance objectives can be corrected. Thus, performance management practices will help the employers in keeping the employees motivated and more inclined towards performing better to achieve recognition and rewards associated with the performance management systems.

This is the last stage in the employee life cycle in which an employee either leaves the organisation due to retirement or is fired/terminated by the management due to any reason. Transition is the end of an employee’s relation with an employer and it is important that it is done in the right way to avoid a bad name in the market as an employer. Some of the best practices that can help the hotel in strengthening their transition strategies are discussed below:

First of all, the hotel management should provide a compensation, which can be in terms of retirement plans, to the outgoing employees for the services that they have offered in their careers (Fallon, 2015).

Secondly, the hotel management should also ensure that the outgoing employees fill up a detailed survey about their work experience while they were working in the company and any recommendations that they would like to provide for the betterment of the workplace. Such feedback can help the company in improving the work environment for their employees in the future and deal with those problems that the outgoing employees had faced during their working period in the hotel.

Best Practices for Employee Services

Thirdly, the hotel management should ensure that there are no unfair dismissals and the employees being fired or terminated should be done only in accordance with the law. Terminating or firing any employee illegally can lead to legal troubles for the hotel management and it will lose its reputation in the market as an employer as well. Thus, such actions in the transition stage should be clearly avoided by the management of the hotel.

The best practices discussed above have proved to be very efficient in the past and can greatly help a business organisation in strengthening their human resource management strategies, which would ultimately lead to a happier and a performance oriented workforce. Thus, the management of ABC Hotel should take the above practices into their consideration and implement them wherever possible.

Conclusion

The management of human resources is easier said than done. It takes a lot of experience and professionalism to manage the human resources properly and to keep them motivated to perform better. The stages involved in the employee life cycle can help business organisations in getting a better view of what all the employees are to go through in their career paths and the managers can target these stages individually to ensure proper management of the human resources.

References

Rouse, M. (n.d.). employee life cycle . Retrieved August 1, 2017, from searchfinancialapplications.techtarget.com: https://searchfinancialapplications.techtarget.com/definition/employee-life-cycle

Hendry, C. (2012). Human Resource Management. Routledge.

Newell, S. (2005). Recruitment and selection. In S. Bach, Managing Human Resources: Personnel Management in Transition

Reddy, K. (n.d.). 19 Best Practices in Recruitment and Selection Process. Retrieved August 1, 2017, from content.wisestep.com: https://content.wisestep.com/best-practices-in-recruitment-and-selection-process/

Sullivan, D. J. (2006, March 20). Six Best Practices in Recruiting . Retrieved August 1, 2017, from www.eremedia.com: https://www.eremedia.com/ere/six-best-practices-in-recruiting/

O’Toole, B. (2016, August 10). Tips for a Better New Employee Orientation . Retrieved August 1, 2017, from www.thebalance.com: https://www.thebalance.com/tips-for-a-better-new-employee-orientation-1916757

Halvorson, C. (2015, March 10). 12 Employee Onboarding Best Practices Every Business Owner Needs To Know. Retrieved August 1, 2017, from wheniwork.com: https://wheniwork.com/blog/smb/people-management/employee-onboarding-best-practices/

Lewis, K. (n.d.). Difference Between Employee Benefits & Employee Services . Retrieved August 1, 2017, from smallbusiness.chron.com: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-employee-benefits-employee-services-40532.html

Principal. (n.d.). 10 Best Practices for Better Benefit Design . Retrieved August 1, 2017, from www.principal.com: https://www.principal.com/employers/trends-insights/10-best-practices-better-benefit-design

Heathfield, S. M. (2016, October 31). Performance Management . Retrieved August 1, 2017, from www.thebalance.com: https://www.thebalance.com/performance-management-1918226

Bruce, S. (2012, April 22). 12 Performance Appraisal Best Practices . Retrieved August 1, 2017, from hrdailyadvisor.blr.com: https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2012/04/22/12-performance-appraisal-best-practices/

Fallon, N. (2015, August 26). Exiting Employee? 5 Steps to a Smooth Transition . Retrieved August 1, 2017, from www.businessnewsdaily.com: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8326-staffing-transition.html