At Morgan Thomson, we strongly encourage our clients to understand why your business needs employee pathways. What do we mean by that? An employee pathway is a person’s ‘journey’ whilst in a business, from recruitment through to departure. It includes areas like onboarding, workplace culture, training, employee engagement and mental health and wellbeing. Read on to find out more about the stages your employees (and you!) pass through and why they’re so important . . .
Recruitment and onboarding
The employee pathway starts with a candidate’s first experience of your business in the recruitment stage:
- What does the advert say?
- How does the job description look?
- What does the application process involve?
- What is their experience of the interview process?
- How do you communicate with the candidate?
How are successful candidates then integrated into the business? The glorious induction! (Less excitingly known as the onboarding process.) This helps employees absorb themselves into the culture of your business, learning different ways of working at the same time as adapting to a new environment. A well-constructed induction eliminates the stress for both you and your employee. Alongside the induction, the probation period is designed to review progress and ensure employees fully engage with their role and your business.
Probation passed – job done!
So, you can leave them alone to get on with the job, right? Wrong. Now you need to ensure that they continue smoothly along their pathway. Make sure the goals of the employee are aligned to the goals of the business. Do you have a business plan? Where do you want the business to be in 1 or 3 or 5 years’ time? Your employees need to know this information so that they can be with you on the journey.
Regular one-to-ones, team meetings, information sharing, company updates – all these go a long way to engaging your staff. After all, it would be a mistake to simply expect them to engage themselves (and, quite frankly, lazy on the part of your business).
Well-structured internal policies and procedures are essential for an effective working relationship. They form the foundations of Human Resources and ensure everyone knows what, when, where, why and how to do it.
What about the mental wellbeing of employees?
There’s a collective responsibility on us all to look out for each other. At some point in our lives, we are all challenged by bereavement, illness and other life difficulties.
We’re emerging from the COVID pandemic and moving towards the end of a difficult period in our lives. We’ve all been affected in different ways. Many of us have suffered with our mental health and if you haven’t experienced difficulties before, it can be overwhelming. Employers have a responsibility to step in and provide access to appropriate support services. (Find out more about our approach to mental health and wellbeing.)
Stay on track
Remember, an employee pathway is an employee’s journey throughout their time with your company. How employees experience that pathway is down to the employer (you!) and how you maximise the most important resource you have – your staff. If it’s a positive journey, you will have a committed, loyal and hard-working team. And that is exactly why your business needs employee pathways. Ignore them at your peril!
If Morgan Thomson can help you put an employee pathway in place – or straighten out any curves you’re experiencing – email [email protected] or call 0345 095 0139 for an informal, no obligation chat.