The success of any organisation is deeply intertwined with the experiences of its employees. This is where the concept of Employee Journey becomes essential. Nowadays, it simply is no longer enough to hand someone a laptop and a desk (or a Zoom link) and call it a day. Organisations need more than just great perks and a catchy mission statement to attract and retain talent.

Introduction

At AllChiefs, we believe that companies that go the extra mile to create a memorable and engaging journey are the ones that are not only able to attract talent, but are also able to keep them happy, consequently leading them to thrive during their journey. A smooth, well-thought-out employee journey can turn new hires into engaged and loyal team members who contribute to your company’s success. On the other hand, a bumpy road could lead to confusion, frustration, and high turnover.

But, what exactly is an employee journey? In this article, we delved deeper into the concept of Employee Experience (EX), touching upon why becoming an EX-centered organization improves engagement and productivity. Today, we’ll explore AllChiefs’ 5 key stages of an employee’s lifecycle, highlighting why crafting robust and thoughtful Employee Journeys is essential to creating meaningful workplaces.

What are Employee Journeys?

An Employee Journeyis a roadmap of an employee’s time at your company. It covers every experience and interaction they have; from the moment they first hear about your company to when they eventually move on to their next adventure.

Every time a person has ‘contact’ with your company, we talk about a ‘touchpoint’ (i.e. first day, getting a raise, looking for learning opportunities etc.). Each of these touchpoints combined impacts the overall Employee Experience, shaping how people perceive their roles, their team, and the organization as a whole.

Within AllChiefs we define 5 journeys:

1. Recruittogether– Promote your company and attracting new colleagues and talent from outside or within your company.

2. Start smooth–Get your (new) colleagues ready for day one to give people a flying start and make them feel at home.

3. Improve Performance–. Make agreements, giving clear guidelines of what is expected in their position, making people feel appreciated for the work they’re doing. And receive the benefits and support that helps both in work and private life.

4. Keep growing–. Help people stay healthy, change and develop themselves and others, and move forward in their careers.

5. Leavewell– From deciding to leave, saying goodbye to your colleagues and staying connected, even when you are embarking on a new adventure elsewhere.

Each part of this journey needs the impression of personalized attention to make sure your employees feel valued and supported.

How to make jour Employee Journey come to life – Journey Mapping and the role of technology

To visualize and monitor the performance of your Employee Journeys, the first step is to engage in Journey Mapping. With Journey Mapping you describe the experiences of an employee (the customer) throughout the proverbial journey that an employee takes. It is an instrument to both improve the employee experience and ensure efficiency in processes underneath.

From those touchpoints, you will be defining Moments that Matter. This refers to crucial interaction points in the employee journey where the experience with a company or product has a significant impact on their perception and satisfaction. These moments often play a key role in determining whether an employee has a positive, neutral, or negative impression of the company. By making changes in your HR products related to the moments that matter, that directly translates into changes with the most impact.

In today’s digital age, technology plays a crucial role in managing and enhancing the employee experience at each stage of the journey. From recruitment software to learning management systems (LMS) and feedback platforms, digital tools can streamline processes and improve engagement. For monitoring your journeys, you typically work with a Journey Management tool, where you can directly link the proposed enhancements to your backlog and analyze your performance data.

You can use your HR technology solutions to automate repetitive tasks (e.g., onboarding checklists, performance tracking etc.) throughout the journey, make them less prone to error and save time to have more personal contact with your employees where needed.

The Benefits of Working with Employee Journeys

You might be wondering: Why would we need a “Journey,” when we already have a good onboarding plan, good managers and a nice set of benefits?

Intentionally mapping out the Journey is only step one. The true benefit lies in easily spotting where your employee experience scores are low and high and thus enhance each stage of the employee lifecycle accordingly. More benefits of working with Employee Journeys are:

• Creating (HR) products based on what is needed and asked for, instead of ‘what we think they want’. Being able to create scarcity, by creating products on demand (with a big enough threshold to ensure impact).

• Enables your HR Organization to be more data-driven, continuously monitoring Journey performance and analyzing journey data.

• Easier to maintain your employer brand and communicate in one tone of voice

• Continuous Improvement: Normally, there’s little focus on continuously asking for feedback. With this way of working, continuous feedback becomes a core part of your company.

However, implementing Employee Journeys won’t be effective unless you also commit to changing your behavior and ways of working. While it’s easy to put everything down on paper, your HR organization must be willing to genuinely listen to the feedback. It’s about taking action and embracing the insights to drive real improvement.

Conclusion

The Employee Journey is more than just a checklist; it’s an ongoing commitment to fostering an environment where employees feel valued, supported, and motivated. By understanding the different stages and investing in enhancing each touchpoint, companies can build a stronger, more loyal workforce that drives long-term success.

Are you ready to elevate your company’s Employee Journey? AllChiefs empowers organizations with actionable strategies to build impactful, people-centered journeys that drive sustainable growth. See how we’re making a difference by putting People at the heart of every transformation. Check our People page and follow us on LinkedIn to not miss any success stories.