The employee journey is a complex web of interactions, conversations, benefits, compensation — and more — that every employee goes through, starting from the first time they interact with your company to the day they decide to quit.
However, while each stage of each employee’s journey is full of unique needs, opportunities and milestones, employee recognition is one benefit that spans each and every aspect of the journey.
With a focus on employee rewards and recognition from day one, employees will be more loyal, productive and satisfied with their time at the company.
5 stages of the employee journey
As a quick overview, the employee journey is typically broken down into five to seven stages. For our purposes, let’s break it down into these five:
- Recruitment. The process of learning about the company, applying, interviewing and becoming an employee.
- Onboarding. Helping new employees understand the company, the culture, and their role.
- Engagement. Keeping employees satisfied, motivated, and invested in a shared purpose.
- Development. Ensuring employees have an upward trajectory of growth.
- Separation. When an employee leaves the company for any reason.
With a strong culture of recognition firmly in place, employees will enjoy improved experiences through each of these stages.
Recognition enhances each stage
Employee recognition comes in many different shapes and forms, from handwritten notes and sincere compliments to public shoutouts and an employee-of-the-month award. The important thing is to recognize each employee’s individual contributions and milestones in a way that is meaningful to them. When done right, recognition will enhance the entire employee journey.
Recognition and recruitment
Potential employees see all sorts of stories and opinions online — they may see social posts, talk to existing employees they know or look up Glassdoor reviews. With a culture where employees feel overlooked or undervalued, these early interactions with the company may not be very positive.
However, imagine how positive most early experiences will be for potential employees when you’ve created a culture of recognition. They may hear about how employees were rewarded for their work, how they were given a gift for graduating, or how they feel supported in their well-being.
During interviews, leaders can explain how they recognize and reward their employees, making the job more attractive to top talent. The bottom line is when companies invest in their employees through recognition and rewards, they’ll have a culture that employees want to join.
Recognition and onboarding
Starting a new job can be stressful, but it’s much easier when HR leaders, managers and team members support new employees. Recognition during onboarding can include things like welcome gift bags, a budget to buy home office equipment, a first-day party with the team or free company swag.
Recognition is also a great way to continue onboarding past the first few days and weeks. Recognize new employees for the skills they learn and the contributions they make in their first few months. This shows that the company will care about them and support them beyond the “new hire” phase.
Recognition and engagement
The engagement stage of the employee journey encompasses many factors, including supporting employee well-being, ensuring their work is fulfilling, offering sufficient benefits, and more. And employee recognition plays a huge role in keeping employees engaged.
Employees are 4X more likely to be engaged at work when they feel they’re recognized. That’s because recognition shows that the company and its leaders notice and appreciate what their employees do. This feeling of appreciation and value is foundational to the other aspects of employee engagement and is integral to keeping employees happy and motivated throughout their tenure.
Recognition and development
Recognizing that employees want to learn and grow in their roles is a big part of crafting a satisfactory employee journey. In fact, 71% of employees say training and development increases their job satisfaction.
Recognition and rewards can incentivize and drive development at a company. Recognizing the hard work that employees put in will drive productivity and motivate employees to do better. Rewarding high performers with increased responsibilities and new opportunities simply keeps that cycle going.
Recognition and separation
Every employee contributes something to the company, even if they don’t stay for very long. Recognizing those contributions and rewarding the time and effort employees have put in will make separation a much more positive experience for everyone.
With a more long-term strategy, exit interviews can help leaders learn why employees leave and where the company can improve. Then, they can use recognition to improve their offerings for their remaining employees.
Enhance 1 stage at a time
Everyone wants to feel valued, no matter who they are or what they do at work. With employee recognition, leaders can ensure that each of their workers knows that they are seen and valued from day one to the day they leave. This culture of recognition will provide the foundation for a culture that potential employees want to join and existing ones love being a part of.