Part 2. Inbound – what is that?
If you missed part 1, you’ll find it here!
To map the employee journey, you need to know its parts. And that’s why we’ll use quite a few process models in this post. Process models from both communications and from HR. We have also combined them to create a model that describes the employee journey. So you need to keep up, because you’ll go through a lot of models in this post.
Let’s start with a familiar HR model
If you’re in HR, you’re very likely to be familiar with this model. It’s the classic process model for an employee’s lifecycle:
Its first stage is ‘attract’ and it ends with an ‘exit’. As you probably know this one already, we’ll move on to the next one. It shows a classic view on how to create loyalty:
If we use this model in another classic communications model, that shows where communication is external and internal respectively, and also straighten out the circle, we get the following combination:
We can now see that in the phases ‘attract’ and ‘recruit’ primarily regard the light grey area of external communication. We can also see that external communication affects when a person is in the phases of an employee’s lifecycle that mostly concern – and traditionally are viewed as – internal communication. Even if your employee is hired and is ‘on the inside’ of your organization most of the time, he or she will see ads and commercials and other units that you communicate.
Another common HR model is the recruitment funnel:
The first step is to attract to create curiosity and interest, then to create engagement to get the candidate to look for more information about you and interact more with you. After that, there’s a transaction (which in this case means that the candidate applies for and gets a job with you). And then the onboarding begins.
If we add this funnel to our combined model, we can see that it fits right in. Like this
Ok. All good thus far. Now it’s time to look at another descriptive model of an employee’s lifecycle, which with a shape of a ‘lying eight’:
This model begins where you, as an organization, has recruited an individual that enters your operations and stays in a circuit – or loop – where they continually recommit to you as an employer. If we imagine that the funnel leads to the starting point, number one which is ‘Join’, in this model, we can combine them like this:
If we see the ‘lying eight’ as a model for what the loop looks like once one has entered the business, we can get this too into our combined model. Like this:
We now have a combined model that shows us the different phases of the employee journey. We also have a way in (through the funnel) and what the loop looks like once one is on the inside (‘the lying eight’). But an employee journey is never straightforward. To illustrate the ups and downs, engagement wise, of the employee journey, we add a line as an example:
And NOW, we can start plotting out all the touchpoints we as an organization have with an employee – all the way from the very first contact, over the employment until that person decides to move on and leave the company:
Messy? Confusing? Well, if you think it looks that way, let us assure you that it’s really not as bad as it may look. Because you don’t have to do it all at once. You can move forward one step at a time. A common way to begin is to map the funnel, and then add the following steps. And you don’t have to start with any and all persona you may (or may not) need. You can start with a more general persona.
Hopefully, you’re able to read this model right – aided by the steps and the models we have gone through above and use it in your mapping of how an employee journey looks for the people that join, or have joined, you. After this, you can look at the various touchpoints you have with the employee along the way in more depth. And plan for how you can use Ibound Recruiting to get the best result possible.
Keep an eye out for the last post on Inbound Recruiting. In that, we will focus on the inbound process itself, and how it can be combined with the employee journey.
Read it here!
