Your Work Lifecycle – Nail it Down

Of the various phases of an employee lifecycle at any given company, we feel there are three phases that are really important and cannot be ignored by both companies and employees together. In industry jargon they are termed as – onboarding, retention and offboarding. Companies (big and small) are constantly reinventing themselves to ace the game at these phases to keep their employees happy! And employees (new, existing or former) embrace these phases chin-up on an ongoing basis for a large part of their lives! Since these phases are so important, wouldn’t it make perfect sense to infuse ‘fun’ during these phases to ease it up for both companies, as well as the employees, to be happy and engaged – both in the short and long term? But is it really so? Here’s a peak into what we think these phases are like at most companies:

•  Onboarding: We believe that most companies do get onboarding right to the T with some planning and efforts. And with onboarding we mean – all paperwork, necessary orientation, setting up of emails, accounts, laptop etc. –and all the other administrative stuff in an effortless and smooth way before new employees start. But what a lot of companies at times miss out on in this whole process is to create interesting and informal ways for new employees to familiarize themselves with their new coworkers and workplace culture. It is not because companies don’t want to do it, but mainly because it can be time consuming and companies may need to invest resources for it to be a success and potentially pay off. Think of it like this – it’s nearly impossible for any of us as a new employee to know our coworkers in an hour’s time even if the companies were to set out some free time on our first day at work for something like this.
• Retention: From a company’s standpoint it is a safe bet to assume that if employees are being paid well and given good benefits along with being appreciated and treated fairly, they are addressing the concerns of how to retain its employees in the best possible ways. And to a large extent these are the key areas to focus on retaining as well. But it definitely goes beyond these basics! Be it company’s new or old employees – fitting in doesn’t come naturally to everyone – and to top that nowadays mostly people work in solitary, leaving fewer opportunities to partner or foster workplace friendships which can lead to dissatisfaction and poor productivity in the longer run. After all, trying to navigate our way in a high-paced work environment, learning the ropes of changing roles, hitting it off with coworkers, and managing our managers’ expectations all along is no easy feat. More so if we are at it all by ourselves!
• Offboarding:  First impressions matter, of course. But what about last impressions? Yeah, offboarding is just as important as onboarding. In general, reasons why people leave or quit their jobs can at times be as simple as – an intern returning to school, someone handing in their resignation for personal reasons or a better opportunity, or sometimes companies simply having to let people go for management reasons. But when it all begins – most of us know the drill – we do the paperwork; cancel emails, company accounts, surrender our laptops etc. and we are mostly done with the offboarding process. But does our relationship with our former company and employees have to come to a close too? Do we, as a company or as a soon-to-be-former-employee, have to shut doors to continued relationship and lose out on all its benefits?

We do understand though that companies and HR teams put in a lot of thought to these phases and go above and beyond to set the tone for longevity for new employees, existing employees, and even employee alumni. From decorated balloons to catered lunches and parties to exotic offsites to farewell gifts to alumni events – they do it all and more to win and engage its employees. However, these are mostly one-off things which companies set aside time and budgets for; say may be once a year, month, week or even a day. But we feel there’s something missing here from the larger scheme of things! We feel if a workforce (new, existing and even former employees) can choose to infuse some fun, to stay connected and engage with each other on a day-to-day basis using an online social network platform like workmob, that is NOT a work-collaboration-enterprise tool, to combat and ease-up these three phases without feeling forced to adapt and incorporate, its half the battle won – for both companies and employees!

Where everyone can just stick around to either be silly, or to get to know each other better, or hold a Q & A on something as intriguing as ghosts and aliens or something as profound as the state of Syria or well whatever we want to do –as it would be our choice! New employees can break the ice by introducing themselves to an entire network, share their birthdays, talk about their secret talents, share pictures of their favorite vacation spots. We won’t need parties or ping pong tables (okay those won’t hurt either – it is a sweet perk after all) to get around making work-buddies. We can create events to either gather for a happy hour, or celebrate an occasion or even a concert! Making it easier for us to get up to speed to foster workplace friendships; we know it doesn’t guarantee that we will find our BFF at work,  but you will agree with us that having a friend at work just makes work-life more fun! And if we are bidding adios then we don’t have to slam that door – as we can create or be a part on an online alumni network to engage and maintain the relationships we created over a period of time at a place where we spent precious 9 hours of our day. And that’s a lot, buddy! Where we can play catch up with all the company news and updates! After all, we don’t always burn bridges, do we?!

Well, we are not claiming that what we have created with workmob is better than the efforts which companies put out there for its employees. All we are saying is we have built a platform that all of you (and of course companies) out there can leverage by creating or joining networks and opt in or opt out, whenever and however you want, without having to feel the pressure of a company you are at or a company you were at. Get it?! 

So you say now, does it get better than this? No, no don’t answer that, just come on in to decide for yourself! Happy workmobing!

September 27, 2020