In my previous article, “Employee Lifetime Value, Pt 1”, I introduced the concept of employee lifetime value (ELTV). What is the value of an employee to an organisation over their lifetime with that organisation, and how do you quantify and improve it?

In order to improve ELTV I suggested the following 4-phase strategy:

1. Accelerate recruitment and effective onboarding
2. Shorten the time it takes your employees to provide a net positive value to your organisation
3. Increase the maximum value of your employees and retain them longer
4. Offboard your employees more strategically and turn them into advocates of your organisation so they become a lifetime asset to you

Recruitment

In phase 1 of improving employee lifetime value, we need to reduce the cost of recruitment and more effectively onboard the new hire.

So how does Communic8 help you with your recruitment and onboarding needs? First, let’s have a look at the typical challenges organisations face when recruiting.

How do we find new jobs?

of workers have obtained their current or most recent job from a referral¹

of workers referred a friend or contact to a company they’ve worked for ¹

It’s clear that social media, referrals, and word-of-mouth are go-to sources of new opportunities for job seekers.

While 35% of workers have obtained their current or most recent job from a referral, significantly more impactful are referrals based on previous employment.

60% of workers referred a friend or contact to a company they’ve worked for previously according to a 2018 Jobvite National Job Seeker survey.

Because employee referrals may dramatically influence job seekers, Communic8 is uniquely positioned to help your organisation attract better candidates through a strategy of both internal and external brand advocacy. Communic8 provides the following functionality straight out of the box:

Find Your Audience

Send communications to your employees how they want to engage via email, SMS, social, intranet, and mobile app

Deliver Amazing Content

Leverage and reuse content from a broad set of professionally designed, rich & engaging recruitment and brand templates

Measure Success

Understand exactly how your audience engages with your content via campaign analytics

Build Your Reputation

Publish on-brand messaging directly to your most popular social media channels to build your reputation

Onboarding

Now that you have your perfect new hire, you need to onboard effectively. Effective onboarding should accomplish the following three goals:

1. Acclimation

   beyond the operational activities of the organisation, or where to buy the best lunch, another important factor to consider when acclimating a new employee is educating them about the overall company culture and expectations of the employee. Another important factor is to consider the employee’s expectations in relation to how they work.

2. Engagement

   more highly engaged employees translate to more productive, happy and effective employees who stay longer and contribute more to a positive work environment.

3. Retention

   Attrition is costly, sometimes costing 2x the annual salary for highly educated executive positions.

Above: The impact of effective onboarding in the initial stages of employment.

of jobseekers have left a job within the first 90 days of starting¹

of employees agree that their organisation does a great job of onboarding²

Average quitting costs to the organisation per employee³

A bad onboarding experience increases the risk of employee turnover and cost to the organisation.

According to the same Jobvite survey mentioned, 30% of job seekers have left a job within the first 90 days of starting, with only 12% of employees agreeing that their organisation does a great job of onboarding.

THE SOLUTION

So how can Communic8 help with your onboarding challenges?

Communic8 can help you more effectively onboard and train new hires by delivering a personalised and repeatable onboarding experience that cuts through the noise and delivers targeted and relevant information.

Onboard & Train Your New Hires

Build your own surveys, onboarding or training assessment forms, or leverage pre-built surveys and forms.

Analyze & Track New Hire Progress

View survey or form response analytics and understand exactly how your employees engage with your content.

Integrate with Your Existing Business Systems

Integrate Communic8 with your backend business systems to centralise your onboarding information.

Reuse & Refine Your Onboarding Content

Build a repeatable process by reusing your onboarding content that conforms to your corporate culture and aligns with your onboarding practices.

Effectively Deliver Your Content

Put your content in the hands of your new hires through the channels they most prefer to engage with.

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Early & Increased Delivery of Value

An engaging company environment that promotes training, opportunity and company culture, while effectively managing change, are overwhelmingly powerful reasons for employees to perform and stay - and potential reasons for valued employees to leave an organisation.

of company and HR leaders believe they are very good at engaging employees ⁴

of a 2,000 employee survey said they are looking for a new job, and corporate culture was the main reason ⁵

of millennials would remain in their role given proper training and development ⁶

of employees said they would be more likely to stay in their job if their career development is encouraged ⁷

THE SOLUTION

Communic8 can help you meet these challenges by engaging your employees and immersing them in a positive work culture.

By strategically creating positive employee experiences you can inspire, inform, and align your workforce to your company goals and core mission.

Plan & Schedule Your Communications

Schedule communications at the most appropriate time to increase engagement and reduce employee information fatigue

Maximise Content Delivery Success

Improve employee experience by distributing communications through appropriate channels given the message and intent

Deliver Strategic Content

Build, reuse or incorporate templates that manage change, aligns corporate goals, celebrates success and promotes culture and brand

Provide Feedback Loops Between Employee & Company

Provide employee feedback loops to promote inclusiveness, capture responses and input, and measure organisational alignment

Measure Your Employee Engagement

Our engagement analytics allow you to accurately monitor and measure the employee experience across all communication touchpoints

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Increased Maximum Value & Retention

Reducing turnover is a constant challenge for any organisation. Not addressing a high performing employee’s need to feel valued or listened to, or failing to provide alignment between their job and the company goals, can dramatically increase the likelihood of turnover.

of employees who don’t feel valued seek other job opportunities ⁸

of high-retention-risk employees want to leave due to poor advancement opportunity ⁹

as likely to stay with the organisation when the employee finds meaning in their work ¹⁰

And with turnover comes cost, and the cost is significant. The average cost to replace an employee as a percentage of annual salary is:¹¹

For high-turnover, low-paying jobs under $30,000/year (e.g., $20/hour retail employee would cost $4,800)

For midrange positions between $30-50k/year (e.g., $50,000/year manager would cost $10,000)

For highly educated executive positions (e.g., $200,000/year senior employee would cost $400,000)

The best strategy for retaining talented employees is making sure they feel valued and heard. Clear and effective two-way communication, feedback channels, and actionable metrics will support a corporate culture of inclusiveness and meaning.

Strategic Offboarding

Reputation matters! The offboarding process is the employee’s last impression of their employment experience.

If an employee had a bad experience, and the word-of-mouth they generate is negative, that ex-employee will represent an ongoing, and significant cost to the organisation.

And with today’s broad range of social platforms, you can be sure their voice will be heard.

of jobseekers read workplace reviews from Glassdoor to understand company reputation ¹²

of jobseekers will not accept a job if that company has a bad reputation ¹³

more in cost per hire for companies with bad reputations ¹⁴

So, what are the costliest mistakes made when offboarding employees?

1. Not having a formal offboarding strategy in place
2. Assuming employees will withhold negative opinions if denied an exit-interview
3. Failing to error-proof the process

A well established and repeatable offboarding process will assist in reducing the risks usually associated with turnover. In addition to common offboarding practices such as exit interviews, departure surveys, knowledge transfer, and followup surveys; timely communication with your employees, and externally to your alumni, will help manage company reputation.

Communic8 helps manage this multi-faceted approach to offboarding by empowering you to:

1. Leverage Exit Surveys

   Exit and 1-month/quarterly followup surveys provide a “safe” environment for more transparent feedback during the offboarding practice. You can leverage our prebuilt offboarding surveys to standardise process.

2. Utilise Alumni Newsletters and Standardised Templates

   Leverage alumni newsletter templates to build brand ambassadors and encourage “boomerang” hiring. Communic8 helps you standardise your offboarding by utilising pre-created templates.

3. Target Your Delivery to Alumni and Existing Employees

   Deliver your message through multiple channels to increase alumni engagement. Effectively targeting your alumni is critical to building brand ambassadors.

4. Learn from Your Employees and Monitor Your Brand

   Analyse and export your offboarding survey data to identify trends and take action to protect employee morale and company brand.

Communic8 is the world’s leading and most complete communication tool. Over the last 12-months, we’ve seen firsthand how communication, and the workplace, has changed. Communic8 is perfectly placed to meet these challenges, and in particular, meeting the challenges of maximising employee lifetime value.

Communic8 can enable your organisation to maximise your employees lifetime value by:

1. attracting better candidates;
2. shortening their onboarding time;
3. maximising their potential, while lengthening that period of higher productivity;
4. reducing voluntary turnover; and
5. empowering employees to become lifetime brand advocates.

Thank you!

Bryon Westmoreland