USING CLOVERLEAF TO ENHANCE THE EMPLOYEE LIFE CYCLE
The employee life cycle represents the stages of the relationship between an employee and an organization from as early as attraction to as late as the time of separation.
Transformative software like Cloverleaf can elevate your existing people processes throughout an employee's journey with your organization.
When integrated into the employee lifecycle, Cloverleaf brings “coaching moments” into the “moments that matter” throughout the employee’s relationship with the organization.
Use the following strategies as a quick reference guide for leveraging Cloverleaf to enrich individuals, teams, and people processes that are foundational to cultures of engagement and motivation.
ATTRACTION
This stage begins with the first glance at a job posting. What elements of your employer branding excite a potential candidate and make them say, “This is the place I want to work?”
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Include in your job descriptions that your company offers Automated CoachingTM to all employees as a continual source of personal growth.
During interviews, highlight the Cloverleaf dashboards to candidates, demonstrating your organization's commitment to ongoing people development.
RECRUITMENT
Your recruitment process indicates the importance you place on motivating and engaging employees, and it can reveal a lot about your company’s culture.
Examine your entire hiring process, from initial communication to the offer, to determine how well it reflects your organization’s values.
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Before hiring, identify your team's strengths and potential gaps in work styles. Subsequently, revise job descriptions to mirror these insights to create a more balanced team.
Upon completing a candidate's initial interview, invite them to take one or two assessments. Next, utilize these results to craft customized interview questions for the next stage of recruitment.
ONBOARDING
Onboarding is a crucial step in the employee life cycle. Recent statistics are staggering and provide compelling reasoning for prioritizing this stage if employers want to motivate employees from the beginning.
According to Northpass, organizations that structure onboarding saw a 60% year-over-year improvement in revenue AND a 63% improvement in year-over-year customer satisfaction. But there is a gap. According to Gallup, only 12% of employees agree that their company has a good onboarding process.
The first impression employers make on a new hire is crucial and sets the foundation for their entire experience as an employee.
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From their first day, embed daily interaction with the Daily Coaching Feature of the ME Dashboard as a best practice. Encourage employees to start each day with a “5-minute Development” session for ongoing growth.
Within their initial 30 days, prompt new employees to utilize the comparison tool on the Team Dashboard. This action will allow them to consider their work styles with their team members across multiple assessments. Invite them to debrief their insights in a one-on-one meeting with their manager. Review this article for more on integrating Cloverleaf into the onboarding process.
During the first 30 days, invite new employees to sync their calendars and schedule time to prepare for meetings before start times by reviewing their calendar digest email.
After 60 days, organize a “level setting meeting” where new hires can assess where they are at in their role. This practice is an excellent opportunity for the new employee to receive and give feedback. In preparation for this, ask the new hire to browse their coaching insights and identify three current and potential strengths to discuss in a one-on-one meeting with their leader.
DEVELOPMENT
Unleashing personal development in the workplace is the key to sparking your teams’ motivation and fueling engagement! By actively investing in their professional success, you show your belief in their growth and set them up for long-term success.
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Embed the following into your performance process: Encourage managers to review an individual’s dashboard and coaching insights to craft feedback and powerful questions to enhance the value of formal performance conversations.
Help individuals set professional development goals after deep diving into their coaching insights. Which category of insights provides the most opportunity for growth, and what goal could they set to fill that gap?
When preparing to encounter change, play Change Coaching Tip Round Table
Invite each team member to review their Change Coaching Insights before a team meeting. Ask them to come to the meeting with a tip that reflects a strength that will support them through change and another revealing a potential gap where they might need support navigating the upcoming change.
When seeking to improve team communication, play Communication Coaching Tip Round Table
Encourage team members to examine their Communication Coaching Insights before a team meeting. Request that they attend the meeting ready to share an insight that showcases a communication strength they are currently using in the team. Additionally, ask them to share an example and a tip that reflects an area of communication they're actively striving to improve.
VARIATION: Use this strategy as part of a debrief after a project or initiative and switch up the question: What communication strength do you think helped during this project and why? And, what presented obstacles and why?
Before a project kickoff, ask each member of the team to review the Team Dashboard, possibly focusing on a specific assessment.
Request that each team member arrives with two insights: one highlighting a strength our team possesses for this particular project and another spotlighting a potential gap. (You can also review the Team Dashboard together in real-time.)
EXAMPLE #1: This project is related to developing employee appreciation strategies, and we have 40% of our team in the heart triad of the Enneagram. We can lean into their natural awareness of the needs of others to help design solutions.
EXAMPLE #2: We have no high “D” on DISC, so we need to ensure we have best practices to keep us action-oriented .
RETENTION
When aiming to retain employees, empowering them to maintain motivation and envision a future with the organization is crucial. This work requires a thorough understanding of each individual’s needs and providing viable career pathing support and structures for recognition.
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In preparation for career development discussions, encourage individuals to study their Coaching Insights. Reviewing these tips can help them identify underutilized skills or strengths and stimulate ideas on how they might apply these in their current role. You can also invite them to review their Development Tips to identify areas that create growth opportunities.
As a best practice, use Cloverleaf Hot Seat to create instances of informal recognition. This cadence can be 5-10 minutes as part of a monthly or Quarterly Meeting.
For those expressing desire or potential to move up in leadership roles, ask the individual to review the Leadership Coaching Insights on their ME Dashboard. Ask them to identify three strengths and three areas of growth that would support their progression towards, or elevation to, their next leadership position.
To increase engagement and growth, encourage leaders to assign team members to set stretch goals each quarter. To prepare for this, ask individuals to review their Development Coaching Insights on their ME Dashboard to design a stretch goal. This goal should enhance their current role. Then, team members can share their stretch goals at the next meeting to foster mutual understanding and collaboration.
SEPARATION
Saying goodbye is never easy, even when someone leaves on good terms. Departures from the organization can be a valuable opportunity to gain insight into employee motivation and drive improvement for the future.
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Enhance or create an exit interview process that includes the interviewer reviewing the individual's Cloverleaf results before the interview. The interviewer can create informed questions about how they leveraged specific skills or strengths and the challenges encountered during the performance of the role.
As a role is about to become vacant, review the current person’s Cloverleaf results to evaluate what additional strengths could help the next person succeed. Update the job descriptions according to this new information.