Chapter 1 of 7
The Employee Experience A-Z: The invisible thread you can weave into every experience
If you work in recruitment, onboarding, HR, or wellbeing, you already know how quickly the employee experience can lose its structure. Tasks live in different systems, updates hide in inboxes, and you spend more time chasing information than creating the experience people actually feel. It all becomes much easier when you see the employee experience as one journey – not a collection of disconnected tasks.
So where do you begin when the employee experience feels like a patchwork of platforms, handovers, and processes? Most organisations want to create their own way of doing things – but in reality, there are often more gaps than threads to stitch together. And that’s precisely where the challenge appears: not in the intentions, but in the structure around them.
McKinsey highlights a growing gap between what organisations need from HR and what HR is currently equipped to deliver. Although employee experience has become a core priority, more than one-third of employees across Europe and the US are dissatisfied with their employer. At the same time, most HR teams still haven’t tapped into the tools that can transform their employee experience from fragmented to connected.
This blog is the first chapter in our new blog series: HR-ON All the Way.
A series of practical HR guides that help you strengthen every part of the employee experience – no matter where you are today.
You’re now reading:
Chapter 1 – The Employee Experience A–Z: The invisible thread you can weave into every moment.
Follow along in the coming months as we dive into everything from preboarding and onboarding to wellbeing, development, and offboarding.
How the employee experience connects from A–Z
Turning the employee experience into a real strength requires seeing the bigger picture. That’s why this chapter walks through the key stages – recruitment, onboarding, everyday HR, and wellbeing – and shows how each phase shapes the overall experience. Not as separate tasks, but as parts of the same thread.
Research from Deloitte shows that organisations with a strong employee experience are three times more likely to retain employees and experience significantly higher engagement.
The employee journey has many steps, and here we outline the most important ones within each phase.
CONTENT
How the employee experience connects from A–Z
4 keys to improving recruitment within the employee experience
Why onboarding is the most underestimated part of the employee experience
Keep the employee experience together with HR’s 3×S
How mental and physical wellbeing keeps the employee experience on course
Keeping the thread through the entire employee experience
FAQ: What is the employee experience?
4 keys to improving recruitment within the employee experience
Recruitment is the starting point of the entire employee experience. It’s where expectations form, relationships begin, and where the thread either gains strength – or snaps before the first interview.
Many HR teams still operate across disparate processes, with emails scattered here and there, and documents stored in personal folders. It is where the invisible thread loses tension. Here are four keys to creating a recruitment process that feels connected for both you and your candidates:
1) Start strong with clear employer branding
The candidate experience begins long before they apply. When your career site, job posts, and values are aligned, candidates instantly sense professionalism and clarity and that becomes the first stitch of a consistent employee experience.
2) Make job posts and channels work smarter
Great job posts lose impact if they never reach the right people. Many teams still post manually on multiple platforms, wasting time and limiting their reach. A recruitment system that gathers channels and postings in one place brings structure and better visibility.
It is where HR-ON Recruit takes the pressure off by publishing across platforms and showing where your candidates actually come from.
3) Bring structure to screening, dialogue, and selection
This stage is where momentum often begins to drop. Notes, messages, and internal assessments end up in different systems, creating bottlenecks and a poor impression for candidates. And it matters: According to CIPD, 41% of companies say new hires leave within the first 12 weeks – often due to mismatched expectations and unclear processes.
When screening and communication are integrated, you secure quality and speed, and you free up time for meaningful relationships instead of administrative tasks.
4) Use data to keep the thread intact
Recruitment becomes powerful when you can see patterns: which posts work, where candidates drop off, and what slows down time-to-hire.
Without data, recruitment becomes a repetitive process without learning. Collecting and utilizing your recruitment data provides a long-term perspective that enhances the experience over time.
You might also like: Blind Recruitment: How to Get Started
Why onboarding is the most underestimated part of the employee experience
Onboarding is paradoxically the phase that receives the least attention – even though it’s where the foundation for wellbeing, engagement, and retention is set.
Many organisations treat onboarding as a checklist: equipment, access, and a tour of the office. However, onboarding is equally about connection, setting clear expectations, and creating a safe and positive start. That’s why it’s often undervalued.
New hires often encounter a start marked by random handovers: scattered emails, unclear tasks, and vague roles. Intentions are good, but without a unified structure, the experience quickly falls apart.
We lack a shared language for onboarding not just “processes”, but a real discipline with three pillars: understanding the individual, structured but flexible flows, and ongoing evaluation.
That’s why it makes sense to gather onboarding in one place. Not for the system – but for the human. HR-ON Boarding is designed for precisely that purpose: to create a beginning that is both structured and personal. With Boarding templates, clear communication, and insights through FastTrack (based on The Onboarding Model), it supports a strong start every time.
How we work with this at HR-ON
Employee experiences vary across teams – but one thing is consistent: new colleagues are always welcomed with preparation and presence. We use our own platforms throughout the entire journey, right where they support the process. And they can do the same for you.
Keep the employee experience together with HR’s 3×S
Once onboarding is complete, the employee’s journey changes. The focus shifts from “a good start” to “everything that happens in between”. It is where HR keeps the thread tight — and where the 3×S framework helps create coherence every day.
SEE the person
Good HR starts with curiosity: what drives this person, what feels off, what needs attention? Small moments shape trust and stability not significant interventions.
STRUCTURE the processes
HR holds a wealth of knowledge, including conversations, goals, absences, development, and follow-ups. When this information is stored in different systems, both leaders and HR lose their overview.
Structure is not about systems for the sake of systems – it’s about giving the journey one place to live. HR-ON Staff helps reduce tab chaos and gives you employee data when you need it.
SUPPORT the journey
Support is not just about solving problems for employees it’s about providing clarity, follow-up, and presence in everyday shifts. When HR supports the journey, employees experience continuity not gaps between meetings.
A simple reminder:
See the person. Structure the processes. Support the journey. Three small words that keep the employee experience on track.
How mental and physical wellbeing keeps the employee experience on course
Wellbeing is more than a good mood on a Tuesday. It’s the balance of mental clarity and physical energy, the factors that determine whether someone can stay on their journey without losing direction.
HR professionals recognise the minor signs: withdrawal, low energy, slow patterns of overload rarely one big moment usually many small ones. It pays to follow wellbeing consistently.
When wellbeing becomes part of everyday life, not just an annual conversation, you’ll feel it in your HR work:
- fewer surprises
- more stable teams
- easier leadership conversations
- less pressure on HR’s time
- a more predictable employee experience
Tools like HR-ON Wellbeing support ongoing check-ins without heavy surveys.
Wellbeing works best when responsibility is shared. HR sets the frame, leaders take the dialogue, and employees feel heard. Both mental and physical wellbeing matter neither should outweigh the other.
You might also like: 7 Tips for Employee and Manager: How to Prepare for a Well-Being Conversation
Keeping the thread through the entire employee experience
The employee experience from A to Z can easily feel like many separate tasks. But when you zoom out, it’s often the same elements that repeat: people, expectations, and connection. If there’s one thing to take from Chapter 1, it’s this: The journey becomes easier when you see the whole not just each task in isolation.
Curious to see how a connected employee experience could look for your organisation? Try our price calculator or book a demo with our team, no commitment, just insights.
We look forward to continuing the series with you in Chapter 2.
FAQ: What is the employee experience?
What is the employee experience?
It’s the complete experience an employee has with your organisation – from first contact as a candidate to their final day. It covers every step, transition, and moment in between.
Why is the employee experience necessary?
A transparent and connected experience strengthens retention, engagement, and overall workplace satisfaction. Small breaks in the journey are quickly felt in wellbeing and performance.
What phases does the employee experience?
Most organisations work with five phases: recruitment, onboarding, everyday HR, wellbeing, and offboarding. The key is that they connect.
How can you improve the employee experience?
With clarity, consistent processes, and ongoing dialogue between HR, leaders, and employees. Structured onboarding and regular check-ins make a big difference and HR-ON helps support that work.
How can HR-ON support the employee experience?
By consolidating recruitment, onboarding, HR processes, and wellbeing into a single flow, it becomes easier to create a connected experience for both employees and leaders.
