The "Big"​ debate in Employee Listening

Chantel Wilson Chase - Science-based Insights Professional for the Human Experience, HX, CX, EX

Moments that Matter versus Lifecycle

The “Big” debate in Employee Listening

There is a strong wind a blowing through the Employee Listening world.

You have probably seen articles urging you to abandon measuring lifecycle stages in favor of “moments that matter.” Advocates contend that this is the new secret sauce that will help you understand your employees better and that the old way (lifecycle) is antiquated. Or, it could be a full 180, and you are reading articles touting the importance of lifecycle without ever mentioning the moments that matter. 

But the real secret is that it’s not

this VERSUS that or even

this OR that. 

 In fact, it can be

this AND that – or better yet, it sometimes can be

this IS that. 

“Moments that matter” is a good tweak to measuring employee sentiment at pre-defined points in their lifecycle.

So let’s first cover the differences. 

Lifecycle events are those seminal events in an employee’s time with an organization. These include recruitment, onboarding, annual reviews/promotions (or demotions) and offboarding. They can also include milestone years like the end of their first or fifth years.

They basically boil down to things we can track fairly easily in our HR systems because they are focused on how the company interacts with the employee. 

 Moments that matter are harder to capture and measure – and to control - for that matter. 

This is because the lens for what matters is not on the company but on the employee. The reason for this is that moments that matter are often tied to emotions that employees feel.

This can make them messy to track and hard to uncover. But because they are tied to strong emotions, they are worth investing in. They can make a powerful and lasting impression on an employee’s perception of your brand and your company. And if they go badly, it’s a steep curve to right the path again.

The tough part is sometimes you aren’t even sure a moment that matters just happened.

The way to find out – just ask! Talk to your employees about the moments – both good and bad – that shape how they feel about their roles and your company. More to come on this in a later article.

Back to the debate - there is an upside to the debate. It gets us all thinking about how to better understand our employees’ experiences, which is always a good thing.

And there are events that will be both lifecycle AND moments that matter. Focusing on these moments will give organizations with limited resources – which is nearly everyone I talk to – the biggest bang for your buck. 

In my next article, I’ll cover one of the stages – it’s chock-full of moments that matter, while also being the first (ok, technically second) lifecycle stage - the Onboarding experience. This will be our new employee's first days on the job, first real interactions with coworkers, first meetings, trainings, and projects, first time opening their laptop, signing in, getting official tools to do their jobs.

Onboarding. 

Afterall, two things remain irretrievable – time and a first impression.