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Employee journey mapping serves as both a powerful diagnostic tool and strategic foundation for HR professionals to create intentional, employee experiences that boost employee engagement, retention and overall organizational success.
Employee journey mapping offers a strategic lens to detail, review, evaluate and ultimately improve every interaction and touchpoint an employee has with your organization — from the time they first consider joining, to their very final day at work.
If you're looking to boost productivity, foster loyalty, elevate workplace culture and attract new talent, then taking this holistic approach is essential.
Table of Contents
- What Is Employee Journey Mapping?
- 7 Stages of the Employee Journey
- What Are the Benefits of Employee Journey Mapping?
- How to Create Employee Journey Maps in 7 Steps
- 5 Tips to Get More From Your Employee Journey Maps
What Is Employee Journey Mapping?
Employee journey mapping is a visual representation of the main stages an employee goes through during their tenure with a company. It charts the entire employee journey and lifecycle, from the initial attraction and recruitment process to the moment a person either resigns or retires. The mapping process traces the touchpoints, emotions and experiences that define an individual's employee experience.
Employee journey mapping, sometimes called "employee experience mapping" or "employee experience journey mapping," is a structured, strategic HR process that helps organizations identify pain points to address to boost employee engagement and improve workplace satisfaction.
And those efforts have real world business benefits. According to WTW, 90% of businesses that have a strong and clear employee experience report a lower annual undesired turnover than peers. The benefits extend beyond retention, however. The report also found companies with highly engaged and high-performance EX achieve a competitive advantage of up to three times higher revenue growth and 11 times increase in profit margin.
Additionally, research out of MIT by Dery and Sebastien suggests that businesses with strong employee experience enjoy up to double the level of customer satisfaction and 25% greater profitably compared to organizations with poor employee experience.
Employee journey mapping provides organizations with a strategic framework for understanding and optimizing every touchpoint in the employee lifecycle, from initial recruitment through final offboarding.
Well-executed journey maps establish clear expectations for both employees and managers while supporting more effective onboarding processes. Organizations can diagnose systemic issues like high turnover rates by identifying specific stages where employees disengage.
Regular updates to journey maps, particularly when focused on key employee personas, help companies maintain relevance as workforce expectations evolve. This creates more resilient work environments where employees are positioned to thrive long-term.
Employee journey mapping improves engagement by tailoring experiences to the unique needs of remote, hybrid and in-office employees.
For remote and hybrid workers, journey maps emphasize structured practices like frequent one-on-one check-ins, managed project syncs and open communication channels — all critical substitutes for informal in-office interactions.
A multi-actor, persona-driven approach allows organizations to account for differences in location, tech access, emotional needs, and collaboration style, ensuring no group is overlooked. This tailored strategy increases satisfaction and engagement by removing friction and creating clarity throughout the employee experience.
IT and Employee Experience leaders can collaborate on employee journey initiatives by combining technology capabilities with human-centered design principles to create more effective workplace transformation efforts.
Collaboration is most effective when IT and EX teams co-create clear roles and responsibilities, especially around the moments that matter in the employee lifecycle. Experts recommend forming cross-functional working groups that combine tech, people and culture insights.
This ensures workplace transformation efforts are both innovative and grounded in real employee needs rather than technology-first assumptions.
Employee journey mapping enables data-driven, strategic decisions that connect specific employee needs with targeted digital solutions. By identifying pain points and key moments across the employee lifecycle, journey maps reveal where technology can truly enhance engagement, productivity, and satisfaction.
When paired with a strong reference architecture, this approach transforms technology spending from reactive purchases into proactive, scalable EX investments that are both human-centered and operationally aligned.
Organizations can align employee journey mapping efforts with eNPS and engagement scores by integrating qualitative journey insights with quantitative performance indicators to create targeted improvement strategies.
This means using journey maps to identify key moments and pain points, then correlating these with feedback and scores from engagement surveys and eNPS data. This approach helps pinpoint where in the journey employees become detractors or promoters, and where interventions are most needed.
Organizations can map specific touchpoints to corresponding dips or spikes in engagement metrics.
Leaders should set clear objectives for journey mapping, such as improving onboarding or addressing specific engagement gaps, and track changes in eNPS and engagement scores over time to measure impact. This creates accountability for journey mapping investments.
7 Stages of the Employee Journey
The employee journey, also referred to as the employee lifecycle, breaks down into seven stages.
- Attract
- Hire
- Onboard
- Engage
- Perform
- Develop
- Depart
The terminology used to define the stages may vary, but it's during these employee journey stages that organizations have the greatest influence on employees' perception of their employer. This is why these stages are referred to as "moments that matter." Let's take a look at them further.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on Sept. 17, 2025 to include new data and information.
Stage 1: Attraction
Talent attraction is critical for organizational success. Momentive Software CHRO Jay Greaves said companies can use journey maps to determine how to attract the right candidate and ensure positive EX starts off on the right foot. That might mean promoting company moments that matter, establishing employee personas, revising mission statements and values or rethinking offerings based on employee feedback.
The employee mapping process is not a one-size-fits-all approach, said Greaves. Instead, it’s important to remember that the employee journey might look different depending on your organization and what you want to achieve.
Stage 2: Hiring
Stage two of the employee's journey is dedicated to the hiring process. Management selects the most worthy candidates and reaches out with offers.
The hiring stage of the employee journey map deals with how to face bias — even unconscious bias — among hiring teams, understanding and managing future employee expectations and what follow-up should look like for candidates, including those who didn't get the job offer.
In recent years, AI in recruitment has transformed the hiring process in both positive and challenging ways. By using employee journey mapping, HR and people analytics teams can better understand the current and future impact of artificial intelligence on hiring and the overall employee lifecycle.
Stage 3: Onboarding
Stage three deals with the onboarding process. Onboarding new employees is an especially critical stage of the employee journey, as it's typically during the first few months that a person establishes an opinion of company culture. It could be the stage that sets the tone for the rest of the employee experience.
In spite of onboarding being such a critical stage of the employee lifecycle, yet it’s an area where many organizations struggle. Gallup research shows that only 12% of employees feel their company does a “great job” with onboarding. Using employee journey mapping can uncover pain points and highlight opportunities to improve the employee onboarding experience.
Some experts recommend creating a sense of belonging during this stage, whether by giving new hires a "buddy" or mentor or by utilizing employee surveys that ask about personal likes and preferences.
Stage 4: Engagement
The fourth, fifth and sixth stages of the employee journey — often covering development, retention and advocacy — can overlap and may happen at the same time during an employee’s tenure. While each stage has its own focus, together they offer key moments to improve the employee experience and support long-term engagement.
Stage four of the employee journey is all about employee engagement. It's a time to build on strengths and drive purpose.
Employee engagement goes beyond employee satisfaction or happiness. It looks at a person's involvement and enthusiasm for the workplace and the work they do. Engaged employees lead to reduced turnover, reduced absenteeism, higher sales, higher profits and an improved customer experience.
Stage 5: Performance Management
The stage of the employee experience journey focuses on performance management. It's a time when organizations must continually communicate expectations, offer feedback and provide the recognition employees crave.
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Success here relies on leaders walking a tightrope between necessary frameworks and employee autonomy. Workers still need guidelines, policies and helpful criticism to work effectively. But they also need the freedom to make decisions and take action on their own.
Only 20% of employees feel their performance is managed in a way that motivates them, according to Gallup. Employee journey mapping can help change that. By better understanding each stage of the employee experience, you can make small but meaningful changes to how performance is supported — and create a more engaging and motivating work environment.
Stage 6: Development
Workers don't want to stand still. They're thinking about ways they can grow and be better, starting from the moment they accept the job offer. They want opportunities within their own companies, but they're willing to look elsewhere if those opportunities don't arise.
Some companies collect employee feedback at this employee development stage of the journey to assess if employees are content with the learning and growth options currently available and what they'd like to see in the future.
Learning and development ranked among the top three reasons young employees choose an employer in Deloitte's 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, yet many felt managers fell short in providing the guidance, inspiration and mentorship they needed to grow.
Stage 7: Departing
Employees have to leave, eventually. Maybe they've left willingly — retirement, a better opportunity, relocation, change in life circumstances. Maybe the company has to terminate their employment due to performance, layoffs, company revenue predictions, relocation, etc.
Leaving might be inevitable. But it doesn't have to be a bad experience. Companies can take steps to approach the exit experience with an employee experience lens.
A thoughtful exit strategy can pay dividends by turning departing employees into brand ambassadors who refer new hires, generate business opportunities, advocate for your company, and may even return in the future.
What Are the Benefits of Employee Journey Mapping?
Employee experience journey mapping is a strategic tool with tangible organizational benefits. By visualizing the employee journey, companies can identify areas of improvement and capitalize on strengths.
Some key benefits of employee experience journey mapping include:
- Enhanced Employee Engagement: Understanding all touchpoints in the employee journey allows companies to tailor experiences that resonate, helping to increase employee engagement and commitment.
- Reduced Turnover: A well-defined employee journey map can spotlight pain points or disconnects, giving management the insights needed to address issues before they lead to resignations.
- Boosted Productivity: By aligning the work environment with the desires and needs of employees, companies can encourage higher levels of efficiency and enthusiasm.
- Strengthened Branding: A positive employee journey can bolster a company’s reputation, making it a preferred employer in the eyes of talented candidates.
- Improved Cross-Functional Alignment: An employee journey map provides a strategic lens that informs not only HR, but also organizational design and other business stakeholders, fostering alignment and joined-up thinking on how to shape structures, processes and experiences that improve business outcomes.
- Elevated Organizational Agility: An employee journey map highlights inefficiencies, bottlenecks and gaps across the employee lifecycle, giving leaders a clear view of where to adapt structures, processes and support to respond quickly as work and workforce needs evolve.
- Informed Data-Driven Decisions: With a comprehensive employee journey map, decision-makers are equipped with data and insights, leading to more informed and effective strategies.
- AI in the Employee Journey: Employee journey mapping provides a structured way to examine where AI can support the employee experience, clarifying which touchpoints benefit from automation and which require a human connection.
By reimagining and refining the employee's path through the organization, businesses can achieve not only a happier workforce but also a more resilient and innovative enterprise.
How to Create Employee Journey Maps in 7 Steps
Developing an effective employee journey map is a crucial part of improving employee experience. By breaking the employee journey mapping process down into detailed steps, organizations can ensure they capture the full scope of employee interactions.
Let's take a deeper dive into each step:
1. Understand Your Goals
Before diving into a journey map, it's essential to understand why you're creating one in the first place. Are you trying to improve the employee onboarding process? Increase retention? Identify pain points in specific processes? Setting clear objectives helps organizations leverage employee journey mapping to fit specific needs.
2. Identify Key Employee Personas
Before you can map the journey, it's essential to understand who's embarking on it. Segmenting employees into distinct employee personas is like creating buyer personas in marketing. Consider factors like roles, seniority, departmental functions and career aspirations. For instance, the journey of a new employee in tech will differ vastly from that of a mid-level manager in finance. By understanding these personas, you can create a tailored journey map that resonate more deeply.
3. Undertake User Research
Understanding each employee persona begins with user research to uncover processes, pain points and motivations. Techniques like interviews, workshops, surveys and observation provide the insights needed to map and improve the employee journey.
4. Map the Employee Journey for Each Persona
Now that you've defined your personas, dive into detailing their unique journeys. Each employee experience journey should trace the employee's path from recruitment to exit. Note key touchpoints, emotions and milestones associated with each phase. By personalizing the employee journey for every persona, you're more likely to identify specific pain points and opportunities tailored to their experience.
5. Analyze and Identify Opportunities
With a detailed journey map in hand, areas for improvement become evident. These aren't just pain points; they're opportunities to elevate the employee experience. Maybe the onboarding process needs enrichment, or perhaps there's a gap in continual learning for a particular persona. Pinpointing these opportunities allows you to create actionable strategies that enhance value for both the employee and the organization.
6. Collect and Consider Ongoing Employee Feedback
Employee experience isn’t static. Continuous employee listening is key to improving the employee experience. Gather employee feedback through regular surveys, interviews, informal discussions or online review boards like Indeed and Glassdoor. Integrating this ongoing feedback into your journey map keeps it accurate, relevant and rooted in real employee insights.
7. Update the Journey Map Regularly
As your organization evolves, so will the needs and experiences of employees. Make it a practice to revisit the map periodically, factoring in new feedback and adapting to changes within the organization.
By following these detailed steps, your employee experience journey map efforts will yield rich insights, fostering a work environment that thrives on understanding and continual growth.
5 Tips to Get More From Your Employee Journey Maps
If you want to map employee journeys in your organization, there are a few ways you can approach it.
1. Don't Create an Employee Experience Journey Map for Each Role
One piece of advice from Greaves: Don't make an employee experience journey map for every role in your organization. Why? Because things continually change, and those maps will become stale quickly. Even little changes, like pay frequency, can have a big impact. And mapping out the employee experience for each position will be time-consuming and (likely) ineffective.
Instead, focus on the key employee personas you established and look to places where you can group personas together based on similarities. For instance, you might look at remote vs. in-office employees. Or customer-facing vs. back-of-house workers.
2. Leverage Employee Journey Mapping for Onboarding
Effective onboarding, according to Jeff Fryer, head of HR Business Partners at TurnPoint Services and professor of business and organizational leadership at Valencia College, is a major benefit of employee experience journey mapping. All brands want to attract top talent, said Fryer, “but what are we doing to nurture that top talent once they get in the door?”
It’s more than flowers on the desk and a laptop ready to go, he said. It’s also making sure the employee has access to everything, that they know where to find things, that they can sit down and start working and feel in control immediately.
According to the Academy to Innovate HR, employees with an excellent onboarding experience are 18 times more committed to their employer. Yet, only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job of onboarding new employees, according to Gallup. When the experience is mapped out, said Fryer, then employees know what the expectations of them are, so there’s never disappointment.
3. Use Employee Journey Maps as Diagnostic Tools
According to Greaves, employee experience mapping is most powerful when used as a diagnostic tool. He pointed to Amazon, where only one-third of the online retailer’s new hires stay with the company for more than 90 days. In this instance, the question Amazon might ask is: Why are we losing so many employees? That’s when you start drawing the map of what their experience is, said Greaves.
It all comes down to what you’re trying to accomplish. And the tighter the scope, Greaves explained, the better the results. Let’s go back to the high turnover question to illustrate this. You want to know why employees are leaving. But a better question would be: Why are we losing people in this role, at this location, with this leader? “That’s a very specific scope that’ll likely garner better results,” said Greaves.
To break it down: “Ask why, define the scope and then conduct research,” Greaves explained. From there, you identify friction points, determine which ones you want to prioritize and come up with potential interventions or improvements.
4. Use Journey Maps Throughout the Entire Employee Experience
Many organizations, said Greaves, stop their employee maps at onboarding. However, the further you go on the journey, the more powerful it is. He recommended taking the strategy to the extreme and looking at all key milestones in an employee’s experience.
Greaves said organizations should be able to answer questions like:
- How are employees going to have conversations with departments and management, and how often?
- How often are performance reviews, what does that meeting look like and what are the potential outcomes from it?
- If someone has been in a role for a while, are there opportunities to move into a new position, take on a bigger challenge or make more money?
Having a well-defined and validated map that you keep current helps both sides have clear expectations, and anticipate and make decisions based on that transparency, Greaves explained.
5. Use Journey Maps to Unlock the Value of AI in the Employee Lifecycle
AI is already transforming key stages of the employee journey, especially hiring, and it holds huge potential to enhance other stages of the employee experience.
An employee journey map can help you maximize the value of your AI investments by helping:
- Identify where AI can improve the employee experience.
- Highlight opportunities and risks in people-centered processes.
- Assess the real impact of integrating AI across the employee lifecycle.
By using journey maps, organizations can strategically apply AI to boost EX, improve decision-making and unlock greater value from their workforce initiatives.
