Why Do Employees Really Leave? Exploring the Causes and Impact of Talent Turnover

The greatest challenge faced today by organizations the world over is retaining talented employees in the organization. A debate raging since many decades has been as to whether to retain them is more important than finding a successor to the vacant position. Whilst the argument continues, let us examine the causes, consequences, and control of employee turnover in an organization. By employee turnover, we mean that employees of an organization cease to remain in the services of that organization and leave for reasons best known to them.

Some of the causes/consequences could be classified as:

Dissatisfaction parameter:

Employees are dissatisfied with the salaries, perks, and benefits offered by the organization they are currently in. They may also be dissatisfied with their bosses or find their jobs meaningless and unimportant as a result of which their job satisfaction levels are very low. Further, they may be dissatisfied with career opportunities in the organization or even its personnel policies in general. As a consequence of the above, Employees leave to join other organizations which satisfy their needs. As the wheel of time moves along, they find a third organization which offers to satisfy them even more. Thus they change again, i.e., they are perennially job-hopping from one organization to another.

Alternatives parameter: Here the employee leaves the organization in search of "greener pastures" such as starting his own business, joining the family business, joining an organization in a foreign country or even availing of the Voluntary Retirement Scheme of the organization and relaxing at home, living off the interest generated from fixed deposits and investment. An interesting trend in recent years in has been that many managers leave industry to become consultants or even faculty in management institutes or go abroad to complete their PhD or further studies. It is important to note here that the separation here was not because of dissatisfaction with respect to the present organization but because of other available alternatives and inclinations in that direction by the employees. The consequence here is that the organization loses some talented employees for no fault of theirs. In some organizations some of these employees are even used as consultants on a retainership basis from time to time. This is possible if and only if the separated employees are not always in a competitive area of work.

Personal parameter: In this case, the employee chooses to separate himself from the organization because of personal reasons such as ill-health, desire to return to the native place for family reasons, the spouse is transferred, and the current organization has no branch in the new location and so on. In the Indian context, women may have to give up their jobs post-marriage to resettle elsewhere in the country or even post-pregnancy. As some of the above problems are more common with the women employees, many organizations have an unwritten policy, which is widely practiced i.e. to minimize employment of women. This is a very unfair and biased policy and unfortunately many competent and well-qualified women have had to suffer. But companies argue that many women executives, even in today's Indian context have to quit jobs after marriage or pregnancy. It is best, therefore, not to generalize and treat such cases on their respective merits.

Organization initiated parameter: Sometimes employees have to separate from an organization as they have not completed their probation period successfully or they are being laid off for want of work or their appointment was only on a temporary basis. In fact, it is this aspect of separation that is most unpleasant since the earlier ones discussed were cases of separation which were employee-initiated. Care must be taken by the organizations to ensure that the above be carried out as smoothly as possible else, this could create a lot of negative impressions about the company which could be detrimental to the organization's image in the long run. One major consequence of this type of separation is that it affects the morale of the employees at large and creates a feeling of insecurity in general.

Let us realize that today recruitment has become both a highly specialized area and a costly exercise too. Once an individual joins an organization, costs incurred on him include Acquisition costs i.e. the cost of recruitment, selection, and placement & Training Costs i.e. induction, specialized training, and on-the-job training. Besides when he separates from the organization, the company faces the cost of his position lying vacant besides having to pay his separation pay and such dues.

Hence organizations today are focusing on minimizing employee turnover with great gusto.

Some of the control measures taken are:

Having a well-designed and dynamic Compensation and Benefits system which is highly competitive.

Providing opportunities for further growth in the organization via career planning/ succession planning.

Develop a highly conducive and pro-active work culture in the organization where openness, creativity, and commitment are valued.

In many organizations today, Exit interviews are conducted to obtain feedback from separated employees about their stint in the organization. This Exit interview is conducted in two phases.

Phase I is conducted as soon as the employee's boss receives his resignation letter. The objective of this meeting is to ascertain reasons as to why the employee wishes to leave the organization. If the employee is really worth retaining, attempts are made to eliminate dissatisfiers if any and retain his services for the organization. This decision has to be taken very judiciously else the employee will use this as a tool to push his demands via a resignation letter. If an employee withdraws his resignation letter; the exit interview has achieved its objective of retaining a good employee. Despite all the attempts made, if the employee still decides to separate then we move on Phase II.

Usually, the second phase of the exit interview should be conducted after the employee who has separated has been paid all his dues and his accounts with the company have been settled. This ensures that the separated employee provides candid and unbiased feedback about the organization's procedures, policies, and problem areas. All such feedback should be recorded on paper and circulated to the top management. In order to ensure that a good discussion is possible, the exit interview should be held in privacy and conducted by a senior employee of the organization who is not the boss or departmental head of the separated employee. If the feedback duly obtained by this method is looked into seriously, this serves as a good raw database through which various irritants and lacunae in the organization could be eliminated.

In fact, the exit interview also has one more spin-off. If the employee parts with a good feeling, he has a tendency to keep in touch with the separated organization. Perhaps over a period of time, he would even like to come back to his old organization. Some managements are conservative and brand the separated employee as a traitor but many other organizations welcome him back.

Whilst critics argue that a continuous inflow and outflow of people into any organization keeps it healthy, care should be taken to ensure that the outflow does not exceed the inflow. Further, good employees should be retained and developed to assume higher levels of responsibility in the organization. One needs to remember that employee turnover is not a malady that exists in the organization. Hence necessary steps should be taken by an organization to identify the causes and keep this turnover at an acceptable level. Retaining talent and creating a conducive work culture to facilitate performance would ensure the organization's health & success.

Hi Mohit,

I'm an MBA student. I have read your article on talent retention, and it was absolutely fantastic. Could you provide me with further information regarding the causes that have led to an alarming increase in the attrition rate in the BPO industry? I am looking forward to your assistance.

Prabhjot

Hi Mohit,

It was a good article, but a few studies in the US say that people leave organizations due to their boss more than any other causes. I don't know why this problem persists. You mentioned about exit interviews being conducted by senior managers; do you think it would be a good idea? Since the interview can be formal, the employee may not easily reveal things. What can be done to make the employee feel comfortable sharing the problems they have faced?

Hi, Sreenivasan,

To some extent, it's true, but it cannot be possible for each employee to have grudges with management. It depends on the person who is conducting the exit interview. If they take this job seriously and consider the company's interests, they can certainly understand from the employee what went wrong.

When an employee leaves the company, they surely want to express their feelings to the company. We just have to listen to them.

Mohit

hi Prabhjot

Well Attrition rate in BRO is very high and it has so many reason to rely on this fact.

well i am sending more data on this.

All companies, regardless of size, are struggling with how to keep employees from leaving for more money or better opportunities. Studies consistently show that even though employees may say they are leaving for more money, when those same employees are asked several months later why they really left, the money factor is about 5th or 6th on the list. The first few reasons include lack of recognition, disagreement with the culture or direction of the company, poor treatment by their boss, lack of excitement about their growth prospects, and poor relationships with co-workers. Did you know that studies have indicated that it will cost a significant amount of money to replace an employee? How much? When you add the costs of finding an employee, training the new employee, lost productivity and filling in for the employee who leaves, the cost can easily equal 150% of the base salary of the person who left. So, if you are paying someone 50,000, the cost to replace that person will be approximately 75,000. This money comes out of your hard-earned profits.

This is one of the key reasons that companies are focusing so much effort on keeping their current employees. How can you increase your chances? Listed below are a number of ideas you may want to consider.

Ensure you offer competitive compensation.

Ensure you offer basic health care benefits at reasonable rates.

Consider adding lifestyle benefits that are cost effective (read easy on the cash flow).

Find out what employees want from their career and do what you can to provide for their needs.

Be as flexible as possible about how the work gets done.

Be as flexible as possible as to when and where the work gets done.

Can it be OK for an employee to take a few hours off to attend to a family or personal matter if they can accomplish the job at their home in the evening?

Take a real and genuine interest in people's career aspirations and personal lives.

Catch people doing something right…frequently recognize positive contributions to the company.

Communicate company progress, financial news, major customer or sales activities on a regular basis. Follow up on your commitments to provide information or answers.

Have regular (bi-weekly or monthly) meetings with all employees where they can ask you questions about your plans, company progress, new developments to look for, etc. Be accessible to them so you can learn their needs. If you can respond to their needs before they become real issues, they won't begin looking for greener grass.

Ask former employees why they resigned. Even if they left six months ago, they still have a valid perspective.

Routinely ask employees what you can do to make the company a better place to work. Set boundaries if necessary as to what items are not negotiable; such as ownership in the company or 50% per year salary increases.

Keeping people is arguably the most challenging aspect of running a business today. The answer lies in the fact that there is no one set of answers. People are different, so their reasons for doing anything are different. Successful companies today ensure they know what makes their best people different, and they work hard to see that those

needs are met. Hopefully, some of the ideas mentioned above will spark some useful ideas for your unique company and your unique group of employees

Hi Mohit,

That's a good answer from you. However, in the case of BPO, the retention rate is higher, and the workforce tends to be younger, making them more inclined to participate in exit interviews. Motivation and interest levels are typically lower. It is often observed that reasons for leaving a company in such scenarios are similar, such as salary concerns. Concentrating on exit interviews might aid in improving retention rates.

In some BPO companies, the attrition rate can be as high as 50%. This high turnover rate could potentially make conducting exit interviews a significant challenge. Despite this, the question arises: is an exit interview still necessary in such cases?

I realize I'm posing several questions, but I hope you don't mind clarifying things for me.

Have a nice time.

I tend to disagree with Sreenivasan.

First, the retention is very less compared to the traditional industry. And second, the employees are not ready to spend time in the Exit Interview.

Further, I believe that the Exit Interview should be made compulsory and should be taken by Certified HR Personnel. That would help in getting the real cause behind the move.

I agree that most of the time, it is the pay, but if the person is moving for a hike as low as Rs. 500, then something is being hidden. There is something that is being overlooked or underreported. A thorough study needs to be conducted in such cases, and the real cause should be found.

Normally, if the stress levels are high and that is the reason behind his leaving the job, chances are he won't accept it.

Hi Ajmal,

I wanted to say that attrition is more, and I left out the "not" in the second sentence. I meant to convey agreement with what you are saying. Thank you for helping me rectify the mistake I made.

If we are serious about reducing employee turnover and keeping talented people on staff, we need to change what we do before the job offer is made, not after the new hire starts, which by then is too late.

Hi,

I have been following the discussion closely and would like to share my views on this.

I agree with the observation that very often when an employee leaves an organization because of internal factors - i.e., dissatisfied with the organization - more often than not it is due to the reporting manager. It is a harsh truth, but we need to face it that when it comes to retention and motivation, everyone looks at the HR department, whereas every manager is responsible for his/her team's retention and motivation at the base level. They are the ones in direct and constant touch with the employees and hence are and should be aware of every movement and reaction.

Very often, when an employee resigns, everyone comes into action and tries to retain the employee, and the majority of the time, he is asked why and what he wants, etc., and often gets what he wants - hike, perks, etc., as decided by management. But rarely would you have heard of the manager being asked why his/her team member is leaving. If that is done, the problem can be identified and rectified at an early stage itself.

Lastly, exit interviews are a critical and useful tool but only if implemented properly via a neutral source to ensure that the real problems are shared candidly.

Cheers,

Pooja

Hi Mohit,

Thank you for your assistance. The article you sent is of great help to me. Could you provide me with some information regarding the best HR practices to be adopted to control this problem? I have to work on my summer project on increasing attrition problems in the BPO industry. I need to create a questionnaire to present to the HR departments of the top 10 BPOs in Delhi and NCR. Could you advise me on what type of questions I should include in my questionnaire under the following categories:

1. Attraction (reasons why people are attracted to join a particular organization)
2. Retention
3. Compensation and benefits
4. Training

Regards,
Prabhjot

Hi Sreenivasan,

Well, BPOs are spreading like mushrooms. Yes, I agree that they have a high rate of attrition. It's entirely because of the work, salary, and job market. Employees are doing the same kind of job, so it's kind of fatiguing for them. Salary is another major constraint, and job opportunities in the market are high. So, that's the reason behind the high attrition rate.

Well, an exit interview is only helpful when you really want to retain your employees, and it helps retain experienced employees rather than freshers.

Hi Mohit,

I accept your point, but I think the exit interview is a measure taken after you find the disease. I believe focusing on measures for prevention, which many BPOs are considering nowadays, can be more effective than the exit interview. This is because 90%-95% of people have already made up their minds and decided to leave, leaving only a 10-15% chance of retention. If companies concentrate more on pre-exit strategies such as training, career development, incentives, and performance-oriented pay, I think it can help in retaining the remaining 85%. Therefore, I believe BPOs need to slightly adjust their strategy instead of completely changing the entire structure according to their situation. For instance, a software development firm may focus more on exit interviews and retention as they experience lower attrition rates. Infosys, for example, had around 5% attrition.

I believe I have made a valid point in this post. Do you agree, Mohit?

Hi Mohit,

If you are looking for the challenges of Talent Retention in BPOs, take a look at the list below:

1. Young Employees (average employee age 24-25 years) have less responsibility, so they do not consider stability as a major force driving their careers at this point.

2. Follow the Leader: If one of their friends moves to another company, they will all move to keep with their old friends.

3. Pick-up Drop Facility: It may seem negligible, but coming back alone at 2:30 in the night is something nobody likes.

4. Salary Hike: No need to explain this one.

5. Free Food: For bachelors, they want to avoid cooking as most of them stay in bachelor's accommodations.

6. Working Environment (AC, chairs, calling instruments): Small matters but do count.

7. Type of Work: People generally prefer inbound call centers to outbound call centers; similarly, the product they sell or service also counts.

8. Future Growth Prospects: Do they see that they can become a Team Leader, etc., in the near future in the same organization?

9. Lateral Movement: Employees sometimes want to work in a particular department as they have an interest in it and would look for an opening in that department.

10. Stress Levels: If they are selling/servicing a substandard product that generates many complaints, their stress levels might increase.

11. Family Issues: No need to discuss.

12. Health Issues: Some people cannot cope with night shifts due to health reasons, while others develop a sore throat after speaking for a few hours.

I have tried to list as many as I could think of.

As for retention, first, we need to find out why employees are leaving your organization. This is where the exit interview helps to identify the flaws in our organization. As Pooja Jain mentioned in her previous post, exit interviews are a critical and useful tool but only if implemented properly via a neutral source to ensure that the real problems are shared candidly.

After identifying the major reasons, try to solve each problem individually or collectively depending on the situation.

Dear Colleagues,

Let me lend my voice to the issue of Talent Retention.

Basically, I would approach this from the angle of Motivation Tied to Career Anchor.

In the light of this, I would expect all Line Managers and HR Managers involved in Appraisals/Evaluation/Compensation to go beyond Salary Reviews, Recommendations for Promotion, and the likes to delve into the nitty-gritty of "What Keeps An Employee Going."

I am not sure if I have not written something similar in this forum; HR and Line Managers are expected to seek out individual employees' Career Anchor and tie this to their Compensation Scheme. This could be cumbersome initially, but in the long run, the Management benefits because it would have been able to retain its talents.

For instance, if there is an employee who likes Research and Surveys, the ideal thing is to try as much as possible to make available a library within the system and assign tasks that lean towards research.

In most situations, Management would rather increase salary and expect the employee to be thankful and happy, but I am certainly sure he would move to a company that would respect his career anchor.

One thing of note here is that salary/money does not retain the Best Talents. Talents would rather have their career in place where it can be fully expressed and acknowledged than be part of the pack in a place where it cannot be expressed.

Thanks.

Hi Aflobi,

Your idea is excellent, and I think that it should be implemented. However, I am not sure how it can be done. Can you please explain further how to implement the same in the organization? Right now, I am interested in it academically.

With request,

Regards

Hi Ajmal, Mohit, and Afolabi,

To support Afolabi's point in his post that in order to increase performance, HR and line managers have to take action, there is an article on performance management. The article emphasizes that for performance management to be highly successful and to drive performance growth in individuals, HR and line managers must collaborate. HR is responsible for planning and proper implementation, while control is overseen by the line manager to ensure good performance.

If I find that article, I will also share it here. Have a nice time.

Hi Mohit,

I have conducted a year-long research on the retention of high performers in the call center industry. Are you looking for measures to reduce attrition or practices to be adopted to increase retention? Please let me know.

Regards,
Vanita

Hi Mohit,

I have completed a year-long research project on the retention of high performers in the call center industry. I would like to know if you are looking for reasons for high attrition or practices that can be adopted to increase retention rate.

Regards,
Vanita

Hi Vanita,

I am not in the BPO industry, but I am familiar with the facts and the discouraging factors that lead employees to leave the organization. The attrition rate is significantly high in small BPOs compared to leading ones. If you compare them, you will notice the difference.

Let me know what specific information you are looking for.

Mohit

Hello all,

I came across this discussion while searching for information on best practices. This discussion seems to focus only on talent management in BPO. What about other industries? Does anybody know what the best practices are for curbing attrition and engaging employees?

Thank you.

What about other industries... Does anybody know what the best practices are for curbing attrition and engaging employees?

The best practice is what will be adopted and what works. We have more than 35,000 employers in all industries using the job matching method to hire employees who are motivated to do their jobs, who enjoy doing their jobs, and who stay in their jobs for a long time. Some people call it hiring for talent or getting the right people on the bus. We call it job matching since we match employees to the demands of the job.

Hi all,

Every employee has a desire to work in good companies. The attrition rate is higher in employees with 2-5 years of experience compared to those with 5 years or more. If a company has an attrition rate around 5%, it's okay. It's a general trend, but if it's more than that, the company should look into the matter and compile the exit interview views given by employees.

Blaming HR for everything is wrong; each department head should take care of their employees.

I was going through the list of The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For List [2005 List].

At the number one position is W L GORE & ASSOCIATES (UK) LTD.

I am listing the highlights of the practices they follow:

"You've got to be a team player at Gore," says lab engineer Dave Thompson. "Your team rates your contribution on a scale of one to six, and that's one of the things salaries are based on." Looks very much like the 360 appraisals many companies use, but only a few have been successful.

Everyone chooses a sponsor who helps them develop, and they also have a leader who would traditionally be titled manager. Plant production leader John Housego explains: "I was voted into this job. That was a really special moment." Very practical, as already proven by W.L.Gore Associates. So next time there is a turn of promotions, let there be elections.

Nine in every 10 employees think their manager trusts their judgment, just a fraction fewer feel he or she talks openly with them, a similar proportion feel their manager cares about them. All the managers should be trained specifically for this type of attitude. It will definitely help.

84% say the principles of the firm would not alter if the leader changed. Clearly defined principles/policies that everyone follows keep the focus clear and consistent.

92% believe they make a valuable contribution to the firm's success, and 93% would miss it if they left. Give your employees some important work and remind them regularly about their importance to the company. It really helps boost their morale.

All associates receive stock in the private company worth annually about 10% of salary, and it pays double their 5% pension contribution. Stock options should not only be for senior management; they should include all employees.

There is free private healthcare and a heavily subsidized canteen. Most employees would prefer lunch for 2 rupees, then Rs.800/- Sodexho. At least keep it as an option. And Cashless Health Insurance. Well, most of the IT companies are giving this; others should follow the best practices.

Most impressive, though, is 26 weeks' fully paid maternity leave, with a further six months off unpaid, throughout which holiday accrues.

Clare McNab, responsible for the inside sales of seals and fibers, recently had a year's maternity leave. "I came back and had to take 30 days' holiday between August and December, which is really good when you're a new mum," she says. She now works four days a week, but her salary has not altered. "I do the same amount of work in four days."

That's what should be given. We all know that a person, if committed and happy, would work even from their home if need be to complete the task, so why not be somewhat flexible with work timings.

Think about it. The practices are the ones followed by the best employer. The firm is the first to top the 100 Best Companies To Work For list for two years running.

Some radical changes are required in organizational culture, but maybe a worthwhile effort. They have only 5% as labor turnover, that also for a privately held company having 429 employees. Some achievement.

Of all the issues an HR professional is confronted with, is the nebulous issue pertaining to retention of employees.Many are my fellow HR professionals who are confronted by this issue and not clear as to how to respond and make a recommendation to their Management on how to tackle this issue.

Needless to mention ,recruitment is just the beginning of a long process that involves , once the employee comes on board,issues like motivation,growth,value addition and in the current context of knowledge worker "KNOWKER",employability .Try as they may,either due to paucity of clear cut strategy by companies towards making their employees "employable"or due to paucity of ideas on how to retain their employees, thru means other than Compensation ,managements of even so called "progressive"companies grope in the dark on how to come up with innovative ideas that would make their folks stay put.

It is in this context that one needs to look at exits and how exits ,while being painful in the short run,can give a wealth of information to the company, to device in the long run, strategies that can retain their most critical resources,the "KNOWKERS".

Exits are inevitable.This is a reality that we all need to comprehend.Whether the exit is due to a cultural misfit,poor performance,downsizing or right sizing is all a matter of detailing.Fact of the matter is that ,even in the current context of global recession ,when the popular and shortsighted notion is that there are no jobs going even if your employees are to look outside your company for a job,statistics prove that companies have lost maximum number of employees during this period.What we as HR professionals have to learn is that irrespective of the times,rare are the cases were employees have stayed put in a job that gives him\her no joy,they would rather take a plunge into the unknown than stay put in a job that gives him\her, no future value.

How have companies tackled this phenomenon?How do they learn their "lessons",so that the faults are not repeated with other employees and corrective action can be taken to improve the situation?This is where a stuctured intervention like EXIT interview comes into play.

Exit interview as a means to collate data on the exiting employees have been done by many companies.But more often than not, companies go thru with this as a matter of routine that has to be complied with and the data that emerges out of this exercise is seldom analysed.It is the analysis of the data that emerges out of this exercise, as well as the process of the exit interview adopted by companies ,that would determine whether the data is any good to go by and formulate strategies on employee retention.

FIRST THINGS FIRST.Is Exit interview required at all?Well the answer is a resounding YES, from all practitioners of this process, in a scientific manner.

The methodology differs from company to company, depending upon the specific cultures of these companies. Some companies let the department head of the exiting employee, do the exit interview, whereas in some companies it is only the HR department that does the exit interview and a third sort of company where it is a mixture of line and HR that does the exit interview.Be that as it may,the question that needs to be answered is whether the process is being gone thru, because it is a requirement for the settlement of the final dues of the employee and hence is yet another compliance which will have to be gone thru or is it a serious exercise meant to elicit from the departing employee the reasons for his departure and what needs to be done from the companies point of view as a corrective so that such sort of departures are minimised.

As I recently had a chance to listen to a CEO, who said "I do not mind if the employee is leaving for the right reasons, but let no employee from my business leave for the wrong reasons".The right reasons, according to this CEO, are reasons were the Company can't possibly help out eg spouse employed in another city,family or personal reasons(which has nothing to do with the job or the company),requirement to move to another function or job,which is non existent in the current company etc.The wrong reasons are reasons like inability to get along with the team,morale,motivation etc which is upto the company to provide. ,which knows the pulse of its employees.

EXIT INTERVIEW FOR ALL?This is a question which has been asked frequently since the last one year or so.The logic of this question emerges from the fact that in the last one year or so,due to the economic slow down and the recession,companies had to go thru with the painful task of reducing their manpower by reducing the number of employees who according to the company were engaged in non value adding functions or activities.The question was ,since exit interview is there as a process ,should not these employees too go thru with the process of having to undergo the exit interview.Well the answer is NO.Exit interview as a process is institutionalised to capture data on employees who are leaving us and whom we would like to retain and not to gather data and information on employees leaving the company because in any case the company does not want to retain that particular employee.Imagine a situation of a company that has done VRS for its staff and if all the VRSed employees were to undergo the Exit interview?The views of the VRSed employees can only be imagined!!!But more importantly,to answer the question of whether Exit Interview as a process needs to be done for all exiting employees,the answer is NO.

WHAT EXIT INTERVIEW METHODOLOGY TO EMPLOY ?Different companies employ different processes and procedures to capture the data emerging out of an exit.Some companies employ the interview methodology and the interviewer jots down the highlights of the exiting employees tenure with the company ,both the positives and the negatives.Some companies employ the questionnaire cum interview methodology,were the exiting employee fills in a standard questionnaire on the reasons for his exit,which is routed thru his supervisors to the HR department,to note the contents and take corrective action and this is supplemented by the interview with the exiting employee to clarify the points raised by him in the EXIT Questionnaire,so that it gives an input to the company on the areas to focus on, due to which this particular employee is leaving.And there are companies that employ only the Questionnaire methodology to capture the data.The last mentioned methodology is the least preferred since experience has shown that the exiting employee might jot down views which are extremes because of his status as a "departure" candidate and the company would have little means to ascertain the veracity of what has been stated by the exitee.What is ideally recommended is the questionnaire cum interview methodology,because of its inherent strengths as a database for corrective action and moreover the points raised by the exitee, would be substantiated by the interviewer during the interview process.

WHAT DATA TO LOOK FOR AND WHAT ANALYSIS ? Whatever be the methodology adopted by the company ,the data sought for should be consistent.The companies should look for information and data from the exitees, that would throw light on the good practices of the company as well as those practices which needs improvement and which has resulted in the employee taking a decision to exit from the company.This would give an input to the company on what they are doing right which needs to be reinforced and celebrated and what is being done poorly,which needs to be improved and done differently.The changes that needs to be brought about should be as a fall out of the data that emerges out of this input.

The data that emerges should be collated and analysed to study patterns and reasons for exiting.The data analysis is very critical and should be done sensitively and carefully ,otherwise the reasons that emerge out of this analysis might not give a correct direction for the company to focus and correct what needs to be corrected as emerging out of the exit interview process.Thus it is critical that the analysis be done once in six months so that ,a trend and a pattern can be ascertained from out of the data that emerges.It is equally critical that various cuts of the data be evaluated on the basis of Qualification,age,experience,department ,business etc since this data would help the company in focussing on issues impacting the various subgroups in the company.The reason why a management trainee you hire from a premier campus is leaving you in six months, could be quite different from why an employee with more than ten years of service in the company is leaving.Similarly the reason why a management trainee from the Marketing department is leaving and the reason why a management trainee, from the same business school, but assigned to the finance department is leaving, could be quite different.In fact data collation is only the beginning of the task, the real skill and challenge lies in data interpretation and analysis.The seriousness of this needs no emphasis ,since the action plan for the company to retain employees on the basis of employees exiting,is dependent on this data analysis.

In these times which are dynamic to say the least,if there can be one "listening post" for the company to hear the "grouses"of employees whom the company would have ideally liked to retain,then the only structured way of capturing the data is thru an institutionalised EXIT interview process

Ekta

Hi Ekta, great article. It is very clear and crisp on the exit interview process. When going through it, I realized that most of us want to set out to do the correct work but fall mid-way due to the routine process. As a result, the essence of the entire exercise is lost. Thanks for reminding all of us about that.

I would also like to request if you could share a good questionnaire for an exit interview. Although we follow a fairly decent one here, any value addition is definitely welcome anytime.

Cheers,
Pooja

Nice article. But all the research tells us that exit interview data is unreliable (departing employees give socially acceptable reasons to protect their references). Using quantitative analysis on unreliable data is asking for trouble. Exit interviews can be structured to provide some insight, but they should not be used to diagnose the key drivers of turnover.

I have spent several weeks looking into the exit interview process and the different approaches adopted for a report I am writing. Sadly, many companies make fundamental errors with their exit interviews, one of which is believing that all their employees will tell the truth.

Col

Hello Col:

"But all the research tells us that exit interview data is unreliable."
I agree.
"Using quantitative analysis on unreliable data is asking for trouble."
Employers that wait until their employees leave before asking them for their comments deserve the turnover they have.
"Exit interviews can be structured to provide some insight but they should not be used to diagnose the key drivers of turnover."
The key drivers for turnover are the executives who ask for exit interviews. Why wait until employees quit to learn what they think?
"Sadly, many companies make fundamental errors with their exit interviews. One of which is believing that all their employees will tell the truth."
There are other problems with exit interviews such as:
- poor performers' opinions are given too much weight
- top performers' opinions are often given too little weight
- the reasons for turnover read the reports but don't see themselves.

Well done Col.

Bob,

I have to agree with your comments. Employee insight needs to be obtained before someone has decided to leave. Employers must gain a greater understanding of employee needs, aspirations, and preferences if they are to retain good performers during periods when the labor market is tight. Employee value propositions need to be developed once you understand what it is your employees really value (and not just copied off whatever happens to be in vogue at the moment).

Exit interviews are incredibly difficult to do well. As you point out, you do need to take into consideration whether these are the views of someone you really wanted to retain. The smart move is almost always to conduct stay interviews with those you really want to retain.

Col

Hello Col:

I have to agree with your comments. Thanks.

Employee insight needs to be obtained before someone has decided to leave. Yes, once an employee has intellectually left the organization, it is too late.

Employers must gain a greater understanding of employee needs, aspirations, and preferences if they are to retain good performers during periods when the labor market is tight. Our clients do that as part of their selection process.

The smart move is almost always to conduct stay interviews with those you really want to retain. That is the approach we use; we learn what it is about the best employees that allows them to be the best employees and then hire more of them.

Bob

Hi everybody,

I have gone through the discussion given out by each one of our friends. It has been really excellent and a good piece of information. A lot has to be put in by the HR to get the exact information from the employee leaving the organization so that the organization can move forward or make the necessary changes suggested by the exiting employee if suitable. Really, a good and large amount of information has been provided by each and everyone.

Thanks.

Regards,

Julie

Having read your article, I think it's a good piece. The aspect of exit interviews being held in privacy is a very strong point which has helped many organizations in my part of the world to identify and address the real reasons why people leave an organization other than reasons stated in resignation letters.

Exit interviews have also served as a means or a mirror that enables management in organizations to identify and address lapses in their structures and operations that contribute to high incidents of staff turnover.

I would appreciate any other material you may have to share on current issues on Talent Management. You may please send it through my email: thquaye@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts and observations on your piece.

Theo (Accra, Ghana)

RETENTION



During the last decade, employee retention has become a serious and perplexing problem for all types of organization. Managing retention and keeping the turnover rate below target and industry norms is one of the most challenging issues facing businesses.



Retention: -is the percentage of employee remaining in the organization.



“Employee turnover (leaving an organization) is a major organizational phenomenon. Employee turnover is important to organizations, individuals, and society. From the organizational perceptive, employee turnover can represent a significant cost in terms of recruiting, training, socialization, and disruption, as well as a variety of indirect costs. Given the significance of turnover, it is important for the manager and prospective manager to be able to analyze, understand, and effectively, manage employee turnover. ” (Mobley, 1982).



Employee turnover is not a new issue. It is relevant today and its importance will be even greater in the future. Many analysts believe that there may be 20milion jobs unfilled by the end of 2008.this are approximately twice the number of unfilled positions today. A blue-chip manufacturer announces 53,000layoffs world wide, a leading financial institution plan to shed 8,000jobs, and a Big-Three automobile maker cuts 1,200 positions in a single plant.





In a study during the2001-2003 recession, 90%of the 109 executives surveyed said that they were finding it difficult to attract and retain the best people in the organization (Dell and Hickey, 2002).



The question is why are some of our best employees choosing to leave and what is being done?

The number-

· One reason people leave their jobs is because they "don't feel appreciated," according to the U.S. Department of Labor. What's a manager to do? Start by offering praise to employees that's individualized, deserved, and specific.

· Most of us believe our employees leave us for money reasons

Retention success tied to money, but it's much more than salaries



Companies are trying to determine ways to effectively retain their employees without becoming involved in salary wars. A review of the literature reveals that while the traditional methods of motivation and development first identified by Maslow and Herzberg still apply, they are not sufficient to stem the flow of employees from company to company. Salaries have become a major motivator for some employees for job selection.



Seventeen factors were identified to have some impact, but the five main drivers identified in the study are: a supportive culture that allows employee to experiment and grow, job satisfaction, opportunities for growth, organizational direction and goals, and recognition of work/life balance needs. Roberts (1999) discusses the importance of learning about employees the same way that companies learn about their customers. He discusses using data warehouses and data marts to learn what employees do and what then responding to their needs and improving retention. Tehrani (1998) and Duboff and Heaton (1999) discuss the importance of taking the information obtained and creating employee service centers.



Provide service to employees in the same way that companies provide customer service and care centers to customers as ways of achieving higher employee loyalty. Austin (1998) stresses that the effort for employee retention must come from the top. The effort to develop good retention must be a primary goal of managers at all levels in the organization, and it must be a consistent goal that is developed and reinforced over time. As such it can only occur if supported at the highest levels in the organization. This does not mean that compensation and pay issues can be ignored. Thomas Hoffman (1998) reports on a Society for Information Management (SIM) survey. Although sense of community and other factors are important, financial compensation is still the one greatest influence on employee retention.

Managing retention is a constant challenge for any organization. The awareness of the issue has heightened in the last decade, and, from all indications, the problem will be more serious in the future decades. Even in slow economic times, most HR executives find attracting and retaining talent to be a big problem.

Hello Everyone,

It's not a new topic. Why is there a need for HR? Please discuss this topic first. Everyone will get the solution for RETENTION. Come and discuss first, why HR is needed for an organization?

Regards,
Sidheshwar

Hi,

The way you have classified the causes of attrition is really nice. I am doing my project on attrition too. I have to identify those characteristics or traits in an individual that lead them to switch from one organization to another. Then, I aim to create a standard questionnaire based on which one can assess if the applicant is likely to leave the organization or not.

Can you please help me with this?

How come you guys are so sure that the real thing would come out of the Exit Interview? Normally, exiting employees take it as a formality. Even when I had moved from one company to another and the exit interview was conducted, I didn't disclose the real motive of leaving. I manipulated things. Hence, the exit interview can only be successful when the approach of HR is genuine, and they ensure that the reality comes out of it. The person leaving should have a firm belief that his words would count and not be limited to files only.

The three major reasons why people leave are a difficult boss, compensation, and finally, excessive work stress and job pressure. If companies work on these three factors, it could reduce attrition to 5%-9% from the current trend of 20%-25%. Attrition can never be eliminated, but it can be controlled to a minimum.

As a person who has worked in BPO for 14 months, I can share a few insights into why the attrition rate is very high in BPOs. First of all, employees often work in UK or US shifts, which makes it difficult to cope with the pressure of taking calls while everyone else is sleeping. Customers may shout at you, but you must remain silent and answer patiently. There is no growth except in terms of money. Even if you reach the highest level, the pressure increases rather than decreases. Working night shifts can lead to dissatisfaction, causing you to leave the job even without an experience letter. This has a negative impact on BPOs as call centers and raises doubts. If someone hears you are working in a BPO, many might judge you negatively, especially girls, who may feel compelled to leave the job for others' sake.

Mostly, if you work for a home broadband service, you're gone. You don't get leave for holidays in the UK or US, nor for local or national holidays in our country. To get leave, you need to plead with your manager or TL at least a week before the roster is prepared. The worst aspect of a BPO is having to log in to the Avaya phone system and schedule breaks. You get exactly 30 minutes for lunch, and if you exceed it, you receive a warning letter. Many people tend to eat quickly, even at night. Only 2 or 3 people at a time can take a break, and most of the time, you have to go alone. The SL desk people determine your dinner timings, not you. When they ask you to go for dinner, you have to comply. They will also ask you to extend shifts by 1 or 2 hours, but you are not paid for it. Then, the TL will give team briefings when we are feeling sleepy and ask you to take more calls and reduce the Average Handling Time. You have to handle a call and resolve the issue mostly within 25 to 30 minutes.

Life loses its value once you work in a BPO.