Understanding Retention vs. Exit Interviews: Can You Share Your Insights and Formats?

Dear Senior,

Can anybody help me in understanding the difference between Retention Interview and Exit Interview? Kindly send me the formats if you have them.

Thanks in Advance.

Regards,
Reena

Dear Reena,

Retention interviews and exit interviews are entirely different things. A retention interview is conducted for employees who have been hired for a fixed period (e.g., retainers, contractual employees). It is held to renew or extend the service period.

An exit interview is conducted when an employee resigns and leaves the company to gather feedback on various aspects such as the company, job profile, compensation package, boss, and work environment. The aim is to enhance our workplace and make it a better place to work.

Amit Goyal

Dear Reena,

A Retention Interview would be a formal discussion between the employer/HR and the exiting employee. This discussion would mainly focus on retaining an employee who has resigned or is in the mind to.

In such interviews, the employer will try to offer better salary, designation, or perks to the exiting employee. Mostly when a performing employee decides to leave an organization, the latter tries to hold him back by adopting such measures as mentioned above.

An Exit Interview is typically conducted for a departing employee. The organization will take feedback from the exiting one on various elements about the organization. Certain pointers during this interview do help the organization in rectifying current practices. No efforts are mostly taken to retain an employee here.

Hope that helps.

Hi Reena,

I do agree with Dhaara. What she stated is absolutely perfect. The Exit interview is conducted mainly for getting feedback from the exiting employee. It is more like Environmental Scanning in HR.

Whereas, the Retention Interview is to retain the best-performing employee by offering additional pay packages, perks, etc.

Hope you got it right.

Goodbye and all the best,
Lakshmi

Dear All,

Could you provide input on the following:

What are the best questions to ask to find out the exact reason for an employee leaving?

1. How can you assure genuine feedback from employees?
2. What methods can be implemented to address this feedback?
3. What should be done if an employee is dissatisfied with their boss? The boss is a key member of the organization but is disliked by many employees and is a main reason for high attrition. Can anyone suggest how to handle this situation and avoid such circumstances?

Thank you.