Are Exit Interviews Failing Us? Discovering the Real Reasons Employees Leave

Hi, I'm interested in your thoughts on exit interviews. Research shows that exit interviews can be completely unreliable, especially when conducted by line managers.

How to discover the real reasons employees are leaving

Any ideas on how to uncover the true reasons employees are leaving?

Many thanks,
Col

www.colbrown.co.uk

That's an excellent question. I think exit interviews are invaluable not only for gathering real information about employee perspectives that affect the company's productivity but also as a last opportunity to head off legal troubles. The key is to assure the employee that their job references will not be negatively affected and to sound like the company genuinely wants to know what the employee has to say. The person conducting the interview has to be high enough managerially to affect policy but removed from the supervisory line of the employee. I would even go so far as to offer a written reference upfront, in addition to specific references in the future. That lessens the employee's fear that something negative will be said because they already know exactly what they should be able to expect in the form of a reference.

I am dealing with this issue just now for a major local government agency. Trust is a big issue in this kind of activity—so think about using an external, neutral body for, say, 6 months, so that you can determine the real root causes with a great deal of certainty. Then tackle these root causes. Continue to use the external body until the levels of trust that leavers have are high enough that line managers can do the exit interviews with credibility in the results.

Of course, the issue should be to have zero people leave because they don't like the manager/people/organization (assuming they are good performers and aren't under some kind of disciplinary process!). Spend the money with an external body, find out what is really causing people to leave, then fix it—money well spent (approx $10-15 per leaver) as opposed to increased recruitment and training costs.

Dear Colleagues,

The importance of exit interviews in recruitment

The concept of recruitment would be incomplete without an exit interview at the point of departure of an officer. Basically, the moment an employee assumes duty, he/she should also be planning his/her exit if they are forward-looking ones anyway.

Purpose of exit interviews

The purpose of the interview is for the Company's Management to find ways of retaining staff, improving their welfare, motivating them, avoiding mistakes of wrong selection in the future, and probably getting a last-minute blunt truth about themselves. All the aforementioned depends on the grounds on which the employee is leaving the Company—resignation, termination, retirement, redundancy, etc.

Challenges in obtaining honest feedback

Some departing employees may find it difficult to open up to Management about what things ought to be done to correct mass labor turnover in their employment. It now becomes the duty of HR to counsel and see how such highly needed information can be collated and used meaningfully to the benefit of the establishment.

Limitations of retention efforts

There is little HR or Management can do when an employee is determined to move on; an increase in the paycheck, improved welfare, a friendly pension scheme, etc., most times are not sufficient to retain staff. At this point, HR should just give out a letter of acceptance of resignation and arrange for an exit interview for such an outgoing employee.

Exit interviews as part of the employment process

This process should be seen as part of the employment process. It is inevitable—if not by resignation, it could even be by death! People need to move on.

Cheers.

Afolabi Ajayi

Dear Friends,

Can anyone send me the format of the exit interview? We have to conduct it for 800 employees in our company.

Please help.

We have to conduct for 800 employees in our company.

Do you mean 800 employees are being terminated?