Job hunters are seeing glimmers of hope as the economy shows signs of rebound. Economic recovery is good news for everyone, but the downside for employers is that they may see some of their valuable employees taking advantage of an improving job market by looking for opportunities in new workplaces.
When good people move on, their old employers don’t have to take the loss without realizing a benefit. Exit interviews can provide that benefit in the form of information that can help employers make recruiting, hiring, and policy decisions that will keep them attractive to current and future employees.
Webinar: Conducting Great Exit Interviews: How to Uncover Problems and Retain Your Best Employees
Why bother with exit interviews?
Employers may be more concerned with how to replace departing employees than gathering facts, but they should take advantage of the valuable information employees on their way out the door can provide.
“The data can help identify problem areas with specific departments, supervisors, pay, work-life balance, and more,” says Dr. Allison Duke, an assistant professor of management at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a former human resources practitioner.
“It can also give you feedback necessary to make changes in recruiting and selection practices,” Duke says. The information gleaned is worth the time and trouble of the interview only if the employer takes it to heart. And that’s what smart employers do.
“Many companies do take the exit interview information seriously and review it regularly,” Duke says. Often exit interviews result in supervisor coaching, she says, “since supervisor dissatisfaction is often cited as a reason for departure.”
Duke remembers one situation when she was a human resources practitioner in which information from exit interviews made a difference in how the employer communicated with applicants. “My company had a group of salespeople with a 110 percent turnover rate. Through exit interviews we discovered that as candidates for the sales position, people were told they had the possibility of earning a certain level of income the first year of employment.
“Unfortunately, those who were leaving indicated they were earning nowhere close to that level,” Duke says. “As a result, we conducted an analysis and found that the average salesperson earned $50,000 less than what candidates were told they might expect. From that, we changed the recruiting process to include more reasonable earnings expectations.”
Legal notes
In addition to getting information from departing employees, employers should make sure they pass along information to employees who are moving on. The exit interview is a good time to remind employees of their obligations, such as confidentiality and nonsolicitation agreements, according to Robert P. Tinnin, Jr. of Tinnin Law Firm P.C. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He and Tinnin Law Firm partner Stanley K. Kotovsky, Jr., conducted a webinar on exit interviews in 2011.
The exit discussion also can be a way to minimize your legal exposure by making sure the employee’s reason for departure isn’t because of conduct or treatment by a supervisor or manager or a sexually hostile environment create by fellow employees, Tinnin says.
Exit interviews shouldn’t be conducted for every departing employee, particularly those who are leaving involuntarily, Tinnin says. For those employees, employers should use termination meetings in which the employee is given a termination notice as well as notification of COBRA rights, instructions to return company property, and other necessary communications.
In an exit interview, Tinnin says, you don’t want to include anybody in the employee’s direct line of supervision. If the supervisor is a reason the employee is leaving, having that person present will discourage the employee from being open.
Tinnin advises employers to use trained, experienced HR personnel to guard against legal missteps or to outsource the interviews to qualified interviewers if an employer is too small to have an HR department. He also advises having more than one person conduct the interview to have an additional witness.
How to conduct exit interviews
Exit interviews don’t have to be in person. Sometimes employers choose to use a written questionnaire or a web-based exit procedure.
If conducting a personal interview, Kotovsky advises a quiet, private meeting. It’s helpful to have a form or checklist as a reminder of what to cover, “but don’t be a slave to that form.” Instead, listen for opportunities to ask for more information.
Kotovsky also advises open-ended questions beginning with how or why. A vague answer should be a cue to ask follow-up questions. Remain neutral and don’t get argumentative, he says, and take comprehensive notes, or have someone else available to take notes while you concentrate on listening.
Kotovsky suggests questions including:
- What did you like most?
- What did you like least?
- What would you change?
- Did you have enough training?
- Was the job what you expected?
- Did you get enough feedback?
- Were you happy with pay and benefits?
- Did you like the work environment?
- How should we change the way we do things?
- Why are you leaving?
- Did anything in particular trigger your decision to leave?