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The Importance of Exit Interviews

Guest post by: Allison Grace

Article Overview: Exit interviews can be a valuable source of information beyond learning the reasons why employees are leaving your company. When exit interviews are done well, they can uncover issues that can be addressed before they turn into lawsuits - issues such as harassment, discrimination and workplace violence. They can also provide information on how to improve procedures and can identify the programs in the company that are highly valued. Exit interviews can provide you with honest, focused feedback that you can act upon in your own time frame.

The Importance of Exit Interviews

Exit interviews can be a valuable source of information beyond learning the reasons why employees are leaving your company. When exit interviews are done well, they can uncover issues that can be addressed before they turn into lawsuits - issues such asharassment, discrimination and workplace violence. They can also provide information on how to improve procedures and can identify the programs in the company that are highly valued. Exit interviews can provide you with honest, focused feedback that you can act upon in your own time frame. When is the best time to conduct exit interviews?

The best time to conduct exit interviews is a day or two before the employee's last day. Employees are more likely to be forthcoming with their feedback when they've worked through most of their notice period and are less fearful that their feedback will be reported back to their manager while they're still working. And the issues that led them to make the decision to leave are still fresh in their mind so they're more likely to tell you what they think.

Should exit interviews be conducted with employees who were terminated?

Exit interviews really are only appropriate for employees who made the decision to leave and resigned.Or for employees who elected to retire, perhaps earlier than expected. The purpose is to gain insight into what factors led to the employee making that decision and to identify trends or patterns that may indicate changes that need to be made in the workplace. When an employee is terminated due to poor performance or layoff, the employee is likely to have hard feelings towards the company and may have a few choice words to share that will make him/her feel better but won't provide constructive feedback.

What is the appropriate format for an exit interview?

Exit interviews may be conducted in a face-to-face conversation or by telephone with an objective representative for the company, preferably a Human Resources professional. Some managers may wish to conduct exit interviews with their departing staff, but employees are not likely to be very forthcoming, especially if the reason they're leaving is because of their manager and willstick with the "everything is fine, I just heard about this opportunity and it was too good to pass up" line. Other options include providing a written survey for the employee to complete orusing a computer-based survey. When someone sits down in front of a computer or is given a form to complete, they're more likely to tell all. You may want to consider allowing employees to submit their responses anonymously if they choose to do so, but this may make it more difficult to determine specific issues that may need to be addressed.

What questions should be asked in an exit interview?

An Exit Interview questionnaire should be prepared in advance and used for all exit interviews, in whatever format the company elects. Questionnaires can be designed in a number of ways, with the most common being a list of questions that provide possible answers for the employee to choose from, as well as a list of statements that employees are asked to rate on a scale of "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". Other questioning techniques include ranking the answers from most to least important, responding "yes" or "no", rating scales, etc. Areas to address will be specific to the organization, but in general include the reasons why the employee is leaving; questions about the quality of supervision by the employee's manager; questions related to overall company policies, such as benefits, compensation, time off, work/life balance; and questions about overall company communications, culture, working conditions, teamworktraining and development opportunities, etc. An open-ended written questionnaire asking the employee to write out answers is not likely going to produce a high return rate, but any questionnaire should include space for the employee to add additional comments. If the interview is conducted face-to-face or by telephone, the questionnaire can be used as a guide for the conversation and the person conducting the interview can make notes of the answers and probe for further information based on responses from the employee.

Who should review the results of exit interviews?

Ideally, Human Resources professionals who are trained in confidentiality and are experienced in listening to employees' concerns without getting emotional or jumping to conclusions. If this is not an option for your organization because you don't have an internal HR professional on staff, you may want to consider contracting with a Human Resources consultant to provide this service for you.

How should exit interview results be reported back to management?

Reporting exit interview results in the aggregate on a periodic basis, i.e. quarterly, that provides enough data to indicate trends is the best way to report the results back to management. You can get interesting and actionable information when looking at data by department, division or job function, and by demographics such as length of service and performance ratings. If data is broken down too small and one or two exit interviews reported back at a time, the information is more anecdotal and doesn't necessarily indicate trends that may require changes in the workplace. Reporting in the aggregate also allows you to maintain the confidentiality of employees who agree to provide honest feedback but on the condition of anonymity. In this scenario, confidentiality should be maintained to the maximum possible extent, but of course, any claims of harassment or discrimination should be immediately investigated and appropriate action taken. Should this kind of information arise in an exit interview, employers are advised to immediately contact a Human Resources professional if one is not available internally, and speak with an employment attorney about appropriate next steps.

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Article Tags: discrimination, exit interviews, harassment, lawsuits



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