Exit interview or Exit strategy

The recruitment landscape has changed. It has become increasingly difficult to find good employees and the employment market is set to tighten in the coming decades. For many years organisations have resolved any staff turnover problems by recruiting replacements from what seemed to be an endless pool of candidates. That pool has now become a puddle and business needs to adapt. Human capital is the key to success for most organisations, so if you don’t plan to improve staff retention, you will need to plan an exit strategy.

Developing a staff retention culture within your organisation begins with the exit interview. The exit interview is an established procedure to identify the reasons employees leave your organisation. It is critical to understand the reasons for staff turnover before you can implement an effective retention strategy. It is important this process is designed, implemented and the results analysed effectively, to be a valuable staff retention tool.

It is best to conduct the exit interviewas soon as possible after the employee has notified you of their intention to leave. This highlights the value of the employee, communicates to other staff the value of employees to the organisation and importantly gives you an opportunity to discuss the possibility of the departing employee to review their decision (if this is a desired outcome). The closer the employee is to leaving the less likely they are to provide genuine and committed feedback.

Exit interviews should be conducted in private non threatening environments. It can be a good idea to allow the interviewee to select who they would prefer to conduct the interview. It is not advisable that the interview be conducted by the employee’s direct or indirect manager as this person/s is often the reason the employee has decided to move on.

A well structured interview is imperative to illicit relevant and specific information as to why the employee is leaving. Some areas of investigation could be:

§                 Management.

§                 Career Prospects / Development.

§                 Work/Life Balance.

§                 Over managed / under managed.

§                 Unachievable Targets.

§                 Unappreciated.

§                 Induction and Training.

Allow for unexpected answers that may not fit to your structure. It is also a good idea to allow the interviewee to review the questions prior to the interview to allow them time to contemplate answers that may be relevant and well considered.

Always ask for suggested solutions, many times the answers to problems can be simple, but individuals may have become frustrated at the lack of action or commitment to change.

Over time you will collect valuable information. It is important that you store this information in a format that allows you to observe patterns and consistencies within the results. You could be looking for thing such as:

§                 Are people resigning from particular job roles.

§                 Are most of your resignations from particular departments.

§                 Are most of your resignations from particular regions.

§                 Is there a specific reason.

§                 Do certain managers have significantly higher or lower turnover rates than the average,

§                 Are your best people being poached by a particular organisation.

There are many reasons staff may choose to leave an organisation but if you don’t know why they leaving you wont know how to keep them.

The most important aspect of the exit interview is that you can spend a great deal of time and money collecting a significant amount of quality information, but it is to no avail if you don’t use this information to make relevant and effective changes in your workplace.

When a valued staff member does leave, ensure it is on the best possible terms. It may be worthwhile calling them after a couple of months to see how their getting on. Many employees realise soon after leaving that the grass on the other side may not be as green as first thought. If you can help them save face and overcome a dent to their pride you may just win back that valued employee.

Most industries, even fairly large sectors, can have tight networks and your organisation's reputation as an employer can encourage or discourage a quality candidate’s decision to even apply for a position. This can be based on information they receive on the unofficial industry grapevine. It is very important to make all separations as amicable as possible, ensuring past employees speak highly of your organisation.

The employment tide has already turned; the next few years will see the baby boomer generation begin to retire. Labour and skill shortages will increasingly become the major challenge for business, no longer will employers look for good employees, but good employees will look for good employers. Becoming an employer of choice starts with the exit interview, if you don’t know why your staff are leaving, you don’t know how to retain them. Organisations that can’t retain their staff should start to develop an exit strategy.

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