Employer Resources
Exit Interviews
Despite your best efforts it is inevitable that you will lose people from time to time. In order for this to work to your advantage, you need to gain information that assists in limiting future turnover. ‘Learn from your Losses'.
Building a termination analysis – specific steps:
- Determine if you will immediately accept the resignation – in some circumstances you may wish to try to retain the individual. – either way you need to conduct an exit interview
- Decide who should conduct the interview – this is not necessarily the direct supervisor. Whilst you need input from the direct supervisor they are not usually the best person to conduct the interview as more often than not the employee will not speak openly to them. If there is no one higher than the immediate supervisor, you should find an outside party or consultant who can conduct the interview. It needs to be an objective person who can filter out biased information and identify the real reason the employee is leaving
- Guarantee confidentiality
- Probe to determine the real reasons for leaving – construct carefully thought out questions that lead the employee to talk honestly about why they are leaving
- Determine the employees’ feelings about the company by asking specific questions to gauge satisfaction levels
- Look at the supervisor/employee relationship to determine if the problem lies with this relationship and what steps have been taken from both sides to overcome it
- Make sure your interviewer has questions that will give you the answers you need to eliminate problems and reduce turnover
Keep information gathered from exit interviews in a structured manner so you are able to build a termination analysis overtime thereby allowing you to identify patterns or reoccurring problems.
Take some time to objectively calculate the costs of employee turnover to your business; you will be surprised at the very high real costs associated. Don’t underestimate the dollar costs or the hidden costs related to lowered staff morale or decreased productivity.
