If you don’t take the opportunity to do an
exit interview when an employee gives
his or her two-week notice, you’re missing a golden opportunity from which you
— and your company — could benefit.
“Never underestimate what you can learn
from departing employees,” says Rob
Wilson, president of Employco Group.
“You can use the exit interview to find out
exactly why an employee is leaving and at
the same time improve the structure of
your organization.”
Smart Business spoke with Wilson about
the importance of exit interviews and how
to take advantage of the information garnered from outgoing employees.
What benefits does an exit interview provide?
Many. By uncovering why an employee
is leaving your organization, you may
ascertain shortfalls in training, identify
compensation issues and learn about a
perceived or real lack of career advancement opportunities.
For example, if someone says he is leaving for more money and you find out the
position is a lateral move, you might discover that your salary structure is no
longer competitive in the marketplace.
Organizations often fail to review salaries
within the marketplace but rather just give
employees 3 percent or 5 percent annual
raises. What might happen is that the market catches up to them and certain types
of jobs are now in greater demand and dictate salary levels higher than those that
your company is paying. This becomes a
serious problem.
What if it’s not a dollars and cents problem?
It could be a benefits issue. The exit
interview gives you the opportunity to
review your benefit plan in respect to your
competitors’ plans. With health care costs
on the rise, insurance benefits have
become almost as important as compensation. Does your organization offer medical, dental or vision insurance? How
about 401(k) to help employees plan for
retirement? Benefits can be more than just
health care and vary depending upon the industry. You may also offer flextime to
accommodate staff with outside responsibilities. All this can be learned from an
effective exit interview.
If it’s not for money and it’s not for benefits,
maybe it’s a lack of career advancement
opportunities. How can you remedy that?
Through the exit interview process, if
you find good employees leaving for
growth reasons, then you may need to
review your company structure. Practice
promoting from within versus hiring outside, communicate open job opportunities
to the staff and encourage them to apply.
What if you uncover the turnover is specific to
one position or department? Should you use
information from the exit interview to evaluate your management team?
Absolutely. It’s an uncomfortable move,
but even staff at the management level
need to be evaluated, just like any other
position. It may be counterproductive to
spend time and money losing and rehiring
good employees if the actual problem lies in the supervisor or management style. You
can remedy the situation by sending him or
her to training courses for effective management or ultimately determine that a
career change is needed for the supervisor.
Should an exit interview still be conducted if
you are the one terminating an employee?
A lot depends on the type of termination.
You’re not going to sit down with someone
who has been terminated because of misconduct. However, when you let someone
go, it typically doesn’t happen overnight.
You should still take every opportunity you
have to assess the situation and use the
information to your advantage to find ways
to improve your organization.
Who should conduct the exit interview?
In most cases, it should be a designated
third party, such as a human resources representative. A formalized exit process
should include a checklist that covers a
wide range of subjects to determine where
changes may need to occur in the work-place. For example, you may ask about
what was satisfying or dissatisfying about
the job, thoughts on training, obstacles in
the position and/or company, satisfaction
with management style, etc.
Some terminations end well, but some do
not. There is always a reason that an
employee is leaving and, hopefully, an
unbiased third party would reveal the most
honest answers.
Are there other bits of information that might
benefit your company?
Sometimes, it’s an opportunity to learn
more about your competition. You’d be
surprised to find out that employees who
are leaving your company to go elsewhere
will tell you quite a bit about where
they’re going, what they’ll be doing there
and what products they’ll be working
with, providing you with an extra peek at
your competition.
ROB WILSON is president of Employco Group (www.employco.com), a division of The Wilson Companies. Employco handles
human resources outsourcing for 400 small and medium-sized Midwest companies. Reach him at (630) 286-7345 or
[email protected].
