Exit interviews are prime opportunities to figure out whysomeone is leaving your organization. (If you’re firing someone, ofcourse, you don’t need to know why they’re leaving, so exitinterviews aren’t necessary in this case.) Effective exitinterviews can help improve your bottom line by reducing turnoverand the associated costs of hiring and training new employees. Bearin mind, too, that nobody is likely to speak more candidly andknowledgeably about you and your company’s failings than anemployee who knows what’s going on and has nothing to lose bytalking. You may get some important tips about the problems andissues that are causing your employees to leave.
To help you prepare for the exit interview, give people who areresigning a questionnaire to be completed before their final day onthe job. You can also give a form to the employee on their way outand ask them to complete and mail it back. Finally, have aface-to-face or phone meeting the final day. Ask:
- What was your favorite part about being an employee here?
- What was your least favorite part about being an employeehere?
- Have you had complaints? Were they handled fairly?
- Do you feel you had a clear career path here?
- What could we do better?
- What, if anything, would convince you to continue here?
When you’ve had a few people quit, analyze the results of yourexit interviews. Try to figure out trends, such as the main reasonsthey give for leaving, the typical length of time a person worksfor you before quitting, the type of jobs that have the mostturnover, and patterns of resignation in departments or groupsassociated with particular managers. The idea is to identifychanges you can make to keep people from leaving. So the mostimportant advice of all about exit interviews is to make sureyou’re really listening and that you actually do something,including making changes in your company, with the insights yougain.
