Have you ever had an employee resign and been left wondering what the real reason is that they’re leaving? Were they unhappy? Was there anything you could have done to keep them on board? This, and much more, is the value that an exit interview provides.
While there is no law that requires companies to hold exit interviews with departing staff members, as HR specialists, we always recommend that our clients conduct them. An exit interview is an opportunity for you to gain valuable feedback that you can use to improve your company, ensure you retain staff for longer, and avoid the costly turnover process.
As exit interviews are one of the day-to-day HR activities we offer our clients, we thought we would take you through some exit interview basics.
What is an exit interview?
Often a neglected step in the offboarding and turnover process within companies, an exit interview, in essence, is a meeting between an employee who has resigned and (usually) a member of your HR team or an outsourced HR consultant.
Typically, the purpose of an exit interview is to learn more about the employee’s reasons for leaving your company and gain any feedback they have to give about their experience when they were employed.
Ideally, you will want to use your exit interview as an opportunity to learn about both the employee’s positive and negative sentiments about your organisation, your policies, management, and culture.
Trust, anonymity, and confidentiality
The only way an employee will open up and share how they truly feel about your company and why they are leaving is if they feel safe doing so.
To run a successful exit interview, you need to establish trust and ensure that feedback is kept anonymous and confidential. You will only reap the rewards of an exit interview if the departing employee feels comfortable and safe enough to give constructive feedback.
We recommend establishing at the start of the interview that the staff member will be kept anonymous and that the information they provide will be kept confidential. Reassure your employee that anything they say will be fed back to the necessary parties anonymously.
A history of being proactive
The employee you are meeting with during your exit interview will only share honest feedback if they know it is going to result in real change within your organisation. If they are aware that there is a history within your company of changes being made post-feedback, they will be more likely to share their thoughts with you.
Do not walk away from exit interviews and not take action. Show your employees that you value their input – whether they’re existing employees or on their way out – by implementing meaningful change within your business when feedback is given, regardless of the context in which you receive it.
Be mindful about rushing the interview
Leaving an organisation can be quite a stressful and emotional experience for an employee, which is why the above point about making them feel comfortable is important.
It is also vital that you do not rush the exit interview. Schedule a good chunk of time in your diary to allow the exit interview to run organically.
A healthy amount of time allows for more in-depth reflections and results in more meaningful feedback. Rather than being based on their emotional state, giving the staff member the time to think about their answers in a safe space will end up with them giving you more thought-out or thorough feedback.
Ask rating-based questions and then follow up
If you are unsure what to ask in an exit interview, start by asking the employee to rate their experience with various aspects of your organisation. For example, you could ask them to rate the company culture they’ve experienced on a scale of one to 10.
If the rating is low, you can ask them a follow-up question about why they feel this way and what they think management or HR could do to improve this.
On the other hand, if the rating is high, your follow-up question could be about why they feel this aspect of your company performs well.
If you want to learn from staff turnover and strengthen your business, it’s essential that you conduct exit interviews with every exiting staff member. This will help you prevent high turnover and the costs involved with losing talent. If you need an HR specialist to assist you in conducting exit interviews, developing questions for the interview, implementing the feedback you receive, or sitting in as a third party at the meeting contact us via our website – we would be delighted to help.