By Amanda Fleming
Employees decide to leave their job for a number of reasons.
An exit interview helps you understand why.
Was it because they didn’t like the manager? The lack of food in the break room? A specific co-worker? No room for growth?
You’ll never find out the reason for their departure unless you ask.
Why Conduct Exit Interviews?
It is easy to get lost in the “rush” of a termination and just cut the final paycheck and part ways, but effective exit interviews can provide you with insight into the day to day operations of your company — what’s working and what’s not — and why employees would be prompted to look elsewhere.
In today’s job market, skilled employees are our greatest asset and drive organizational success.
By making exit interviews a regular, best practice in your Talent Management process, you’ll be able to identify specific patterns and areas of improvement to increase employee retention rate in the future.
Who Conducts the Exit Interview?
Nearly half of employees leave due to their relationship with their boss, so the interviewer should never be the employee’s direct manager or supervisor if you want honest and open feedback.
Exit Interviews, by nature, can become confrontational or too perfunctory without the proper interviewer — a neutral party, who is an active listener and who is trained to gently probe.
What to ask?
A standardized list of questions will ease the transition and help in gathering quantitative data. Below are a few sample questions we suggest you ask during an Exit Interview:
- What made you start looking for a new job?
- What aspects did you enjoy/dislike about your job?
- How would you describe the culture at our company?
- How was communication with your team? Your manager? Within the company?
- Did you have the training, tools
and support you needed to succeed in this role? - Would you recommend this company to a friend as a good place to work? Why or why not?
Don’t forget!!
Exit Interviews can help improve the workplace and contribute to the continued success of your company. Consider engaging a neutral, third party to help gather open, honest and unfiltered feedback.
SDHR Consulting, Inc. has a staff of highly skilled individuals who can provide support during the termination process to conduct the interview, as well as, assist you in exit results review and development of any required changes.
Not sure how to help your managers get to the next level of leadership skills and communication?
