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THE BOTTOM
LINE
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Exit Interviews
Provide Long-Term Benefits
By Liese Hutchison
According to the 2000 Retention Practices Survey by the Society
for Human Resource Management (SHRM), human resource professionals
are more concerned about voluntary turnover within their organizations
than they were just three years ago. “Anyone who has tried to hire
skilled workers lately knows the squeeze the current labor market
is putting on employers,” says SHRM President and CEO Michael R.
Losey. “In a knowledge-based economy such as ours, an organization’s
human assets are its competitive edge. HR professionals are keeping
a close eye on voluntary turnover rates and paying attention to
which recruitment and retention tactics are working.”
Of the HR professionals surveyed, 41 percent reported that the number
of voluntary resignations in their organizations rose during the
past three years. The majority (87 percent) of respondents said
their organizations conduct exit interviews to determine why employees
resigned. According to 78 percent of respondents, the most common
reason employees voluntarily leave is for the pursuit of career
opportunities elsewhere. Better compensation and benefits packages
(65%) as well as poor management (21%) were the next most often
cited reasons for leaving.
What is an exit interview? According to F. Michael J. Lackey, managing
principal, DeFrain Mayer/Palmer & Cay, an exit interview is one
source for gathering data that can be used to improve retention.
“There are many other avenues to use to determine areas for improvement.
Focus groups, employee interviews and surveys can assist management
and could be gathered from an outside source to protect confidentiality.
Of course companies that make specific changes based on exit interviews,
focus groups and surveys can substantially improve morale and employee
satisfaction.”
By conducting exit interviews, employers can determine why employees
are leaving and if there’s a systemic problem that needs to be fixed.
“A company should use an exit interview as a mechanism for gaining
insight into employee morale and employee satisfaction/dissatisfaction
with management, co-workers or work culture. It’s a way to gain
information that may otherwise be very difficult to uncover,” Lackey
notes.
“The exit interviews can be conducted by an employee from within
the company whether from HR or from another department within the
company,” Lackey says. This person should have excellent listening
skills and be open-minded. If the information you are searching
for could be uncovered by surveying current staff, using an outside
party to conduct employee focus groups would be ideal.”
Employers should conduct exit interviews when the company is experiencing
high turnover rates, losing staff in key positions, spending too
much money on recruitment, losing money due to lost productivity
and wondering why employees left to go to competitors. So what types
of questions should be asked during the interview? Lackey says that
open-ended questions are the best for uncovering information that
could be useful for increasing retention. Sample questions include:
- “Describe
the management style of your previous managers.”
- “How
did you feel you were managed during employment at this
company?”
- “Under
what conditions would you have stayed with the company?”
- “If
you were in charge, what are some of the things you would
change and why?”
- “Why
are you leaving the company?”
- “Did
you feel the compensation and benefit package met your
needs or do you recommend any changes?”
- “What
did you like best about the company?”
- “How
do you rate the training and career advancement opportunities
at the company?”
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Lackey urges
people to be honest in their answers and assures them of confidentiality.
He says it is important to remind the exiting employee that the
purpose of the interview is to assist the company in future employee
improvements. He notes that after the interviews, HR should prepare
a monthly report for management review. “If the data is not going
to be used, then exit interviews really have no purpose. Determine
at the outset what you are going to do with the data and how it
will be used,” he states.
Liese L. Hutchison is an assistant professor in the department
of communication at Saint Louis University and a free-lance writer.
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