Seeing an employee leave your business is bittersweet. Under good circumstances, they are leaving to pursue other opportunities and growth that your company cannot offer them. On the other hand, it means losing an employee, perhaps one with scarce skills who understood your business. When an employee leaves, it’s not a matter of just saying goodbye and having a nice farewell party. When you lose an employee, you need to follow due process and conduct an exit interview.
An exit interview is a discussion which allows a departing employee and their organisation to exchange information. The exit interview is typically done on the employee’s last work day.
Employees use this opportunity to talk to their employer and explain their reasons for leaving. Additionally, the exit interview is the exiting employee’s chance to give feedback about their experience working for the company.
In this article, we take you through the various stages of the exit interview and how to conduct your own.
Benefits of Exit Interviews
Exit interviews are not always friendly especially if emotions are high. However, for employers, the this interview can be beneficial because of the insights it provides.
Reveals Structural or Cultural Issues
An employee who leaves is usually more willing to let you know what problems there are. Exit interview questions allow you to gain insights into your corporate and leadership culture.
Retention Strategy Insights
These interviews offer valuable insights into why employees leave your company – this is vital if you have a high turnover without a clear reason. Your human resources (HR) manager can use this information to develop targeted retention strategies. These strategies will address specific concerns, leading to better employee retention rates. For instance, if it seems to be a common reason that staff leave due to a lack of skills development, then a solid retention strategy is to create a space for development like training or studying.
Improved Company Reputation
Taking exit interviews seriously shows your company’s commitment to employee satisfaction and continuous improvement. This can positively impact your company’s reputation and make it more attractive to potential employees.
Optimised Onboarding Process
The feedback you get during exit interviews can help your HR person streamline and improve the onboarding process. This ensures that new employees feel engaged, supported and motivated from the start of their employment.
Mistakes to Avoid in the Exit Interviews
Now that you know the benefits of exit interviews for employees, you need to understand the don’ts. Here are some mistakes to avoid.
Do Not Dismiss Any Feedback
One mistake you can make during exit interviews is dismissing any feedback provided by your employee. Dismissing the information they provide undermines the whole process. You should always approach the interviews with a willingness to listen and understand their perspective.
Don’t Become Defensive
Some managers succumb to being defensive. Being defensive can stop the open and honest communication needed to get valuable insights from departing employees. When exiting staff feel comfortable enough to raise concerns, and listen without becoming defensive.
Don’t Make Any Promises You Can’t Keep
During exit interviews, do your best to avoid making promises that cannot be realistically fulfilled. Offering assurances of changes or solutions is tempting to help the company’s reputation, however, you must ensure the promises align with your company’s capabilities.
Don’t Break Confidentiality
A lack of confidentiality within the interview process can undermine the whole function. Departing employees often share confidential information and trust you to handle it discreetly. Failing to uphold confidentiality can result in employees being reluctant to give you honest feedback. (Don’t tell Suzie that Johnny was uncomfortable with her management style, rather address the issue delicately and diplomatically.)
Don’t Ignore Any Trends
A critical mistake to avoid in exit interviews is overlooking any consistent trends identifiable across multiple interviews. Failing to identify and address these patterns can result in missed opportunities to address systemic issues within your company.
By avoiding these mistakes you can conduct effective and efficient exit interviews for your departing employees.
Questions to Ask During Exit Interviews
The questions you ask during an exit interview should be ones that will give you valuable insights. Consider the following questions for your exit interviews:
- Why are you leaving the company?
- What could we have done to retain you?
- Were you comfortable talking to your manager about your concerns?
- Were you given helpful feedback and clear objectives?
- What was the best part of your job?
- What do you wish was different about this job?
- How can we improve our employee training and development programme?
- How would you describe the company culture? And how can we improve it?
- Would you refer others to the company?
You can use these questions as a guideline for your own exit interviews. Remember, as an employer your reasons for doing exit interviews are to gain insights and provide support to departing employees.
For more information about employee rights, visit the SME South Africa guide on employee rights.
