ESG Metric: Employee turnover
Ease of implementation: low
Suitable for: All businesses
Suggested functional lead: HR
Summary
Exit interviews should be conducted with all employees that leave your organisations to ensure any issues are addressed. The interviews should remain voluntary but should be offered to all. Send out a feedback survey prior to the interview to gather information they may not be comfortable saying out loud. When scheduling the exit interview, ensure it is convenient for the employee and that the latter half of the interview is left open for them to express any experiences they would like to share. Store the survey and notes of the interview securely. Determine any trends and patterns from various exit interviews and address them to improve management, company culture and ways of working. This will increase retention and hiring of future employees.
Background Information
An exit interview is an interview conducted at the end of employment to gain a deeper understanding of why they are leaving the organisation. The aim is to identify trends and learn from employee experiences to further improve current and future employee satisfaction. It allows for action to be taken on managerial issues and deeper systemic issues such as promoting managers based on a technical or seniority rather than managerial skills. It promotes employee being seen and heard, improving employee hiring and retention. Exit interviews are conducted by over 90% of Fortune 500 companies, however, only 40% of them view it as successful. This is because on average, only one third of employees complete an exit interview when leaving an organisation. This means that two thirds of the previous employees may have had similar and valuable reasons for leaving the company, which are unknown and thus cannot be addresses for future employees. It is therefore crucial to promote and encourage all leaving employees to conduct an exit interview, as all employees will benefit.
Implementation Steps
Ensure all employees are offered an exit interview
Every employee that leaves the company should receive an exit interview, not just upper management or star performer. It allows you to gather crucial information regarding overall employee experience without missing out key information from certain departments.
Ask employees if they are willing to participate
Even if it is part of the company policy, they are entirely voluntary and should remain so.
Offer a feedback survey prior to the exit interview
Offer employees to complete a survey prior to the exit interview regarding their experience and reason for leaving. It allows the employee to put their experience in writing and offer opinions they may not be comfortable saying in the interview.
Schedule the meeting
Ensure it is no longer than an hour and at a time that is convenient for the employee. Offer to hold the interview either in person, over the phone or via video call. If it is in person, conduct the interview in a private meeting room to ensure privacy.
Produce a productive list of questions
Ensure the questions are effective to create an honest and open conversation. It is important the question do not take up more than half the time of the interview. Find examples here.
Allow employee to share
Ensure the latter half of the interview is left open for the employee to share their experience and express any grievances.
Record and store feedback confidentially
Store the feedback survey and exit interview notes in a confidential place, ensuring it remains anonymous.
Share any feedback that is appropriate
Use the feedback to determine points of action with the affected department. Ensure any feedback shared with managers remains anonymous and is ambiguous enough to not clearly have come from a certain individual.
Address any overarching themes
Assess and adjust any major issues that come up throughout multiple exit interviews and address them.