A Strategic Tool or a Deceptive Process?

FLOW OF PRESENTATION• Introduction• Functions of exit Interviews

• Planning and Conducting Exit interviews

• Reasons and Issues in case of Voluntary Termination

• Dealing with feedback• Measuring effectiveness

• Exit Interview and Retention strategies• Exit Interviews and Compliance • Exit Interviews and Knowledge transfer

• Exit interview and the change they bring in different organisations.

• Burke Inc. research study• Conclusion

Exit Interviews are an “effective way to ascertain the REAL reasons employee changes jobs”

“Exit interview process assist the HR practioner in determining patterns or trends of events occurring within a company or department, and will often reveal critical problems with supervision, or with work rules, wages or working conditions that do not surface while th eperson is still employed”

The two major elements of exit interviews are discovery and communication.

Exit interviews are applied to all forms of termination : voluntary , involuntary and termination.

They can be conducted in person or on the telephone, in a written survey or on a website.

They can take place when employees are still on the payroll or several weeks after they have left.

FUNCTIONS OF EXIT INTERVIEWS :

identify the true reasons for voluntary terminations – push and pull factors,

persuade the employee to stay if the organisation desires,

acquire information that will help management identify problem areas and set up controls,

clarify charges or complaints against employees who are being separated involuntarily,

provide references, job leads, and outplacement counseling,

retain the employees goodwill when he/she becomes an ex-employee

Exit interview feedback to first line supervisor is essential in the management of employee turnover.

The exit interview results will generally target several key areas:

management practices, employee placement, training and development, compensation and

benefits, health and safety, job security, supervisor/employee

relations.

10 REASONS WHY A COMPANY MUST HAVE EXIT INTERVIEWS ?

1.    Reduce costs of recruitment and retrainingEmployee turnover can cost a company 1.5 times its annual salary budget.

2.    Save time on replacing and re-trainingg a new employee 3.    Save time and money on potential productivity losses 

4.    Determine the real reasons for people leaving  5.    Minimise the risk of litigation 

The company must cover all possible processes in the termination process to minimise any risk of future litigation by the departing employee.

6.    Collect key information for the job description The HR can clarify exactly what skills and capabilities the job requires from the person who has done it. This will mean the new person knows exactly what he has to do which will reduce future employee turnover and improve induction and succession planning.

7.    Identify and manage trends and underlying company issues The HR manager can identify underlying company issues, for example if there’s hidden political turmoil or conflict, sexual harassment or intimidation.

8.    Review overall recruitment and selection processExit interviews may show that the departing employee wasn’t the right person for the job in the first place.

9.    Measure the effectiveness of performance management systems  10.    Enhance morale and staff satisfaction 

PLANNING AN EXIT SURVEY SYSTEM Universal – interviewing all voluntary departures provides a

more complete understanding of turnover. Standardized – using a core set of consistent questions

ensures comparability throughout the organization and across time.

Comprehensive – including feedback on the work environment in addition to reasons for leaving increases usefulness in determining strategies to reduce turnover.

Independent – minimizing the discomfort in revealing the true reasons for leaving improves the reliability of the results.

Available – encouraging centralized access to the findings increases the likelihood of taking action.

Monitored – setting targets for reduction in turnover through planned strategies helps to ensure that the investment made in exit surveys is put to its maximum use

EXIT INTERVIEW METHODS

Paper form (easy to administer, low cost, low participation of 25 percent to 35 percent, difficult to compile/track);

Telephone (can probe, can track responses, time consuming, expensive);

In-person (personal touch, can probe, difficult to get employees to critique, need to compile/track, time consuming); and

Technology-based (high participation 65 percent-plus, more honest feedback, compiling automatic, easy reporting, reasonably priced)

GUIDELINES FOR DETERMINING THE EXIT INTERVIEW CONTENT

Do not focus solely on the employee’s reasons for leaving – although this is extremely important information, it is also critical to include broader measures about the employee’s attitudes and experiences so as to help identify the issues and concerns that may not surface when asking about reasons for leaving.

Ensure that there is more than one way for employees to express their reasons for leaving – including several open-ended questions for them to include their own comments – so as to get a full perspective on the decision to leave.

In order to get beyond a focus on the decision itself, incorporate key attitudinal measures such as the employee’s satisfaction with the job itself, an assessment of the organization’s work culture and effectiveness of its various lines of communication, how well the employee’s job responsibilities were defined, perceived opportunities for advancement and the employee’s perspective on the amount of training, feedback and recognition received.

Recognize that, for maximum effect, any exit survey system needs to be implemented consistently and in such a way as to encourage employees to share their opinions as honestly and candidly as possible.

Incorporate the ability to examine results not only on the basis of individual results but for the organization as a whole, as well as on the basis of the relevant diagnostics, such as region, department or manager.

Remember that there is an important distinction to be made between idiosyncratic reasons for leaving, over which the organization has little control, and systemic reasons for leaving, over which the organization can exercise substantial control.

CONDUCTING THE EXIT INTERVIEW Outline the agenda for the exit interview,

so everyone knows what will happen next.

Review the reason why the employee is leaving.

Give the employee plenty of opportunities to ask questions.

Talk about the likely terms of separation. You should clearly state these terms and discuss any concerns the employee has—concerns such as redundancy package, payments, notice periods and severance pay.

Assume the correct tone for the meeting. The interviewer must not assume the role of an unwilling sympathiser or the staunch defender of the organisation’s culture.

SAMPLE EXIT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

What is your main reason for leaving? Would you work for this employer again? Would you recommend this employer to friends

or family? What did you enjoy/dislike about your job? What improvements would you suggest about

your job/working conditions/management support?

What do you think it takes to succeed at this company?

What does your new employer offer different to this company?

Any other comments?

REASONS FOR LEAVING

Career opportunities, including: Perceived opportunity for advancement Presence and/or clarity of development

plan.Enjoyment of the work, including: How well work utilizes skills “Fit” with job Work/life balance.Corporate leadership, including: Clarity and strength of vision and

mission Management style Overall perception of leadership Level of respect and support received.Availability of training, including: Opportunity to learn new skills/develop

new talents Corporate commitment to training and

development Keeping up with latest technology.Compensation/rewards, including: Base/variable pay Benefits Recognition of contributions Communication regarding performance.

REASONS AND ISSUES IN CASE OF VOLUNTARY TERMINATION

EXIT INTERVIEW DOS AND DON’TS

Dos Ask open-ended

questions. Ask , Don’t tell Use reflective

listening Use double

sided reflection. Summarize Affirm

Don’ts Question-answer

routine Confrontation-

denial The expert trap Labelling Blaming Preaching

USING THIRD PARTY FOR EXIT INTERVIEWS

The exit interview process at Zeus Consulting include:

Zeus Consulting would be responsible for gathering this feedback and may schedule an exit interview session anytime between the points where a notice of resignation is received till the last day of employment. 

An exit interview of each voluntarily terminated employee who is willing to participate will ensure management has timely information as to separation trends so that appropriate action can be taken, where required. 

In addition, this information will be useful to Recruiting and Staffing to develop new hire specifications, as well as to Employee Relations. Responsibility to conduct timely exit interviews rests with Zeus Consulting. 

Summary data is to be prepared quarterly by Zeus Consulting.  Such summary data is to be provided to appropriate leadership and forwarded to the business/functional head. 

Why does a third party have more effective results?

The third party like to ensure that they are transparent in their processes.They let the interviewee's know this during their discussion with them.

The feedback received from candidates is shared directly with top management and therefore is normally actioned upon.

Third parties also encourage ex-employees to share information that they would not share with colleagues.

Example : Zeus Consulting

There are two main reasons for holding exit interviews. One is to foresee potential problems with a departing employee, before the situation gets out of control. The other is to provide information that could be used to improve processes and procedures in the organisation.

DEALING WITH EXIT INTERVIEW FEEDBACK

REVIEW THE FEEDBACK Data collated from exit interviews, regardless of how genuine or reliable,

is reduced in value unless it is analysed alongside a comparison baseline or measure of usefulness. In a survey of other managers and the stakeholders, The HR manager could ask:

• How did you initially plan to use information from exit interviews? • Does the information from exit interviews serve your needs? • How have you used exit interview data in the past year? • How have you used exit survey data to:

– improve your business unit – identify and resolve problems – identify and take advantage of opportunities?

• How has the exit interview process been ineffective in serving your needs? • What content could we include in future exit surveys to better meet your

department’s needs? • What specific changes in the past year have been the direct results of exit

interview data? • Are reports back to you from exit interviews timely? • Are exit interview related reports clear? • Are you satisfied with the way the exit interviews are organised?

MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS OF EXIT INTERVIEWS

Many organizations are failing to recognize the value of a systematic approach to collecting information from exiting employees, including:

Gathering and collating the data in a structured manner

Aggregating the results for the organization as a whole

Analysing the findings to identify consistent trends, patterns and themes

Using the results to determine and implement strategies to increase retention and reduce turnover.

EXIT INTERVIEWS AND RETENTION STRATEGIES

EXIT INTERVIEWS AND COMPLIANCE MEASUREMENT

EXIT INTERVIEWS AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

"We can be knowledgeable without others knowledge, but we cannot be wise without others wisdom." 

-Michel de Montaigne Exit interviews are also an opportunity for the organization to

enable transfer of knowledge and experience from the departing employee to a successor or replacement, or even to brief a team on current projects, issues and contacts.

When any employee resigns, or a decision is made for a person to leave for any reason, always ask: Should we spend some time thinking about how to enable some sort of knowledge transfer?

 In other words, if we place a value on the knowledge that the departing employee holds, isn't it worth thinking about how to enable this knowledge to be passed to the appropriate people remaining in the organization?

Moreover most departing employees are delighted to share this knowledge, to help a successor, or to brief a management team, if only the organization would simply ask them politely to do so.

EXIT INTERVIEW @ INFOSYS A form to fill in a separate isolated room. Form conatianed both subjective and objective

questions on :Feedback regarding various practices, improvements

and new suggestions.

Experience sharing and grievances .Telephonic interaction with senior managers,

departmentt heads trying to covience to retain the employee by willing to change location, shifting of project/domain/department.

Then an interview with HR manager in an isolated room . Asked about the things you did not like and also talked about the reasons behind some policies.

The HR manager was noting every point.Salary gaps also discussed and why employeed

treated just as resources to the organisations and not as human beings.

Interview length depends accordingly to th e employee willingness. It can last from 10 minutes to an hour.

The suggestion given by the leaving employee is prosed to the committee panel and if worth then ammendments are done in the existing policy or if required new policies are framed.

EXIT INTERVIEW @ ACCENTURE

EXIT INTERVIEW AND THE CHANGE THEY BRING IN ORGANIZATIONS. Exit interviews helped IT solutions

company MindTree realise two years back that many women quit their job after the birth of the second child. 

MindTree decided to make its policy more flexible.

“We decided to come up with a policy where women

employees can take a year off. And now, we are extending the

same to men too. There are cases where employees have

to go and look after their ailing parents and this allows

them to do so.”  - Babuji Abraham Head of

people function at MindTree

MphasiS outsources exit interviews to the third party . Though it adds to th ecost of operation of the company they feel that it is realy important.

Sameer Karayi, a consultant with Stanton Chase International, worked with MphasiS as a team manager till 2002. During his exit interview, he told his reporting head that the lackadaisical approach of employees resulted in an unprofessional work atmosphere. 

MphasiS managed to retain him for six months during which he was pleasantly surprised to see that some of his pointers got implemented. For Karayi, these efforts spoke a lot about the firm and his exit interview.

BURKE INC. RESEARCH STUDY Objective : to know the

primary focus and effectiveness of exit interviews in different organisations.

Sample: 50 Fortune 500 companies, and 161 mid-sized companies.

Process: a mail/e-mail invitation approach to survey senior HR representatives. Questions were asked about use, method and effectiveness.

The effectiveness questions were rated on a five-point scale where 1=Very Poor; 2=Poor; 3=Fair; 4=Good; and 5=Very Good.

Observations and Learnings:

Most companies in our study conduct Exit Interviews — 91% of the Fortune 500 and 87% of the mid-sized companies.

However, this tool received the lowest effectiveness ratings with only 44% of Fortune 500 and 46% of the mid-sized companies rating the process favorably (good or very good).

In fact, 26% of the Fortune 500 companies rated their Exit Interview process as poor or very poor.

In terms of effectiveness of process, Exit Interviews the lowest favorable ratings (44%). Given the high usage of Exit Interviews among Fortune 500 companies, there appears to be a need for a more effective process for conducting exit interviews and for using the information to guide management decision making.

PRIMARY FOCUS OF EXIT INTERVIEWS

USAGE AND FAVOURABLE RATING FOR EXIT INTERVIEW

CONCLUSION The level of usage and the

effectiveness of exit interviews vary significantly across different organisations. Optimally, exit interview should be viewed as decision support tools. Used effectively, they can help increase and improve employee satisfaction, engagement and commitment ( i.e. formulate effective retention strategies) to optimize the employee to customer to profitability linkage.

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