Exit interviews - Do they matter?

Engaging and retaining high performing employees is one of the important factors that any organization should focus on. A high attrition rate affects company performance. Especially when high value-creating and high potential employees are leaving, it should be examined closely to understand the underlying reasons and exploring possible corrective actions. 

Most of the organizations have ‘exit interviews’ as part of their employee off-boarding process. In lots of organizations, it’s merely a checkmark item that needs to be completed. Though it is an opportunity for organizations to introspect and take some corrective action, scant attention has been given by the leadership and HR function.

Some of the Important points to ponder are:

• Is there a defined exit interview process?
• Is there any specific training given to HR and Managers to conduct an exit interview process?
• What kind of data is collected during the exit interview?
• Is the collected data analysed?
• Is the analysis presented to the senior leaders?
• Is there an action based on the analysis and discussions?
• Is there a follow up of the action to verify the desired outcomes?

An exit interview could be a face-to-face conversation, a questionnaire or a survey. These methods could reveal what works and doesn’t work within the organizations. This can reveal the challenges and opportunities to improve. By showing genuine attention to departing employees, the organizations can demonstrate how much they value their employees and this can turn them into ambassadors carrying goodwill about the organizations.

Some of the usual questions asked in exit interviews are;

• Why are you leaving?
• What would make you stay?

These kinds of questions rarely give the required insights. Employees may not give honest feedback in most cases and might have been disengaged from the organization by the time the exit interview happens. 

Consider a different set of questions;

• What would have made you highly engaged in your work?
• How could conditions be improved?
• How do other employees feel about the situation? The company in general?

These kinds of questions would evoke a different set of responses. 

By properly structuring the exit interviews, timing it appropriately and by listening to them genuinely, organizations can get good data points and the required intelligence to improve the situation.

Employee's decision to leave the company doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a culmination of other events over a while. An exit interview is just one part of an organizational strategy for employee engagement. The insights from the exit interview should serve as an input to make course corrections to an overall employee engagement strategy.