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Do Exit Interviews make sense?

Owner
Nathaniel
The exit interviews are held when an employee is departing a particular company. Such interviews are conducted by the representative of the organization (preferably from either the functional head of the employee or someone from the HR department). This is usually done for employees who voluntarily quit instead of those that are fired or laid off.

An exit interview, at the time of leaving a company, is equally essential as an entry interview. Because knowing why the employees leave is equally, and even more, important as knowing why they stay. An exit interview is an extremely valuable retention and organizational effectiveness tool. It not only reveals an employee's actual reasons for leaving but is also heplful in understanding an individual's perceptions and experiences and getting feedback about the job the employee held, the work environment, and the organization.

Hence such an interview acts as a tool to take a hard look at how your company is perceived. Since the employee is leaving, he/she will frankly discuss about the company. So it will be a good opportunity to find out information that otherwise might be more difficult or impossible to obtain.

Moreover, the exit interviews will leave a positive impact on the employees within the organisation. They will realise that the individual managers as well as the company as a whole, really care why someone chooses to leave. And by understanding the reasons why the employees leave unexpectedly, will provide valuable insights to the companies into ways to improve employee satisfaction.

The exit interviews are useful from the point of view of administrative purposes as well, because they help in getting the required information like where to send the employee’s settlement cheque, TDS certificate, retrieve company property (keys, mobile, swipe cards credit cards, laptops, etc.), clear up any outstanding issues like expense advances and deliver required information. But the basic purpose underlying such interviews is getting the essential feedback from the leaving empoyees and thereby helping your organization grow, solidify and refine its success.

Many companies have also adopted  the "360-degree" exit interview, where not only is the employee's performance evaluated, but she/he is also given a chance to analyze/critique his manager and/or coworkers in the department. In this way, a company is able to gain insight into organizational dynamics, productivity, and areas that need to be improved.

An exit interview can be conducted face to face, by telephone and/or by questionnaire.  The reasons stated by an employee for leaving the organisation may be far from true. And therefore, such interviews should be conducted very tactfully, and also with professional courtesy and respect. An exit interview should be handled in such a way that that the employee takes along with him/her a good name of the company. And the employees also have their bundle of responsibilites. They should be honest in their answers, but in some questions they need to show off their skills while replying so as to ensure that they leave at a positive note. Because there may be chances when they may have to rejoin the company which they are planning to leave at the present moment.

Some of the sample questions of an exit interview include: What is your overall impression of our organization?, What was most satisfying about your job or what did you like most about working here?, What was least satisfying about your job or what did you like least about working here?, What would you change about your job?, Did your job duties turn out to be as you expected?, Did you receive enough training to do your job effectively?, Did you receive adequate support to do your job?, Did you receive sufficient feedback about your performance between merit reviews?, What would you improve to make our workplace better?

The exit interviews should be positive and relaxed, and hence must be handled tactfully, both by the interviewer and the leaving employee.

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