How to Reduce Turnover Through Exit Interviews

It can be extremely disheartening when a good employee decides to up-stick and leave. You may be worried about how you will replace them and whether you will find the same quality when you go out to market. There are ways to make the most of an employee leaving, though, by implementing exit interviews as part of your standard practice. Company exit interviews often take place in organisations but the data is rarely utilised to get the best benefits. Data derived from exit interviews is like gold. It can provide you with crucial information on your business, its culture, and how you can make improvements.

What is an Exit Interview?

When an employee hands in their notice, an exit interview is conducted to gain an understanding of why they have chosen to leave. You can ask them questions about specific areas of their role and the business, which allows you to improve your culture, and processes and generally ensure that you increase retention levels in the future. Of course, a single exit interview may not be sufficient for improving your business. The real insights will come from data that is cultivated over a series of exit interviews.

Exit Interviews Benefits

There are many benefits to conducting exit interviews and using the data to its greatest potential. Exit interviews can allow you to address the main issues that lead to resignations and to make changes to reduce the likelihood of this affecting your retention levels in the future. With company exit interviews, you can improve staff engagement and ensure you have a robust onboarding process. You can ensure you are providing employees with a positive culture and employee benefits that make them want to stay. You must act on the employee exit feedback as otherwise it is not only is it a waste of time, but it also shows employees that you don’t care enough about them to make changes. You may want to implement outsourced exit interviews if it would be more beneficial than exit interviews with a manager from within the business.

Exit Interview Dos and Don'ts

An exit interview is not the time to start questioning the employee's opinions and feedback. It is a time to listen and resist defensive retorts. The employee has decided to leave the company, so their thoughts and feelings on the company or people within the company, are strong enough to make them look elsewhere. These are some questions you could consider asking. You may want to delve further into each, depending on the responses.

• What was the main reason you decided to look for another job?
• Did you feel supported by your manager and colleagues throughout your time?
• Did you feel the salary and benefits were adequate based on your skills and experience?
• What could we do or have done to encourage you to stay?
• Do you feel that you received the right training to help you succeed in your role?

It is not always the case that an employee leaves because they are unhappy or dislike the company. They may leave because they found a more challenging opportunity, or maybe the job offers flexibility that you can’t provide.

How to Use Exit Interviews to Reduce Turnover

Many organisations make exit interviews a part of their process but never do anything with the data. It is a big mistake as the data from exit interviews is valuable. The best way to use exit interviews to reduce turnover is to create a document with the responses you uncover. You can then start to notice trends in the feedback and plan ways to make improvements. There may be some quick fixes that you can introduce, other changes might take longer and be more challenging.

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