April 22, 2019

Exit interviews are a perfect way to reduce future turnover. It’s important to understand why employees leave your company, in case there’s something you need to fix. You can uncover issue you may not have even know about, and the best way to do this is with an open and transparent exit interview process. You don’t want ex-employees to tell you what you want to hear—you want them to tell you the truth about the reasons they decided to leave. You can make the most of your exit interviews when you follow some best practices.

Five tips to maximize exit interviews

Whether it’s company culture, workload, disagreements with supervisors, lack of advancement, pay or other concerns, it’s important to understand why an employee decided to move on. You can the most honest answers when you follow these five tips:

  1. Interview good employees only. If subpar workers leave, it’s not as big a concern as losing someone who worked hard and contributed a lot to your company. These are the employees you should focus on interviewing.
  2. Task an impartial third party with the role of interviewer. An ex-employee will be less likely to be honest if their ex-boss is the one handling the interview. When a third party, such as a member of Human Resources, handles the interview, they’ll be more likely to give honest, open answers.
  3. Keep the interview one-on-one. If the person being interviewed feels they’re being “ganged up on,” it may sway their answers. Keep your interviews to one interviewer per ex-employee being interviewed.
  4. Ask for a summary of work experience. This is the best way to get a complete picture of the person’s impression of the workplace. As they sum up their experiences with the company, it will likely include perceived shortcomings and areas they felt needed improvement.
  5. Assure the person their answers are anonymous. Though you are asking for information from which to learn, it’s important to assure the ex-employee their name won’t be associated with their answers. This way, you’ll be more likely to get the truth about why they’re leaving.

Consider answers and take swift action

Review the answers you get and compare for similarities. Every employee is different, but you may begin to see a trend in why workers are deciding to leave. Then, don’t want to make changes. When you find top talent, you want to keep them on board with your company, rather than lose them to competitors.

Need to staff up?

If recent turnover has your staffing count low, it can help to work with a recruiter. And Inter-Connect is your top choice. We specialize in the placement of light industrial and office opportunities and we’ll work with you to find employees who fit. To learn more, contact us today!

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