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HR Update - Exit strategy

Careers & Training Management HR Update
Jacqui Mann, our resident HR expert, discusses the value of exit interviews

Retaining good employees is very important for any business; therefore it is vital that you understand why employees sometimes choose to leave their organisation.

Do you?

Most managers carry out an exit interview during the last week of the employee’s notice period. I don’t recommend this as by this time the employee is probably fairly disengaged. Ideally, the interview should be carried out a few days after the employee has resigned.

Here are eight reasons why exit interviews are important for your business:

1. If exit interviews are conducted well, they can provide you with very good feedback on the culture of the business, pay, benefits and training opportunities.

2. Finding and retaining the right staff can be difficult. It is therefore important to understand why some employees stay and why some leave. Exit interviews can provide information as to how to improve staff retention.

3. Exit interviews can help with employee engagement. They can reveal things that work well in the business and things that aren’t working well.

4. Interviews are best conducted face-to-face as this enables better communication, and reduces the potential for misunderstanding. It provides much better opportunity to probe and get to the root of issues than a paper-based exercise. However, it’s worth considering a questionnaire for some parts of the exercise, as you may get more honest responses if they have something negative to say.

5. Some employees leaving a business are sorry to be going. Good employees often leave because there is no opportunity to grow. This is a chance to then review what career development is available to staff.

6. They may alert you to things going on in the business that you were not aware of. For example, an employee may tell you they are being bullied by their manager and that is the reason they are leaving.jacqui-mann

7. They provide valuable information as to how to improve recruitment and induction of new employees.

8. They help you uncover any poor HR practices that are going on.

Once completed, it’s important not to just file the exit interview notes away. Collate the information with previous exit interviews and take action where appropriate.