EXIT INTERVIEW

OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLORE REASONS AS TO

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVING THE ORGANIZATION
INTRODUCTION
 Exit interview exit interview is a conversation between a
departing employee and a representative of the
organization (either the functional head of the employee,
peer or someone from HR department).

 A formal interview with the departing executive with the

sole purpose of identifying factors making him leave.

 Structured, purposeful and open discussion.

 An hour. On day of handing over charge.

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE
 Weaker / undefined career path
 Lack of recognition
 Low morale
 Change of personal goals
 Ineffective reward systems
 Feeling of boredom
 Lack of challenges
 Work life imbalance
 Stressful work environment
 Culture of not taking the accountability
 Less overall communication between people
 Too much Internal politics
 Company culture mismatch with individual’s values
 Lack of growth opportunities & learning opportunities
 Lack of coaching, training and mentoring
 Lack of motivation
 Lack of trust and confidence in the boss / management
 Sore relationship with team members
WHY TO CONDUCT EXIT INTERVIEW?
 Employees who voluntarily leave the organization are sources of
valuable information who can give honest feedback about the
organization.
 An eye - opener and a significant review to see how the company is
doing.
 To find out if there is any workplace hostility and/or harassment
concerns.
 Reduce Employee Turnover and Improve Retention.
 Yields crucial information about the pulse of the organization
 What aspects of the organization needs improvement in order to
increase employee engagement, performance, and loyalty.
 Allows unconstrained feedback on working conditions.
 Knowing the reason or reasons why your employees leave will
assist in identifying your organization’s weaknesses.
 Will help efforts in the direction of job design, adequacy of training,
salary structure, etc.
 Comparison of strategies/conditions prevailing outside as compared
to ours.
 Sets a culture to establish a link with departing employee.
DIFFERENT METHODS – PROS AND CONS
 In - Person Exit Interviews – With in-person exit interviews an HR representative
meets individually with each terminating employee.
 Pros
 Gives a personal touch to each employee
 Can probe for more information on each question
 Cons
 Employees may be afraid to share sensitive or negative information during an in-
person interview
 For larger companies, it may be too time consuming to interview every employee
 It’s difficult to track information received verbally during an interview

 Telephone Exit Interview – Conducted over the telephone by an HR Representative

or an outside third party consultant.
 Pros
 Can probe for more information on each question
 Can enter data into a tracking system while conducting the interview
 Easier to schedule than in-person interviews
 Cons
 Time consuming if done in-house by an HR Representative
 Expensive if done with an outside consultant
 Employees often reluctant to verbally share sensitive or negative information
 Contd….
 Paper and Pencil Exit Interviews – Paper and Pencil Exit Interviews are usually
conducted by a form that is given to the employee on their last day or mailed to the
employee’s home.
 Pros
 Takes less time to provide a form compared with conducting an in person or phone
interview
 Employees can share information on paper that they may be reluctant to say in
person
 Cons
 Return rates for exit interview forms average just 30-35%
 Difficult and time consuming to compile and track the data from paper and pencil
forms

 Online Exit Interview

 Pros
 Employee self-service so easy for HR to administer
 Employees comfortable sharing information by computer so more honest responses
 Information automatically compiles and tracked
 Reports available at a click of a button
 Participation rates double that for paper and pencil exit interview
PRESENT METHOD – AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
 Using mixed strategy – In-Person & Paper and Pencil Exit
Interview.

 Structured and well defined format

 Open ended questions discussion

 To make the process more effective:

 Involvement of TL to get exit feedback
 Discussion between HR and the leaving employee
 Detailed discussion on exit interview feedback so as to improvise
EXIT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
 Why have you decided to leave the organization?
 Did any specific reason trigger your decision to leave?
 What has been good/enjoyable/satisfying for you in your time with us?
 What has been frustrating/difficult/upsetting to you in your time with us?
 How do you generally feel about this company?
 What did you like most about this company?
 What did you like least about this company?
 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?
 Did this company help you to fulfill your career goals?
 What would you improve to make our workplace better?
 Based on your experience with us, what do you think it takes to succeed at this company?
 Would you consider working again for this company in the future?
 Would you recommend working for this company to your family and friends?
 What does your new company offer that this company doesn't?
 Can we be of any particular help to you in this move/deciding what to do next (we can't
promise anything obviously)?
 What could you say about communications and relations between departments, and how these
could be improved?
 What examples of ridiculous waste (material or effort), pointless reports, meetings,
bureaucracy, etc., Could you point to?
 What specific suggestions would you have for how the organization could manage this
situation/these issues better in future?
WHO SHOULD CONDUCT THE INTERVIEW?
 HR department normally conducts the exit interview.

 Over the last few years, the use of third-party vendors to conduct
exit interviews has increased sharply.

 Vendors are professionals and employees may be more candid with

independent interviewers.

 To get the most out of your exit interviews, choose interviewers

who are:
 Perceived by the departing employee as someone with integrity
who will take the employee’s input seriously and maintain
confidentiality.
 Properly trained and skilled in building rapport, asking probing
questions while keeping the employee at ease, and handling
negative or emotional employees.
WHO SHOULD BE INTERVIEWED?
 All voluntarily separating employees should be offered an exit
interview.

 Depending on the purpose and goals, interviewing employees who

are transferring between departments or locations, retiring, or
ending a contracted job or fired may also be considered.
WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO CONDUCT THE
INTERVIEW?

 Many organizations conduct the exit interview a day or two before

the employee’s last day of working, but others interview employees
a few weeks after they leave.

 Some points needs to be taken into consideration are:

 Are employees more likely to participate before or after they’ve
left?
 How will employees’ emotions differ before and after leaving?
 When are employees likely to provide the most candid and useful
feedback?
 Do we want to combine the interview with other activities, such as
handing over charge.
FOLLOW UP
 Do not merely file the exit interview form in the personal record of the
employee; The entire exercise will be futile if the answers of the separating
employee are just filed.

 Collate the information and understand why employees are leaving the
organization.

 Validate findings with matching responses from within.

 Help change the internal policies and practices accordingly; effects should be
visible to existing staff.

 When initiatives to improve are not visible, future exercises would have little
to learn from & treated as one more formality.

 Majority of reasons provided at the time of exit interview were voluntary &
unavoidable, but after the follow-up stage it is found that most of the reasons
were voluntary & avoidable.

 A systematic approach should be developed in determining the actual reasons

for the employees departure.
CONDUCTING A SUCCESSFUL EXIT INTERVIEW
 Be professional
 Positive experience
 Deal with facts not with opinions
 End the meeting with a positive tone and if appropriate, ask
employee to recommend people to be hired.
 Prepare checklist covering all details.
 90% listening, 10% talking.
 Listen to feelings. Tactfully probe sensitive topics.
 Convincing the employee to change his mind.
 Avoid counseling the employee about his career options/future .
 Insist on honesty. Hierarchies need not be respected.
 Be open to adverse criticism.
 Assure Confidentiality.
ALTERNATIVE TO EXIT INTERVIEW – STAY INTERVIEW
 Based on the ‘Hawthorne Effect’, which states that people who are
given attention are a motivated lot. The employee needs to be
heard since they feel good about being heard.
 Stay interviews focus on what is going right, rather than what
went wrong.
 Preventive tool in employee retention strategy
 Firms can use stay interviews for those in key positions, for
targeted "at risk" individuals or do a random sample.
 Exit interviews find out why employees leave, while stay
interviews focus on what makes employees stay with the company
 Exit Interview is - Diagnosis & Drugs whereas Stay interview is -
Exercise & Eat healthy.
 Informal and unstructured
 Conducted periodically (mostly – 6 months) by the immediate
supervisor, HR as key partners and facilitators in the process.
CONCLUSION
o While exit interviews are largely a reactive process, still relevant.

o The simple way is trust; Win employees confidence and seal your
organization exit.

o Exit interviews if conducted with a purpose can prove to be an

excellent tool for measuring inadequacies in management policies.

o It is valuable only if used to make positive changes in the

organization.

* Exit and Stay Interview serve different yet complementary

purposes, with latter proactively focusing on the individual and
staff retention & exit interviews focusing on the organization and
the issues causing staff turnover.
THANK
YOU