Exit interviews
WELCOME to the end of a glorious week. Trust it was a panicles week and that the weekend is going to bring you peace on every side.
This week we will be looking at exit interviews (EI). They are an important Human Resource process and possibly the most practical way to get valuable feedback from an employee, about your organization, its policy and procedures, insights into the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, as perceived by the employee during their stay in the organization
An exit interview is a conclusive sit down interaction or meeting between the employee who has resigned and decided to leave the organization the Human Resource Manager or somebody who is authorized by the management to compile data of the useful and unbiased feedback and opinion to improve the future management practices for Hiring and Retaining Talent.
The Exit interview can give pointers into employee dissatisfaction. The interview can enlighten about challenges faced by the employees who previously worked in the company. If the organization works for the enhancement of employee well-being, it can retain talented and skilled people.
When adequately utilised and all issues analysed, the exit interview is powerful in enhancing the satisfaction of existing employees and helps HRM understand the issues.
Exit interview can be in person, virtual or surveys, and questionnaires. It is important that data from employees who are leaving should be valid and reliable. Sometimes, the collected data from an exit interview may lack quality. It can be due to lack of forthrightness by the former employees who may not criticize their supervisors or the person may be unnecessarily critical.
The exit interview process can be shown in a flow chart format. The checklist starts with the resignation letter. This is processed by HRM.
Any online access of the company’s data to the employee is then terminated when the notice period is over. All company property with the employee should be handed over to HRM. The status of employee benefits should be monitored, and the final payment be made to the employee. Finally the exit interview is conducted.
Exit interview form may contain the general information of the employee that the person needs to fill and submit.
The real purpose of EI is to compile the feedback data and use this to set up best HRM best practice and create a benchmark for the organization. The employees in an organization still opt for leaving the company even if the organization may have the best policies and procedures to meet the needs and welfare of the employees. There is always a scope of improvement.
The idea of EI is to provide an opportunity to the organization and to the outgoing employee who got the zero accountability to tender their correct opinion about the various processes running within the organization to find out what is going right in favour of the company and what is not. The following are the purpose of the exit interview:
To obtain employee honest and constructive feedback. An employee exiting from the organization has nothing to lose and is ready to give good feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation and its processes. The EI is a process to compile the data of feedback.
To obtain employee point of view about the organizational culture, policies and procedures. The EI is the right platform to gather the right opinion of the outgoing employee as to whether the employee really supported this all or the organisation needs to address the issues which actually a reason why the employee decided to leave the organization in the first place.
To ascertain management and its effectiveness. EI gives the freedom to evaluate the management and the direct manager decisions and their effectiveness. Leadership capabilities directly or indirectly affects the employee’s performance and the entire work environment. This is good to ascertain its overall effectiveness. The assessment of effectiveness is not only in performance management but also in motivating and connecting employees with the organization. These kinds of data help build a better work culture within the organization.
To enhance employer branding. EI helps build a positive employer brand image, listen to the employee and encourage them to share the challenges they have faced and be sympathetic towards them and encourage them to take action to improve. Employees will be happy to note their grievances are being addressed and opinions are given value. This will enable them to speak well about the company not only within the company but in public also. The word-of-mouth branding makes the employer brand stronger and popular.
To complete the paperwork and recover company property. This is time to complete paperwork such as signing any nondisclosure agreements as an employee knows all the important secrets of the organization. Retrieve all the company property such as phones, computers and security access cards, or the company’s uniform etc. Also clear off company account and reimbursements.
To bridge the communication gap. Sometimes the real message from management does not reach the objective of the decision made. It sometime loses its value effect just because of a gap in communication which ultimately makes employees dissatisfied and then make them rebel. It is a time ensure all such gaps are closed.
To stabilise salary and Perks. Remuneration is always of prime concern for employees therefore it is very important to find out from the out-going employee whether they had any concerns about the wages, perks and benefits. When talent have the feeling that they are being underpaid or being offered unreasonable perks and benefits, their loyalty to the organisation is affected. Reward and recognition issues can directly affect performance and become the reason for leaving the job.
The purpose of EI ultimately is to find out the exact reason for attrition so that management can work upon areas and retain valuable talent.