Employee Retention & Engagement : Stay versus Exit Interviews

In over 25 years in HR one of the many processes that continue to be used is the Exit Interview.  A way for an organisation to get feedback from employees who have chosen to leave.  The aim is to listen and understand what has driven the individual to leave. 

Exit interviews normally ask questions about the employee’s experience, their manager, the benefits, salary, training and development and their feedback on the performance of other functions in the business.   Companies also normally want to understand where the employee is going, what they’ll earn and what attracted them to the organisation. Obtaining this information is great but only if an organisation does something with it. 

Depending on the experience that the employee has had whilst employed will depend on what they feel comfortable sharing. Not everyone will attend an exit interview.

Is there any value in an employee taking time to share this - well it seems only for the employer. The employee has already taken a decision to leave. They have an opportunity to share why and if they've had a negative experience it gives them an opportunity to express this if they haven't been able to before.

What about the employees who remain, how can an employer understand how they feel about working for the company and how can they use this pro-actively to help lower turnover? This links to employee engagement surveys and suggestion schemes which will most likely be a future blog. A company might also look to the Stay Interview as a tool.

Let’s take a look at both forms of interview, exit and stay interviews.  

Stay Interviews

These are conducted with your current employees who are still with your business.  The goal is to understand their level of satisfaction, identify potential issues, and explore ways to enhance their job satisfaction and commitment to the company. 

The stay interview is a pro-active approach helping organisations understand concerns before they lead to employee disengagement or increased talent retention.  They are another way to engage with your employees demonstrating that you value them and are committed to making the working environment a place that they want to be. Conducting them is great, but it does require resource to analyse the information obtained and put in place change if required; action on the back of either documented or verbal stay interviews is critical otherwise there is no point in doing them.

Examples of the questions that might be asked are:

• What do you enjoy most about your current role?

• What motivates you to come to work every day?

• Are there specific aspects of your job that you find challenging or uninteresting?

• How would you describe the work environment and team dynamics?

• Do you feel your skills and talents are utilised to their fullest in your current role?

• Do you see yourself being with the organisation in 12 months?

Exit Interviews

The exit interview happens at the time suggested in the title – at the time the employee is exiting the business.  Whilst gaining information about an exiting employee’s experience, reasons for leaving and perception of the organisation and its people might be of value to you as a manager/organisation it has very little impact on those leaving.   That said, they can provide useful insights, help you identify areas for improvement and an opportunity to do something about it.  If you understand why people leave it can help to establish themes for turnover that can be addressed and importantly if you act upon the feedback and provide a positive exit process for those leaving it can positively impact your organisations reputation. 

Also, be mindful that anything that is raised that could constitute a grievance will need to be followed up on under the right process. 

Exit interviews might include questions such as:

·       Reasons for leaving

·       Job satisfaction

·       Work environment

·       Management and leadership

·       Training and development

·       Feedback on team environment

·       Company policies

·       Benefits

When should you conduct these interviews?

How often you do stay interviews is really a business decision and whether you are reacting to changes in your business or you are wanting to incorporate these into the day-to-day culture.  You’ll want to consider how you are tracking the information and demonstrating your actions to your employees, without this these become meaningless and whilst intentions may be good when implementing them, failure to follow up and action can be detrimental. 

Exit interviews will be done prior to the employees last working day – how you do them is a business decision too and instilling confidence that if there are concerns or issues is important because they won’t be in the business to see any impact.  If the employee exiting the business raises serious concerns or allegations you should refer to a HR specialist for review to determine the next steps. 

Is it Stay versus Exit Interview?

I would recommend a combination of both; gathering data is important but acting on it to enhance the employees experience, retain talent and positively impact engagement is critical. 

Interested in talking about employee engagement? Get in contact for a chat to see whether we can help info@reachpeakperformancecoaching.co.uk or visit us at www.reachpeakperformancecoaching.co.uk