Do You Know Why Your Talent is Leaving? The Value of Exit Interviews

Many companies view exit interviews as pointless, time-events that waste the time of both the interviewer and the employee who is headed out the door one last time. What companies need to understand is that exit interviews bring value to the company that can lead to plenty of positive changes. There will undoubtedly be reasons why employees are leaving your company for another job. Those reasons can vary from going back to school to starting a family or needing a higher salary. You need to find out why employees are leaving so you can make changes to keep top talent from flying the coop.

Acquire Candid Feedback

One of the most important reasons why your company must hold exit interviews is that it will be able to acquire candid feedback from the employees who are headed out the door. Even though employees are told to never burn bridges when leaving one company for another, they will still be honest with you upon exiting for a new job. Just make sure that what they say is not held against them should they want to apply for a different job with your company in the future. You want employees to be as honest as possible when leaving so you can fix any glaring issues so it doesn’t happen again.

Be Alerted to Issues

A major benefit of conducting an exit interview with any employee who leaves for another company is the possibility that they might shed some light on issues your company was not aware of within the staff. This could include employees pushing their work off on others, employees missing deadlines, harassment, outdated technology, poor management and much more. When these issues are brought to the attention of the company they can be fixed immediately so other top talent does not hit the road.

Obtain Information from Employee

Exit interviews are excellent to have, especially when you are dealing with the loss of a veteran employee. For example, you might be losing an employee who has been with your firm for 20 or more years. It is possible that no one else at the company knows how to perform their job. This could be a problem. During the exit interview, be sure to obtain as much information from the outgoing employee about how the job is done so it can be passed on to another employee.

Hold Interviews Immediately

Do not wait to hold exit interviews until the employee’s last day on the job. They will have too much on their schedule to worry about sitting through this interview. Instead, hold the interview the day the employee submits their resignation letter.

Exit interviews are valuable to companies because they can be alerted to major issues within the organization, providing them an opportunity to fix those issues before more employees say goodbye. Contact SmartTalent today to discuss the best questions to ask during an exit interview.