Exit Interview (Interview vs. mailed survey)

KathyA

I'm a newly created "HR Department." Realizing that exit interviews can be a wonderful growth and learning tool for our company, I was wondering what the majority of you believes to be the most valuable process: "personal interview" OR "forwarding a survey with a stamped, self-addressed envelope" to the exiting employee. I'm just concerned that surveys would not be returned (out of sight ... out of mind). I'd appreciate hearing both the pros and cons. Thank you.

Don D

I don't have a pro or a con about the method for securing the interview or survey form, because in my opinion the process has no value in the first place. I always come back to this; If you ask the questions, what will you actually do with the answers? And how might you assess their genuinness? It's sorta like the store manager being told by the customer that 'This is the last time I will shop your store.' And the store manager gives the customer a clipboard survey form to fill out about customer service and how it might be improved. Well, it's frankly a bit late for that. The store manager should have been 'surveying' the customer every time he visited the store. Surveys will actually provide one or a combination of: Anger, sarcasm, what they think you want to hear, or, meaningless fluff. Just my humble opinion. I salute your energetic approach however.

Roberta

In our agency we prefer to do face-to-face exit interviews. The HR Director conducts them. The employee has an opportunity to give an opinion on whatever he/she chooses; then the HR Director writes the comments on an exit form and the employee can choose to sign it or not. The comments are shared with the management team which meets at least once a month (sometimes more often).

The information we gather runs the gamut from "unfixable" (no parking at a location)to serious issues. Serious issues are discussed and appropriate action taken.

Also, during the exit interview, COBRA information is delivered as well as information on withdrawing from the 401-K account and any other benefit issues.
There is an exit checklist so that nothing is accidently missed.

However, if an employee chooses to skip the exit interview, the paperwork is mailed to the last known address.

This works fairly well for us.

Gillian

You get to see more people if you have the interview before they leave. Theoretically, mail interviews are more honest, because there must be motivation to respond. Not many will be returned, however. Now, if we could only trust what we hear! I don't see much value in them, either. On the few occasions that I have used information that reflected badly on a supervisor or manager, invariably I have heard that the real problem was the employee - I don't do this anymore, although I would if I was told of something which violated a law or regulation.

Parabeagle

I was of the opinion early in my career that exit interviews were of limited value, too. However, there's that one time in ten that they can be worth their weight in gold. Years ago I had a departing employee disclose that she had been sexually harassed by a senior manager over a six-month period (that was not the reason she was leaving, however; she just wanted me to know about it). We investigated, corroborated the story and terminated the offender.

Balloonman

Hmmmmm interesting post, and surprisingly everyone is correct. The exit interview can be extremely valuable, or a complete waste of time. I have found that they are valuable with good employees who leave. I also know that because I have developed a relationship with many of the employees the feedback I get is genuine. I write down notes after they leave, and I do not look for one departing employee's indictment of a supervisor, but trends. If people are leaving on good terms, they are generally complimentary, but say the one issue the frustrated them was X, and I have heard that before then I look at what can I do to correct it.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Leslie

We recently lost a slew of employees to a competitor that was paying more. The department that was hardest hit wanted us to perform exit interviews to find out why. When we asked, we were told all it was because of all sorts of problems with this person, that person, etc. - for the most part petty stuff that we've known about for years - and then of course there's the money. Now, we've lost about 12 of them, and wouldn't you know it - they are all going to be working together again but now their problems will belong to my competitor's HR!

Not to say you won't have a won't have a whole different set of problems with all our new hires - but at least they will be new!

valentine

I also have toyed with the pros/cons of exit interviews. I tried doing them face to face and usually the employee wouldn't show up, so I tried mailing them and did get a few back.

I have found them useful for trends. If I notice a particular trend in a department I will call it to the attention of the Department Director and discuss how it might be resolved; however, if it involves employee vs management, yes, it is usually the "employee" who was at fault so I try not to get into those because its a no win situation.