Exit Interviews

maryfmurray · May 2003

We are in the process of mandating exit interviews for voluntary and involuntary terminations. We wish to have a policy in our employee handbook informing everyone in advance on how this is going to work.

Does anyone have a policy or established guidelines they would care to share?
My email address is [email]mmurray@rcaction.org[/email]

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njjel · May 2003

We have no written policy on exit interviews, but do perform them when possible. If you like I can send you a copy of our form.

Margaret Morford · May 2003

I encourage my clients not to do exit interviews as the person is going out the door. I find that that departing employees are not always as candid as you hope because they want to make sure they get their last check and that they don't burn any bridges before they find out how they like their new job.

If you are going to do them yourself, I'd wait and contact the exited employee by telephone about 60 to 90 days after their departure. They've had a chance to settle into their new job. If they like it, they will be more candid. Your response rate will go down a little doing it this way, but the honesty factor will go up significantly. If they were a good employee, it also gives you the chance to see if you can lure them back. Ask as your last question, "What would it take to get you to come back?" This may give you the most revealing answer of all. If you keep getting answers like, "I'd come back, but in a different department," you may have a supervisor style problem.

I also have an outside firm that does this for my clients because HR is really covered up these days. They use the 60 to 90 days away from the job model. They have trained interviewers do this. I'm always amazed what people will tell a third party versus their former employer. They provide real time answers and graphs charting those answers and they will notify you by an immediate e-mail if a respondent expresses a desire to come back or raises an legal issue, like harassment. Some of my clients now use them to do an ethics survey of a portion of their employee population every month because of Sarbannes-Oxley. If you're interested, call me and I'll tell youi about them.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

mbeam · May 2003

We'll send you a copy of the form that we use. It's two-part with one being coverage for the paperwork side (last check, mailing address, 401k plan, etc.) and the other part being why they started looking, how they feel about the atmosphere and their manager and suggestions.

We ask their comfort level with sharing the information which in the number that I've done has been pretty open (sometimes waiting until they are gone). We then share the information (good & bad) with the managers or departments mentioned. It's been quite effective as we have seen changes over the years in reasons why people leave.

Also, we have started asking similar questions from our existing team members (who have not indicated they will be leaving) to find out what would make them start looking so we can try to avoid those reasons. Information has been really good with the downside being as Margaret mentioned - the time involved.

We're fortunate to be located near a local university. They have assisted us with compiling this information as part of a class project.

Exit Interviews

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