By KIRA VERMOND
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Page
B17
With employee turnover on the rise - a recent global
study by IBM's human capital management practice revealed 47 per cent of the
organizations surveyed said employee turnover has increased over the past two
years - companies need to find out why workers are saying adieu.
So, why not just ask them?
Exit
interviews help organizations understand what's driving colleagues away,
pinpoint problem areas and increase retention. But few Canadian companies
understand the exit interview's true value.
Why
they talk
Matthew Hindman wanted to be a stand-up guy when he walked into his first exit
interview a few weeks ago. Now relocation project co-ordinator for the Canadian
Institute for Health Information, his former employer, Meridian Credit Union in
Despite feeling overworked and undervalued, Mr. Hindman liked his manager and
many co-workers. He hoped if he came clean during his exit interview, maybe his
candid comments would have some positive trickle down effect for the people left
behind.
"I
felt good that I called some people out as exceptional. I said, 'If you don't do
some things differently, these people will leave.' I didn't want the company to
falter," he says.
There
are other reasons why employees spill the beans during an exit interview. Some
are angry and need to vent, others were too fearful to talk about brutish or
even unethical behaviour, but want to blow the whistle now that there's nothing
left to lose.
Why do
it
The
truth is, not many Canadian companies offer exit interviews - at least not to
everyone, or in a systematic way. That was the findings of a study by Dr. Nick
Bontis, associate professor at the DeGroote School of Business at
Handled well, exit interviews help companies make peace with disgruntled
employees, give the signal that the company can take criticism, and help
managers discover their strengths and weaknesses. It can even help retain a good
employee who might otherwise have left.
The
best reason to do exit interviews, however, is to uncover trends, says Donna
Flagg, president of The Krysalis Group, a human resources and management
consulting firm in New York. But you've got to ask the same questions.
"If
one manager is asking for some information and another manager is asking
something else, it's useless," she says.
Say
eight former employees out of 10 divulge they're leaving for better pay. It's
time to study the industry to see if you're too cheap.
Finally, exit interviews uncover secrets. Ms. Flagg once worked with a company
that discovered one of its managers was coercing employees to log in to the
server using sexually explicit passwords. No one had the courage to blow the
whistle until the exit interviews.
No
easy answers
The
problem with exit interviews is that employers sometimes get watered down or
untruthful answers, says Jay Rosenzweig, managing partner of Rosenzweig & Co., a
senior executive recruiting firm in
"Typically, emotions are running quite high. Not a lot of people have the
inclination when they're in that kind of state to be really, truly honest."
Occasionally employees are afraid to tell the truth.
"They
don't want to burn bridges," says Sandra Reder, managing partner of Vertical
Bridge Corporate Consulting Inc., a
Just
say no
In
fact, from an employee's point of view, there are many reasons to refuse an exit
interview, especially if the information is unrestricted: It could land in the
wrong hands. Or the organization might write in your file that you said negative
things about it and, as
"You
might as well say, 'burn in hell sucker,' because something as unsupportive as
that is as bad as it gets," says Kerry Patterson, co-author of Crucial
Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.
It
could be worse. If you ever ended up in court with the former employer, they
could use your exit interview comments against you.
Pass
the shredder
What
will a company do with the raw data from exit interviews? If they're like most,
nothing. In a study on turnover by Human Resource Executive magazine, only 4 per
cent of firms systematically collect exit surveys.
So
what's the point? There isn't one unless you use the information to incite
change. "You have to do something with it," Ms. Flagg says. "Or you have zero
credibility and you might as well throw the money out the window."
Do's
and Don'ts
For
the employer:
Do
listen: Employees will only provide beneficial input if they trust the company
to take action.
Don't
cherry pick who gets interviewed: Every person leaving has something to offer.
Do be
professional: You're not on a witch hunt; you want an honest appraisal of job
experience.
For
the employee:
Do
request an exit interview: If people in authority don't know about your
obnoxious boss or loathsome job, these issues will continue to plague others.
Do
explain your motives: You're giving this information because you want to see the
company improve.
Don't
name names: If you talk about a specific person, her behaviour needs to be so
unethical, illegal, or harmful that you would feel wrong not calling her out.
Source: Kerry Patterson, co-author of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking
When Stakes are High
THE
UPSIDE
The
more information you can glean, the better the opportunity to improve your
organization. Constructive criticism can be an effective impetus for positive
change.
Jay
Rosenzweig, managing partner of Rosenzweig & Company, a senior executive
recruiting firm in
THE
DOWNSIDE
If
you're going to collect the data, do something with it. The people who stay know
you're doing exit interviews, but if nothing changes, that's horribly
debilitating to the morale of the people left behind.
Sandra
Reder, managing partner of Vertical Bridge Corporate Consulting Inc., a human
resources firm in