Employees leave companies for many different reasons, but sometimes the HR team won’t be able to explain why past employees left. In some cases, employees leave for better advancement opportunities or because they are not happy with their current employer. The only way a company can know or learn why employees are leaving is by taking advantage of the exit interview, and then learning from this feedback.
Encourage Honesty
The next time you hold an exit interview, make sure you encourage honesty on the part of the employee who is leaving the company. Few employees will be brutally honesty during an exit interview, especially when leaving smaller companies, because they do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Try to encourage honesty as much as possible so the employee explains the exact reasons why they decided to leave.
Ask These Questions
The following questions should be asked of the employee during an exit interview:
- What will you get from your new employer that you didn’t get from us?
- How do you feel things went here for you?
- How are your career goals being fulfilled at your new job?
- Can you give us any suggestions for improvement?
- Would you like to be notified of any opportunities here in the future?
- Is there anything we could have done to prevent you from leaving?
- In what areas did we come up short?
Reveal Undiscovered Problems
For all you know, there could be some major problems hiding at your company. The only way you can find out about these problems is via the exit interview. The questions from the previous section could help to reveal these problems, which could include issues with the culture and competition that continues to aggressively recruit your talent. An outgoing employee will be able to shed light on these issues and much more if you ask the right questions and encourage honesty.
Make Appropriate Changes
Once you conduct the exit interview, you should begin to make appropriate changes to the company. This could include improving the company’s culture, offering better benefits, increasing salaries and offering more opportunities for advancement.
Companies need to know why their employees leave for other opportunities. They also need to know if an issue at the office led to the employee searching for a new job. The exit interview is the perfect time to find out this information.