Rethinking the Exit Interview

We all know that employee turnover can be extremely costly for organizations.  Yet, we also recognize that many firms struggle with employee retention.  Managers sometimes cannot determine why people are leaving. They try to use exit interviews to learn about the conditions creating turnover, but they fail to arrive at concrete conclusions.  Often, departing employees hold back in those exit interviews, rather than disclosing completely the reasons for their move to a different company. 

Writing in Harvard Business Review, Ethan Bernstein, Michael B. Horn, and Bob Moesta explain a different approach to learning about what drives people to switch jobs.  They write,

As we noted earlier, exit interviews can be a bit of a joke. People usually assume it’s too late to address why they are leaving—so they say safe things and move on.  We’ve found that it’s more productive to interview employees about their previous roles soon after they’ve started something new. That’s essentially what we did in our research. By closely examining the pushes and pulls that compelled each person’s most recent job move, you can better understand what might motivate your employees to make another change soon—and, conversely, what might make them choose to stick around. You can frame these talks with employees as your way of identifying important features of their experience so that with their input you can create a workplace that they’ll want to “rehire” each day.

This strategy makes a good deal of sense to me.  These conversations can be useful in two key ways.  First, managers can get to know their new employees - what motivates and drives them, what they care deeply about, and what they love (and don't love) about their work.  Second, managers can begin to detect themes across their employee population.  What type of people are attracted to the organization?  Why are people self-selecting this company?  What, if anything, made them hesitant about taking a new job here?  The answers to these questions can shape a company's recruitment and retention strategies.  Finally, I would argue that the answers to some of these questions may emerge during the interview process.  Yet, managers are often focused on selecting the best candidate, rather than thinking about the interview process as an opportunity to learn about what motivates people to switch jobs.  Mining the interviews for this additional information could be very useful. 

Employee Retention: The First 90 Days

Source: Small Biz Daily

Chip Cutter of the Wall Street Journal reports today on the work being conducted at several firms to reduce new employee turnover, particularly among hourly workers.  Cutter writes:

Hold on to an employee for three months, executives and human-resources specialists say, and that person is more likely to remain employed longer-term, which they define as anywhere from a year on in today’s high-turnover environment. That has led manufacturing companies, restaurants, hotel operators and others to roll out special bonuses, stepped-up training and new programs to prevent new hires from quitting in their first three months on the job.

Cutter reports that many firms have retooled their onboarding, training, and feedback processes to focus on reducing "quick quits" - i.e., employee departures during those first ninety days.  Employers have come to understand that it takes roughly three months for new employees to build a comfortable, steady work routine.  Employers are working hard to set clear expectations, as well as to establish short-term goals for each employee.   Then, they are keeping in close touch with those employees to measure progress, listen to concerns, and provide feedback.   Firms are also providing their front-line supervisors with critical tips for how to help smooth that transition for new employees, often based on extensive research on employee retention at the companies.  The payoff is clear for these firms: employee turnover is extremely costly, particularly in this era of worker shortages.  

Of course, I'm quite sure firms need to tread carefully with these efforts.  Sometimes, a new employee is simply not a good fit.   Trying desperately to hold onto that person might, in fact, be a case of the sunk cost effect (throwing good money and effort after bad).  Determining how to let certain people walk away because they aren't likely to be engaged, satisfied, and productive team members is a key capability that firms must develop as well.  

Why are you losing employees?

Have you lost some valuable employees in the past year?  Does your firm understand why those employees are leaving?   If you are like most companies, exit interviews serve as a mechanism for unearthing the reasons behind these departures.  I learned something quite interesting this week though.  In talking with a group of human resource executives, I discovered their frustration with the traditional exit interview.   Many executives expressed concern that departing employees are "too nice" in those exit interviews - they simply don't offer a candid assessment of why they have chosen to leave the firm.  Several HR chiefs offered a solution to this problem.  They described how their firms have eschewed the traditional exit interview.  Instead, the companies have hired a third party to conduct confidential surveys/interviews of these individuals several months AFTER they have left the firm.  The executives reported that these interviews yielded much more valuable insights... and much more candor, than the traditional exit interview.