“Good bye! Nice knowing you! Wish you luck in your new
endeavour.” Is hardly considered an exit interview. The most important part of an exit interview
is to gain valuable information, which can prove to be quite useful in all
aspects of business operation and work environment.
Letting someone walk away, with all the knowledge they
have gathered through months and years, hardly seems sane. All organizations need to conduct an exit
interview, whether the employee is being laid off or just moving on. Organizations have become comfortable in
their skin so much so that they feel public perception no longer matters. An employee leaving a company, always has a
personal perception of the company and whether or not they are competent in
their operations, procedures and processes.
Getting to understand their view point can eliminate a lot of negative
feedback.
As a business owner or simply a senior manager or
executive, you never really know, who your previous employees associate with
and what effects they may have on your future business. Once an employee leaves an organization, they
are far more likely to open up and be honest in providing feedback in how the
organization is run.
By keeping a record of outcome of these interviews, over a
period of time, employers can begin to identify trends and patterns; after all
most employees, very likely end up getting their career continued in another
organization, which may be a major competitor. The person’s perception of the management is
one of the main concern. Managers, even
though not business owners, can make or break an organization, due to their
lack of management knowledge, lack of emotional quotient, and bad decisions.
An exit interview should classically be conducted by HR who
is not directly involved with the individual. This allows for neutrality, as
well as the chance for the individual to be able to voice their concerns and bellyaches,
without feeling awkward or vulnerable in any way. The individual is far more
likely to open up and be truthful, if they are talking to someone who is unbiased,
and not someone they have been working with on a day to day basis.
This also presents an opportunity to better understand the
process of hand-over of what the individual was responsible for and smooth
transitioning for the sake of the organization and their clients.
It is a misconception that a person needs to go through exit interview
prior to walking out. In fact, the best
time to do an exit interview is anywhere from one month to even up to a year
after the person has left their position. At this point of course, it is not
useful to find out what properly was or was not handed over. In my experience, former employees are always
enthusiastic to partake, and give very valued feedback. In general, people like
to be asked and this may even introduce doubt in what they perceived about the
manager or the organization in general.
Here are some of the questions that I think may prove to be valuable:
1.
Overall, how did you find your
experience working on this team?
2. What did
you like about it?
3. What could
have been better?
4. Did you
receive enough training and support to do your job effectively?
5. Was there
a mentorship program available to you for your career path?
6. Did you
receive sufficient feedback about your performance between reviews?
7. Did any
policies or procedures (or any other obstacles) make your job more difficult?
8. How would
you describe the services of this organization?
9. What was
the management style and in what way could this improve?
10. Was all or
most of the responsibilities properly handed over?
11. Did you
get a chance to post all the important documentation you created or worked on,
where it can be easily accessed?
12. If there
was one thing to improve in this organization, what would that be?
13. Were your
peers happy in their positions?
14. What did
you find to be a main pain-point to all? (The water-cooler conversations).
15. Would you
recommend this company to anyone looking for a position?
16.
Would you recommend this company to
any business for services they provide?
All the Best,
EL
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