Seeing your employees leave the organization is never easy. Some leave for better opportunities fields, some for better job roles, some due to their managers, and many other reasons. Staff churn essentially is of two kinds voluntary and involuntary. Employees leaving of their own volition fall in the voluntary bucket, whereas, employees being asked to go fall in the involuntary bucket. Either way, the organization suffers when an employee leaves.
It is believed that over 50% of all global organizations face difficulty retaining their highly-valued employees.
Why conduct staff exit surveys?
One-on-one meetings with employees are important to know what they are doing, how they are feeling, and what can be done to improve their experience. The same should be done for exit interviews, too; managers should meet with the employees even if they’ve decided to move on to a different organization.
What are the advantages of conducting exit interviews?
While it is a standard HR practice with most organizations, many organizations do not conduct staff exit interviews. It is necessary for all organizations to conduct exit interviews. Here are some advantages of conducting employee exit interview surveys.
Data to bring about changes
Outgoing employees during their exit surveys are honest and candid. This helps in identifying issues managers or the HR team may not know about. This data is a goldmine to know which people processes need fixing and how.
Information for supervisors
Outgoing employees may give data or pointers that their supervisors may not be privy to. Knowing these and filling the supervisors in on this information can bridge any existing gaps. This can certainly help curb exits from a specific function or team.
Examine obligations
Numerous companies have various exit clauses and riders in staff contracts. Exit interviews are the perfect time to discuss any such outgoing obligations that either the employer or employee may have. You can likewise go over significant and sensitive aspects such as data security, storage, and sharing.
References
Even if employees leave, no matter the reason, they can always refer their friends and family to the organization. Make use of exit interviews to get references; referrals are still more trusted than job boards by hiring professionals.
3 Essential Exit Interview Survey Examples
Now that we know exit interviews are crucial to understanding the reasons behind employee exits let us look at some sample templates. These will give you an idea as to what questions should be asked in what order or sections in your employee exit surveys.
1. Google Hire
Source: https://hire.google.com/
Hire, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) recruiting application, made by Google, was designed and built to simplify the talent acquisition process and make it more efficient and effective. Talent acquisition managers can streamline their admin processes by syncing with Gmail, Google Calendar, and other G Suite integrations.
This template contains clearly mapped out aspects, and this what makes the template so good. It helps in bringing out aspects and reasons behind an employee’s exit. This is extremely helpful to teams better manage their team members and employee exits.
2. Indeed
Source: https://www.indeed.com/
Indeed, launched in November of 2004, does the work of a search engine for global job listings. Indeed is co-headquartered in Austin, Texas, and Stamford, Connecticut, and has offices around the globe. Indeed is one of the subsidiaries of Japan’s Recruit Co. Ltd.
The exit survey questions template works because it is detailed and contains questions that really get to the bottom of an employee’s exit. The template takes into account organizational benefits, perks, the supervisor’s role, etc. It also contains an open-ended question towards the end so that employees can put in additional comments, if any.
3. University of Pennsylvania
Source: https://www.hr.upenn.edu/
An Ivy League research university, the University of Pennsylvania, also known as UPenn consists of 12 graduate and professional schools and four undergraduate schools. The private university is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The template has a lot of question types, and this is what makes it effective. There is a good mix of open-ended, close-ended questions and rating questions. The employee exit survey template also has various sections, an aspect very helpful to isolate or uncover problems.
What is the right approach and time to conduct employee exit interviews?
Many organizations conduct staff exit interviews on the last day or last week of an employee’s job. As a routine process, it can be with your HR manager as an in-person interview, an online survey, a telephonic discussion, etc. An online survey is an ideal way to go, more so now, due to the high success and completion rates. What some organizations do, and so can many others, are to conduct surveys over a period of a few days or weeks. This way, you can get more insights than would otherwise, letting you go deep to fix any issues that your processes may have. If an employee exit was unpleasant, waiting for some days lets the situation cool down to invite more rational and constructive feedback.
While it’s always been the HR professional conducting the exit interview for many years, it need not be the case always. This holds true for many small companies or early start-ups. It could be a senior or somebody that the employee sees as a mentor. You could outsource the interview process to some organizations that specialize in employee exit methods. They are trained in active listening, understanding issues, and can help organizations fix their staff initiatives and arrest attrition.
Why utilize an exit interview survey platform or tool?
Online staff exit survey tool or software such as QuestionPro Workforce helps HR professionals conduct exit surveys very well. HR professionals can use the exit survey platform to conduct interviews and gather important and sensitive people data, analyze it, and use it to improve the organization’s processes. Here are four key uses of utilizing a staff exit interview tool:
- Saves a lot of time: Imagine a tool that comes with pre-set templates for you to just deploy. Not only that, but you can also customize these any way you want, or build an entirely new survey. The platform is easy to understand, user-friendly, and comes with all sorts of support literature.
- Lets you assign access control: Employee exit surveys have confidential data. These tools are designed, keeping in mind privacy and anonymity. It lets limit interview access and employee to or for some employees.
- Lets you collect insights: Gathering staff information is only the first stage. What comes next and the most important stage is that data to affect positive changes in your people initiatives. You can conduct all sorts of sentiment analysis, trend analysis, etc. to unearth deep-seated issues.
- Lets you customize: Staff exit interview portals can not only be customized for functionality but also thematically. It can be modified to match your organization’s branding, themes, etc. lending it credibility and building trust.
