Dear Reader

Most people like surprises…if they’re good ones! Have you had an unpleasant surprise recently, like one of your best employees upping and leaving? Just when you were confident he was settled, happy and a key member of the team to make the department grow.

What happened? Well, to state the obvious, you won’t know unless you ask.

This is where the exit interview becomes vitally important. You need answers. And a well-conducted exit interview is the place to get them!

10 reasons you must have exit interviews

1.    Reduce costs of recruitment and retraining
Employee turnover can cost you 1.5 times your annual salary budget. If your average turnover is just 11%, imagine the huge impact on your bottom line.

You need to find out how to retain staff.

2.    Save time
You’ll have to spend a lot of your time dealing with replacing and re-training a new employee. You’ll also have to spend time recreating the corporate culture, doing your best to repair the dynamics of the team and redistribute the workload of the employee who’s left.

Rather keep the good employees you’ve got!

3.    Save time and money on potential productivity losses
What happens when a key person leaves with a major job due for delivery next week? Lost time, lost productivity, and possibly lost orders and lost customers can be the long-term result of this situation.

If you can identify why people leave, you can avoid this happening to you.

4.    Determine the real reasons for people leaving
Use your exit interviews to find out exactly why people are leaving. You might discover she has a problem with something she hasn’t mentioned that you can sort out.

You might not lose your excellent employee after all.

5.    Minimise the risk of litigation
You must cover all possible processes in the termination process to minimise any risk of future litigation by the departing employee.

For example, if the employee claims constructive dismissal at the CCMA, an exit interview will give you an idea of the issues and allow you to address them.  You could also use it as evidence, i.e. he didn’t raise any issues in the exit interview – was it really unbearable?

6.    Collect key information for the job description
You can clarify exactly what skills and capabilities the job requires…from the person who has done it. This will mean the new person knows exactly what he has to do which will reduce future employee turnover and improve induction and succession planning.

7.    Identify and manage trends and underlying company issues
You can identify underlying company issues, for example if there’s hidden political turmoil or conflict, sexual harassment or intimidation. These could be the causes of high employee turnover, which you’ll be able to manage.

A person who’s leaving will be more willing to open up about what’s really going on.

8.    Review overall recruitment and selection process
Exit interviews may show that the departing employee wasn’t the right person for the job in the first place. This means you know what to avoid in future. The interview may show the manager doesn’t have good management skills and needs more training.

Being aware of these issues means you can address them.

9.    Measure the effectiveness of performance management systems
You can identify, through your exit interviews, that you need to improve your performance measurement and feedback systems.

10.    Enhance morale and staff satisfaction
If you show you care about what departing employees think, you’ll show you care about your current employees. This will have a very positive effect on employee morale.

Satisfied employees are a lot less likely to leave, saving you the time, money and hassle if they do.

Know how to conduct the perfect exit interview to get the information you need

Now that you know why you must conduct exit interviews, use the Practical Guide to Human Resources Management to find out how to get the most out of them. Get step-by-step guidance on what you should and shouldn’t do to get the information you need. If you’re not already a subscriber can you be sure you’re getting it right? Have a look here for more information.

Until next time

Sarah-Jane Bosch
Managing Editor