How to Make the Most of Exit Interviews

Although employee retention presents a number of challenges, it’s a very important topic for businesses of all sizes. Statistics show that whenever a business loses an employee, it costs an average of six to nine months worth of salary to replace them. Additionally, losing an employee can hurt a company’s productivity, morale and even bottom line.

While losing talented employees isn’t ideal, it’s something every business is going to have to face. Since there’s no way to prevent every single employee from leaving forever, the best thing a business can do about this issue is be proactive. By understanding the best process for handling an employee leaving, businesses can minimize the negative effects of this transition and even use it as a helpful learning opportunity.

The Role of the Exit Interview

Exit interviews are one of the tools that can help an employer best manage the loss of an employee. When done correctly, this type of interview can provide a company with valuable insights about the type of experience being provided to employees. An exit interview can also shine light on areas of a business that have room for improvement.

3 Questions to Ask in An Exit Interview

As with many issues related to HR, the value and usefulness of exit interviews depend on how they’re conducted. If this interview is done without any real preparation as a kind of afterthought, the odds of getting meaningful information from it are slim. But if you take time to prepare for this process by thinking about what you want to get out of it and then putting together questions which support that goal, the impact of the interview can be quite meaningful for a business.

Because coming up with the right questions for an exit interview can be quite challenging at first, we want to share some examples that can lead to meaningful answers. The first is how did the job match your expectations? Asking this question can provide insight into the first impression that a business makes on new hires, along with how well current on-boarding practices work for getting employees into their roles.

The second question we suggest is did you feel that the work you were doing aligned with your personal goals and interests? Since career and personal development play a big part in retaining millennial employees, this question can help surface any areas for improvement. Another very useful question is did you have the tools and resources you needed to effectively do your job? Answers to this question can help guide the decisions a business makes about future investments in systems and other resources.

By taking the time to prepare for an exit interview by thinking about the value it can provide and then asking questions focused on extracting that value, businesses can get helpful information for improving culture, employee retention and more.