When an employee leaves there are indirect costs in relation to the time and effort that is required to replace any employee as direct recruitment and advertising costs, there are also less tangible cost associated to losing knowledge and experience that is specific to an organization; Losing good employees is a problem where prevention is most definitely the best cure.
It is inevitable that employees will leave from time to time but a good employer will want to know why an employee has decided to leave to ensure that personnel are leaving for the right, and not the wrong, reasons.
Concerns of employees can be identified early by the regular use of well designed job satisfaction surveys, allowing for problems to be resolved and helping to minimize needless loss of staff. However, some problems, especially those that involve personalities, are not always brought to the surface until it is too late.
A lack of career development and/or poor management are two common reasons for employee dissatisfaction that can often result in personnel deciding to change jobs. Both of these problems can be difficult to identify even for organizations that adopt regular 360-degree appraisals (i.e. where as part of the overall review employees are requested to appraise their line managers).
While employed employees can be reluctant to criticize their managers for fear of the consequences, they can however be more candid when completing an employee exit survey.
Exit surveys are unlikely to prevent an individual from changing their mind and staying but what they will do is help an organization identify problem areas that if left unchecked could result in the remaining employees suffering form poor moral and further resignations.
Lack of Career Development
Not all employees desire, nor can employers always provide their employees with a clear and long term career path. There are just as many people that find comfort and security in doing one job well as there are people that need to feel that they are continual being challenged, learning new skills and moving onwards and upwards with respect to the corporate ladder. For organizations to succeed and excel they need the high flyers as well as the steady Eddies of the world.
Having good records could prove to be very valuable long term and they also provide management with information that could help them improve the moral of an organization as well as productivity and the bottom line.
Sub-standard Management
Many managers achieved their position through promotion, but it does not always follow that a good worker will automatically make a good manager and often people are assigned management position without any formal management training.
Managers who perform poorly can be quick to discredit the views of disgruntled staff, ‘I am glad they went it saved me getting rid of them’ and ‘they were useless anyway’ may prove to be common responses to those managers being asked if there are any problems that might be causing people to leave the organization.
It is proper and natural for senior management to support their line managers by giving them the benefit of any doubt, after all a good managers can always be slighted by poor employees. But by conducting exit surveys, if a man-management problem were to be identified early there is a good chance that it can be addressed and resolved with the appropriate formal training and guidance.
Records
It is not uncommon for people to leave an employer and at a later date put in a claim for constructive dismissal. With ‘No win no fee’ legal representation this has become a real problem for even good employers. At best Exit surveys will provide an organization with a valuable record of the employee’s reasons for leaving, and at worse, provide advanced warning that a possible claim for unfair dismissal might be expected.
Unless it is on record a tribunal will not necessarily accept an employer’s word that when an employee left they did so without indicating any grievance.
Timing of the exit survey
Exit surveys can be conducted as part of the termination procedures or they can be delayed for a few months if the employee is in agreement.
There can be an advantage in delaying an exit survey for a few months in that a former employee may be less emotional and more honest with their views and may be in a position to compare their previous role with their new role.
The advantages with conducting an exit survey as part of the termination procedure is that although emotions may be running high it is probably more reflective of the employee’s state of mind and therefore closer to the reasons they have decided to leave (justified or otherwise). If left until later any comparison between their old and new roles may be the result of them putting on a brave face, and if reasons are given that require action, the delay may well hinder the problem from being resolved.
Summary
Organization that include exit surveys as part of their employee termination procedures will generally benefit in a number of ways. Having good records could prove to be very valuable later and they will also provide management with information that can help them improve an organization’s moral as well as the bottom line.
See the following survey for sample exit interview questions.