Comments on: Exit Interviews Are Band Aids On Broken Legs

By: Jane Horan

Jane Horan — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:27:57 +0000

I’m delighted to read this blog on exit interviews, think we need to ask ourselves what do we gain from these? And the answer is, not much. I’m always delighted to hear HR managers returing from one of these interviews stating,”I knew it, our compensation is all wrong – we need to pay people more…..”" As if, yeah, well, fairly predictable, isn’t it and now what or so what?

The funny thing is, most people start planning their departure 6 months before they leave and in the planning stages they reflect on salary because every recruiter or future employer will ask, “what’s your salary expection?” and, if you’re actively interviewing chances are you’re talking salary… when you decide to leave what’s the easiest thing to complain about… $$ and when you’re leaving, typically you’re making more money – which makes exit interviews out of sync, out of date, predictable and unreliable….

A better strategy might be tapping into employees before they start thinking about an exit strategy. Is it always about money, doubtful. Often it’s more about management. Having intuitive managers in-tune with their employees might make all the difference in the world.

If exit interviews need to be conducted, reach out to employees 6 months after they’ve moved on… and take time to listen to their reasons, more is revealed in time when they’re fully involved in a new role. Keeping contact with talent that’s moved on is a better strategy than exit interviews right when they leave.

By: Will Robinson

Will Robinson — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:54:03 +0000

Exit interviews ARE useless. I have worked for and with many, many, many companies from bootstrapped startups to Microsoft and Accenture and have had a few exit-interviews. As has been previously stated, if you are in a high-turnover business (traditional management consulting has about a 30% turnover in the first year – please note this is NOT the ‘consulting’ that most people put on their resume but actually working for a ‘consulting firm’) then it is often obvious why people are leaving – and most people know why but don’t address the issues either because they are unable to (HR trying to make changes) or unwilling (line management and executive staff). In fact, at Microsoft, I had a great exit-interview where the HR droid basically said, “while you have great feedback, I can’t do anything with it”. They did not have the ‘juice’ to go to anyone of authority to try to change things (and this is for very smart people who were recruited highly into a very small program).

Oh well, at least I got to squish Bill Gates’ hand when he was only worth $4B….

Will at virtualjobcoach.com

By: Beth N. Carvin

Beth N. Carvin — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:37:27 +0000

I’m wondering why people say, “if you wait until the exit interview you are waiting too long….”

Employees are exiting all the time. There is nothing to “wait” for. Exit interviews give you a continuous stream of data – NOW – with issues to work on and suggestions for improvement. You are not waiting for anything.

By: Larry McKeogh

Larry McKeogh — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:18:31 +0000

On topic, the exit interview, IMO, is to some HR people a perfunctory check box. These HR types tend to be hired to cover the corporate’s backside. They also probably get little respect until the threat of a suite gets waved.
There are probably some engaged HR professional that also have the respect/authority to act on the data. Does it hurt? Very little IMO. On my way out the door I will talk to anyone about anything.

The value content of what I talk about will vary depending on the individuals level of engagement. (Are they collecting a paycheck or an active professional and how has interaction occurred up to that point.)

That said and slightly off topic, one of the earlier comments mentioned that “People leave managers, not companies.” In larger companies/gov’t an individual can move w/o leaving or interfacing with ex-manager. How many interviews occur during such transitions, especially for the lateral moves? How close is the organization to losing this individual? Is HR playing an active or a passive role in the organization?

If HR is waiting for the exit interview to diagnose corporate issues or managerial problems they are doing a disservice to both the Corporation and the individual. The results of the exit interview is the least of the worries.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:08:16 +0000

I like the exit interview opportunity…of course, my last exit interview was based on an internal move, so I did have to be careful with what I said. The HR “Business Partner” knew of my isssues with my manager prior to leaving, he knew of the group’s problems with her, he knew that in a matter of 6 months, that manager had lost or was losing her 2 top performers, and 3 other critical team members…

My point is pretty simple, exit interviews are good if the information collected is analyzed and USED. Appeasing people leaving seems to be a waste of time. Do I think that the 5 of us who left, found better opportunities, yes. But I think we all were looking for new opportunities because of a common issue…the manager. Unfortunately, all our exit interviews fell on deaf ears, and the HR Business Partner was trying to protect the manager and company…

By: Beth N. Carvin

Beth N. Carvin — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:21:16 +0000

Steve B. – Nice post. I agree completely. The exit interview is a great place
to leave the door open to future opportunities for the employee if the grass is not greener elsewhere.

Chris – So would exit interviews be a waste of time if HR DID follow up on the information provided?

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 29 May 2009 06:05:00 +0000

I think exit interviews are a complete waste of time…..let’s face it, what ever happens to the information that people provide. If anyone does anything with it, they might meet and discuss the information provided but no action plans are established for what is brought up. Usually when there is negative information no one wants to take responsibility are really own up to what has been said…..they are not just making it up!

By: Steve Boese

Steve Boese — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:17:22 +0000

This has been a great discussion and I have learned quite a bit about the different perspectives on exit interviews.
I would add a couple of comments that do tend to support the idea of doing exit interviews. Certainly not all key performers who leave the organization have an ax to grind at all. They may be leaving for a career change, their spouse may have gotten a job in a new city, or they want to get their kids in a different school system. These employees may truly have some great insights and suggestions for the organization that are positive and potentially helpful, that an exit interview can elicit. I personally left a great job with an awesome company due to some ‘outside of work’ family issues. Had I been given the opportunity in an exit interview, I would have given some honest, and potentially beneficial suggestions.
My last comment is has to do with the ‘burning bridges’ argument. I think that most would agree that the workforce of the future will not look that much like it does today; there will be more contractors, free-agents, casual workers, basically an extended system of people in various capacities that will ‘work’ for the organization at different times. It does seem that a likely source of these future, flexible workers are those top performers who have previously worked for the organization. Making sure, in the exit interview process, that the organization has begun to develop that potential future relationship may truly be a strategically important action for many firms. I am sure an argument can be made that the traditional exit interview is not necessary to further this purpose, but whatever the process is called, the relationship-building component is an important consideration. So instead of being concerned about employee fears of ‘burning bridges’, it may be more important for the company to worry about ‘building bridges’ with the departing employee.

By: Beth N. Carvin

Beth N. Carvin — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:56:57 +0000

LOL – Lululaa! I have to ask though is it the exit interviews that are useless or the folks who are not using them properly that are useless?

I know a number of state government offices that do a pretty darn good job of it.

By: lululaa

lululaa — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:52:19 +0000

Obviously the recent posters here do not work for state government — where no bad manager ever gets reprimanded based on exit interviews! They usually get promoted to go terrorize another group of individuals. In this scenario, exit interviews are useless.