Exit Interview - Will It Really Important?

Exit Interview - Will It Really Important?

An exit interview is kind of a survey, analysis or a discussion conducts with the employee by employer at the time of employee leaving the company. This is not a compulsory thing which organization needs to follow but it’ll help organization to identify some clue for employees leaving from the organization. Since this is not a compulsory thing & it’s a voluntary decision on both parties, employee can refuse the exit interview. Also, employer can stay away from organizing it as well.

Exit interview will provide useful information on which to base retention plans. Exit interview aim to establish why people are leaving, not to persuade them to stay (Armstrong, 2006).

The exit interview is a conversation between a representative of the organization and a departing employee to reveal reasons for departing (Hossain, et al., 2017).

Reasons you must conduct exit interviews

• Pinpoint opportunity for employee development.
• Reduce additional recruitment & training cost by retention great talent.
• Get insight in to management issues.
• Stay up to date with compensation & benefits.
• Strengthen your employer brand.

How to conduct an effective exit interview

• Choose your interview format: By giving questionnaire to your departing employee to fill out prior to the interview, will consume less time & will help to avoid uncomfortable discussion.
• Choose your interviewer: An HR team member usually the best since he/she will be an independent party. Employee will feel comfortable & will be open up. But It’s better if you could select outside professional specially for executive level exit interviews.
• Decide what to ask & what not to ask.
• Keep things positively.
• Don’t waste time of the employee.

Exit interview process at B-Lin Apparel Sri Lanka

• HR is sending a questionnaire to the leaving employee before 1 week from the date of resignation to fill & resend to HR.
• Before the last day of the resignation exit interview is conducting by HR representative for worker category employee & T&D manager for executive category employees.
• Interview is limiting to 15 minutes & only for the scheduling question which already shared with the employee.
• Employee will be able to extend the time if he / she is having more to talk with the interviewer.
• Detail of the meeting is only shared with the Senior General Manager operations of the company & the Senior General Manager HR.
• Apart from that for worker category employees will be getting a change to having a tea session with either Senior General Manager operations or Senior General Manager HR on the last day. For Executive category employees getting a chance to having a tea session with either CEO or a Functional Director.

Conclusion

As per the Armstrong (2006) exit interview will provide useful information on which to base retention plans. Exit interview aim to establish why people are leaving, not to persuade them to stay. Also, as per the Hossain, et al. (2017) exit interview is a conversation between a representative of the organization and a departing employee to reveal reasons for departing. This will help employer to streamline the process of the organization if required. But most of the time employees refuse to participate with the exit interview. As per the HR data of B-Lin Apparel participation rate is only 46% for the exit interview. Also, it’s revealed that most of the data obtain from the exit interview are not reliable. However, conducting an exit interview will be helpful to the organization.

References

Armstrong, M., 2006. Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 10th ed. London: Kogan Page Limited.

Hossain, S., Himi, S. T. & Ameen, J. A., 2017. Strategic Use of Exit Interviews The Art of Retention. Asian Journal of Economics, Business and Accounting.

Leon, M., 2017. glassdoor for Employer. [Online]
Available at: https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/4-reasons-you-must-conduct-exit-interviews/
[Accessed 21 April 2021].