When employees leave, outflow surveys and exit interviews can provide a lot of valuable feedback for your organization. That is interesting for several reasons. Yet the exit interview too often remains a 'must' or a dutiful courtesy interview. While all together it also takes quite a lot of time. Shame! How can it be? Not only ask the standard organizational questions, but also determine the important content of the exit interview in advance, also through the 'eyes' of the departing employee.
Why an exit interview?
Where organizations pay a lot of attention to the inflow and further development of talented employees, the outflow often receives less attention. Yet almost every exit interview can provide important information for the organization. This provides opportunities to prevent unwanted turnover in the future and to part ways in a pleasant way. Because you can also meet again later.
And don't forget the opportunities for referral recruitment! Because about half of the new employees enter through an organization. So don't underestimate the power of 'ambassadors'. Very often these are also former employees.
Determine the correct approach
It is possible to collect feedback about the organization during an exit interview that is separate from the departure. Because departing employees dare to speak openly about their experiences at your organization. That can be very interesting to get a better view of the exployee experience (EX). An exit interview is even possible problemen binnen de organisatie aan het licht brengen that would otherwise remain hidden.
In order to quickly focus on the most relevant topics of conversation during an exit interview, the reason for leaving is of course an important point of attention. When someone retires, finds another job or their contract ends, this quickly gives rise to other questions. Let alone if someone is fired on the spot. In that case, no exit interview is usually held. But what if the employee would like to do so with an HR professional? That can also be interesting.
Ask the right questions in advance
A good exit interview that yields valuable feedback requires good preparation. Because asking the right questions is an art in itself. Look further than just the standard questions from an organizational perspective. Also look at the interesting topics from an employee perspective! That is often forgotten, while that focus can immediately steer the conversation in the right direction.
To tackle this efficiently, it is valuable to present the employee with a dynamic questionnaire online before the exit interview. In this way, all relevant (comparable) questions are answered and the most relevant matters can be explored in greater depth during the conversation. It really doesn't have to be just about why someone leaves or what they thought of the job content, terms of employment or employment relationships. By asking the right questions in advance, the employee will probably also come up with completely different topics. Let this surprise you.
Exit scan: a better conversation faster
customers who find good exit interviews important. We developed an Exit scan for them, after they suggested this idea to us. It now provides them with better exit interviews quickly and efficiently, with more attention to the employee's perspective.
It allows HR professionals to optimize their exit interview approach. They no longer need to ask many questions during the interview. That saves time. During the conversations, that time can be spent on the topics that are really valuable. While some exit conversations don't even need to be had anymore, at least not in the old way.
Working with the Exit scan also makes it possible to collect feedback in trend lines. So that the results can also be translated into targeted actions for a better EX.
