When people leave a
company, either voluntarily or not, all companies should conduct an exit
interview. The purpose of that interview
should be educational and constructive on the part of the company. It is a chance for an employee to give
unfettered and objective feedback on the nature of the company and the things
that caused the person to leave.
Unfortunately, many
companies, especially ad agencies, miss this opportunity to learn and correct. Many exit interviews are poorly conducted,
few go into enough depth and, even when good information is gathered, no action
is taken about what is learned.
Hearing bad news can be
difficult. And in many companies, there is no real mechanism to report the
information learned from a departing employee.
Most exit interviews are, at best, perfunctory. In talking to my friends
in human resources, they tell me that the principle reason people tell them
they are leaving is for money, title or other kinds of advancement. That
information is often as far as the exit interview goes; but these answers only touch the surface and are rarely
what actually drove the person to leave.
Recruiters tend to speak to
employees who are actively looking or who have recently left a company. The things they tell us are not necessarily
the things they tell the company, especially during exit interviews..
Why? Often, the departing
employee feels disconnected and believes that the company doesn’t really
care. As a result, the employee feels
powerless to affect change and rather than leave on a negative note, they
simply choose to give simplistic answers.
This is often true of very senior executives as well. Their sense is
that the company really doesn’t want to know or act upon its real issues. And, besides, they tell me, the interviewer
rarely probes deeper during an exit interview than a few perfunctory
questions. Most people tell me that
their exit interviews, if at all, only last about ten to fifteen minutes and
cover the basics like where they are going, for what title and what salary. One
departing employee told me that the thing the person who interviewed them
really wanted to know was whether there was an executive recruiter involved and
who he or she was. Like it really matters. In some ways, all of this information is none of the company's business.
There is a missed
opportunity in poor exit interviews.
Most companies, certainly
ad agencies, rarely probe to find out what they could have done better, how
they could improve their culture, working environment or processes. And even if they do ask about these things,
the responses rarely get passed to senior management. They may be written up, but are placed somewhere in a file drawer.
Given the high cost of
employee turnover, management should be apprised of the information learned
during exit interviews. It should be analyzed and amalgamated over time. Sometimes,
senior management is totally unaware of employee perceptions of the culture and
style of the company. They may not even
be aware of bad managers. The
information learned during exit interviews could be useful and might even
lower turnover if it is properly analyzed and acted upon.
All too often, I speak with
senior management people who brag about their Friday afternoon open bar and
they honestly believe that the institution of this very nice perk is the answer
to an unhappy culture. (The open bar or
well stocked cafeteria are niceties, but do not compensate for more serious
problems.)
We know that the real
reason why people leave companies has little to do with money, but the inability
to get a proper salary increase can go a long way towards driving an employee
away. Ad agencies are always having wage
freezes, which most employees understand can be thawed if they get a
competitive job offer; unfortunately, more often than not, once an employee
gets another offer, they become committed to leaving.
But mostly, people leave
for reasons of environment, stimulation and career path advancement. And these are things which should be
discovered, probed and reported as a result of an exit interview. Employees who
are recognized and feel empowered and valued don’t leave.
And employees who go through exit interviews and do not tell the absolute truth as they perceive it are doing both themselves and their former company a disservice.
And employees who go through exit interviews and do not tell the absolute truth as they perceive it are doing both themselves and their former company a disservice.
Exit interviews can be a
very powerful tool if used properly.
