Exit interviews have been around for a very long time. But with retention becoming more challenging, companies are reevaluating the relevance and usage of a process that tends to get reduced to a mere formality.

Attrition is inevitable and every resignation is a setback to the organization…whether minor or major. No wonder exit interviews continue to be used as a tool uncovers factors contributing to turnover. Taking that a step further, companies are now comparing exit data to employee satisfaction data to find ways to increase employee satisfaction data to find ways to increase employee productivity and impact the bottom-line. Not just that, data from departing employees is being used by organizations as a staring point for new initiatives and interventions.

E.Balaji, chief operating officer, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd., believes that exit interviews hold tremendous potential as a mechanism to assess and improve all aspects of a company’s working environment, including culture, values, processes and systems, quality, employee perceptions about management, career and development. According to him, exit interviews can provide useful insights about anything that determines the quality of the organization, in terms of its relationship with its staff, customers, suppliers, third-parties and the general public and competitive positioning of the company in retaining and attracting talent. “In most new-age services companies like IT and BPO where attrition levels are high; this process is often used to make counter offers to try and retain the departing employees. In case of average performers, companies choose to keep this as a mere formality. In my view, this is a very short-term approach. The real value in this process is in the long term focus… to look for insights and opportunities to improve the organization in order to retain the existing talent pool,” he maintains.

After the exit interview

Forward thinking companies are taking the exit interview beyond a mere form filling exercise. At Datamatics Limited, for instance, inputs from the exits are used to bring about changes and improve current practices. This also sets an alarm to raise the flag when there is attrition in a particular project or department at a rapid rate. Shares Atul Srivastava, senior vice president and head, human resources, “If an employee leaves quoting that he felt he was under utilized for a job, we use this information to check what should be the qualification or experience level that is actually needed for a particular role where there is attrition, should we change hiring strategy or methodology, etc. Or there could be instances when there are managers who are not great people managers, and that is the reason his team members are leaving, then we look at counseling or training him on people management or alternatively even think twice before giving him a team and check if he can be transitioned into other roles where he may not have to manage teams.” Datamatics uses exit interview inputs as an integral part of attrition analysis where a further dissection and casual analysis is done. Trends of exits during various quarters, periods when exits peak, are analyzed. Analysis is further used to investigate issues, initiate interventions, provide feedback to senior management, and improve the processes.

Sivaramakrishnan Kalyanaraman, vice president, Global HR, Intelligroup believes that the exit interview is not the be-all and end-all of the process. The most important aspect, according to him, is connecting with the right individual in HR or in any other unit of the organization at multiple levels, apart from valuating the feedback and taking corrective action. “There are several instances where we are able to hold back the associate because of an exit discussion. Employees who are doing the exit interview are encouraged to listen clearly, probe more than what is apparent, encourage conversation, have empathy and be seen as neutral or unbiased.” Intelligroup has made the most of its online exit process, so that the employee feels that he is in control and is updated about the status.
At Becton Dickinson India Private Limited, exit Interview feedback, along with internal employee opinion survey forms an important diagnostic tool for organizational actions. The actions could be as wide ranging as change in organization structure to taking people action to improving organization systems and processes. For instance, based on exit interview data from management trainees, their entire program has been revamped, and management trainees now move into core marketing roles much earlier than was earlier being done.