Making the most out of exit interviews
When a company is hiring a new professional, every effort is expended in making sure that the candidate has been properly and professionally screened before they set foot in the offices of the business.
Advertisement
From the manner and style in which the vacancy announcement is captured, the image of the media in which it is announced all the way to the day the company shakes hands with the prospective employee and hands him the signed employment letter, every step of the way is calculated to elicit a favourable image of the host business and as much as possible distance the corporation from any picture that may cast a negative shadow on the company.
But on the day the employee wishes to end this employment romance, usually many things are done and said that often throw to the dogs most of the fruits of the invested efforts.
The trust that had been built in the years, spanning from the first day of employment to the day of the divorce, is recklessly damaged and prospects for future cooperation or alliances are dashed, sometimes beyond even the normal repairs.
The corresponding gains that might have accrued to both parties may be lost such that even if future opportunities for possible alliances emerge, parties may find it difficult taking advantage of them.
However, when the business approaches the end of a professional relationship with an employee in a more liberal-minded, mature fashion, the potential for hard feelings from one party or both may be vastly reduced.
And one of the surest ways of doing this is to ask for an exit interview, if this was not originally ratified in the employment contract. If an exit interview was enshrined in the contract, it would be in the interest of both parties to arrange to invoke this clause before the final exit.
Formally incorporating clauses in an employment contract which mandate an employee leaving the company to grant an exit interview to either the Human Resource (HR) or if they are high profile employees, to the board, is a prudent thing to do.
Transition
This interview affords the business the opportunity for an invaluable character audit, especially if the exiting employee is aggrieved about one thing or another. Getting the staff on their way out to tell the business what they feel is wrong, unfair, unethical or unhealthy for corporate growth is a special opportunity no sensible corporate leadership wants to trade.
When things do not seem to go right, employees whose skills-set are not very much in high demand may be aware of the menace but may feel incapacitated, especially if the regime in place is hostile to freedom of self expression, does not listen to complaints or simply never acts on such grievances. In a work environment this unhealthy, usually it is the intelligent, high flyers and the sought-after who first take the initiative to leave. No matter the enormity of arrogance of leadership, listening to professionals on their way out is a sure remedy for the possible future employee exodus from the business.
Other Trending Stories
The exit interview has another virtue; it dispels unhealthy rumours that might have tainted the corporate environment in the run up to the decision by the exiting employee to tender his resignation note.
When the corporate philosophy is one that stifles criticisms and frustrates or even blacklists team members who wish to express themselves genuinely and freely, some undesirable elements in the company may benefit from this rumour and further brew mischief and peddle this all around the company. When finally the person in the eye of the storm reveals his intention to exit, the exit interview is the platform on which the truth is known and all rumours laid to rest.
Lessons
One of the sure signs that things are not going right in the company is the slow but sturdy flight of talents from the company. Some companies are extremely good when it comes to attracting very talented professionals but are also notoriously bad labour retention policies. While the business may expend sometimes unreasonably vast resources in attracting invaluable talents, they may soon be losing the war for retaining these talents.
When you afford the personnel in flight the platform to speak to the company in a calculatedly honest and temperate manner, you will find lessons for righting your wrongs. You will be awakened to the realities of your failing employee retention policies and can do something radical to salvage the situation.
In rare cases, the platform for exit interview becomes the venue for renegotiation of new employment deal with the personnel in flight. When the exiting person is a high-value, hardly dispensable employee whom the company is reluctant to let go of, by affording the employee the opportunity for an interview, the HR and whoever are doing the interview could be atoning for the wrongs the company may have done the victim and in the process could be renegotiating a new deal.
Sometimes, an exit interview opportunity is an exercise in the interest of both parties. The employees on their way out need the interview just as much as the company from which they are exiting. Smart employees, even if their contract does not stipulate that they have to grant an exit interview, have to oblige one. This interview has the virtue of ironing out any misinformation resulting from inappropriate verbal and or non-verbal communications, rumours born out of sheer workplace gossip or the subtle and clandestine manoeuvres of colleague mischief makers.
An exit interview is so important that some companies incorporate a clause in the employment contract that makes it mandatory for the exiting staff to accept to partake in that final interview. Considering the strengths of this exercise, whether the employment contract is silent on this matter or explicitly obliges the employees to submit themselves to the exercise, it is in both parties’ interest to exploit the vast benefits of this kind of interview. — GB