The Importance of Conducting Employee Exit Surveys

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The goal of any successful company is to assemble a crew of well-trained, well-motivated, and highly engaged workers capable of bringing its corporate goals to fruition. That is why businesses tend to put a lot of effort into recruitment interviews and gathering feedback about the employees' experience while working in the company.

The same thing can't be said, however, when the time comes to part ways.

As a matter of fact, as soon as employees announce they are looking for a new gig, the organizations usually start looking at them as liability, shift the focus on new hires, and invest very little effort into understanding the previous relationship.

That is a big mistake since conducting an employee exit survey can provide your company with the wealth of information necessary for improving its operations. Let’s explore this topic in greater detail.

Reducing employee turnover

Any company that is aiming for success needs to do everything in its power to understand its internal process in the greatest depth possible. If they are experiencing a high level of churn the organizations will look for the data necessary for refining the handling of customer complaints - the employee turnover which can have equally as devastating consequences for the company needs to be approached with the same care and attention. Therefore, if you are struggling to keep the workers under your roof, introducing some sort of survey that will assess their previous experience should be your top priority.

Leaving things on a positive note

No matter how hard the companies try to improve employee experience and make their stay more pleasant, there are always a lot of small grievances that go under the radar and ultimately contribute to the employee's decision to leave the organization. Conducting an exit interview does not only make a great job of uncovering these roadblocks but also gives the former employees opportunity to get these issues off the chest and leave the company on a more positive note. This positive exit experience may improve your brand’s public perception and discourage negative word of mouth in the labor circles.

Different formats encourage more accurate data

The exit interviews are often conducted in a very laid-back, honest, and cordial manner where former workers have an opportunity to express their opinions in a very informal and unstructured manner. But, in some cases, the employees will find this conversational format awkward and even intimidating which can compromise the interview results. Fortunately, companies can always opt to use survey as an exit interview or mix the two formats for even greater accuracy. This means that even if you are not parting ways on the best of terms, you will always be able to get at least some constructive feedback.

Good touch-point for reviewing continuing obligations

The exit interviews are not only a great way to gather feedback about your management practices and end the relationship on a more positive note. In a lot of cases, this practice represents a final touch-point between two parties the companies can leverage to clear disputes regarding continuing obligations like non-competes, handling of intellectual property agreements, and so on. Handling things in this matter-of-fact manner can prevent potential legal disputes and conflicts with other corporate entities. You also get a chance to identify other open obligations that can cause similar issues in the future.

A candid assessment of corporate culture

Corporate culture can have a great influence on employees' work experience and their decision about whether they are going to spend the future in your organization or not. In a great number of cases, the legal entities will spend a lot of time and resources in creating a welcoming and transparent culture only for their efforts to fall flat due to some small unforeseen mistake. Sometimes, the organizations will create a structure that is too loose and inefficient. In other situations, the managers will try to cover up their own mistakes by delegating errors. These mistakes can be remedied only by candid assessment.

Insight into recruitment and onboarding deficiencies

Last but not least, we would like to point out that the employees' experience starts with the very first interview. With that in mind, these first employment stages which include recruitment and onboarding can drastically affect how the rest of the relationship will roll over and plant the seeds for countless problems further down the road. These experiences can be so influential that some workers will be ready to talk about them only after they make the decision to leave the company. You, on the other hand, should never miss an opportunity to learn more about these critical processes no matter how late in the game.

We hope these few examples gave you a general idea about why employee exit surveys should become a critical part of your corporate practice. Running a successful company without gathering feedback about critical internal processes is near impossible. Well, some of your former employees will be willing to provide that essential feedback only after they decide to start looking for new employment. So, even though exit interviews may sound like a novel afterthought they are, in some cases, the only way to obtain the information you need to keep your business on the right track.

 

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