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3 Reasons Exit Interviews are Important

Glowing neon "exit" sing on a brick wall.Exit interviews come in different shapes and sizes depending on the company that’s conducting the interview. It could be a face-to-face meeting with HR or it could be an online survey or paper form that gets filled out. No matter how it’s done, exit interviews are an important part of the HR process – as long as you do something with the data you’re collecting!

Entrepreneur.com says that an exit interview is this: The formal conversation that takes place between an employee and HR or other manager to determine the reason(s) the employee is leaving.

Why are you leaving us?

There could be a lot of reasons why your employee has decided to resign from her position and move on. An exit interview will help you figure out what those reasons are. And that information can help you – the HR guru – make some valuable assessments.

Exit interviews are important because they:

1. Uncover work environment issues
Exit interviews can help uncover potential issues related to the work environment – whether they relate to management, training & development, salary, employee morale or overall work culture. It’s natural for most employees to remain tight-lipped about problems they might encounter in their day-to-day work. But once an employee turns in her resignation, she’s more likely to open up and be honest about her work experience and the reasons for moving on.

2. Determine trends
If you look carefully at the feedback and data gathered from your exit interviews, you’re sure to pick up on certain trends and patterns. Have you received lots of feedback about poor communication from management? Less-than-desirable salary and benefits? Not-so-great job training? It might be time to acknowledge worrisome patterns and come up with a plan of action for addressing consistent employee concerns.

3. Increase employee retention
If you pay attention to the feedback received from your exit interviews and address the common issues that seem to be influencing employees to part ways with your organization, there’s a good chance that future employees will be happier and will stick around longer. That’s certainly nice news for your retention rates.

Side note: exit interviews aren’t just important for full-time employees. They’re also valuable for part-time and temporary workers.

What are some other benefits to conducting exit interviews? Share them with us in the Comments section.

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