As an employer, you do everything you can to prevent unnecessary turnover:
- You recognize and reward team members.
- You actively manage their performance.
- You conduct regular reviews to ensure they have the resources, support, career development opportunities and flexible work options so important to today’s workforce.
But once an employee tenders their resignation, is there really anything left to say or do?
Absolutely.
Before they head out the door, it’s essential to conduct a thorough exit interview and find out why your talent is leaving. Here’s why:
Reveal hidden problems. What you don’t know about your company can hurt you – and exit interviews present an ideal opportunity for uncovering hidden issues, such as:
- Problems with your corporate culture. The employee who’s leaving has an opportunity to speak candidly about your work environment, revealing problems with managers, toxic co-workers or company policies. As a result, you may identify ways to build your culture and protect your employment brand (which will improve your ability to attract top talent moving forward).
- Competitors who are aggressively recruiting your best talent. Competition for high performers is tough, and your competition may have your employees in their crosshairs. Exit interviews allow you to find out who is being lured away before it’s too late.
Facilitate knowledge transfer. When an employee quits, he takes much more than his personal belongings. He takes ideas. Company information. Critical knowledge about products, services, processes and customers.
During an exit interview, you can collect knowledge that would help the individual’s replacement or others with similar roles. Ask what, how and why he did things, as well as what skills and competencies he considers critical to success. Use this information to improve the position description and work profile when hiring his replacement.
Minimize future turnover (and related expenses). As we’ve mentioned before, every time a good employee quits you lose money right off your bottom line. The better you understand your drivers of turnover, the more you can do to counteract them – and reduce the opportunity costs, position vacancy costs, knowledge loss and other “hidden” costs attrition causes.
Too many good employees headed out the door?
Corps Team can help. With a full complement of flexible professional staffing and search services, we can alleviate the stress that position vacancies, special projects or tight deadlines cause – and keep your best employees working hard for you.
Contact your local Corps Team office to learn more.
