Aisling is going places. She’s a talented Millennial who’s spent two years in your organisation. But now she’s about to complete an exit interview. 

During her time with you, Aisling shared her thoughts and ideas on how to improve the organisation through surveys, town halls and other outlets. Like most organisations, you’ve invested time and resources into gathering and analysing Aisling’s feedback to improve the organisation. But do you devote the same attention to the feedback given at Aisling’s exit interview?

Rethinking the Exit Interview

Organisations are still making mistakes when it comes to exit surveys. When done correctly, the data you gather can fuel insight, effect change and improve retention.

Exiting is becoming more and more common, as research shows that three-quarters of Millennials would consider leaving their employers within five years. The war on talent is still battling on, which means that the cost of turnover is high. More than ever before, it’s important to understand the real reasons why people are leaving (not just what they say to HR).

Here are 6 exit interview best practices.

1. Be consistent 

Ensure all leavers complete an exit interview. Maintain a standardised approach so that you can identify common trends and benchmark the data against your competitors. You won’t know if your results are “good” or “bad” unless you have a basis for comparison.

2. Focus on the “why”

Find out the reasons why employees are leaving their current job, rather than why they’re attracted to the new organisation. 

3. Get honest answers

Make your survey anonymous to maximise honesty. Go one step further and outsource the survey completely to a 3rd party provider to increase objectivity and get quality feedback.

Download the Case Study – How to Save Time and Boost Net Promoters with Exit Surveys

4. Take action 

Ensure you have buy-in from senior management so that you can implement changes based on what leavers are saying. Report back to your current employees on what has been changed. 

5. Ask the team 

Ask peers, stakeholders and clients how they feel about the person leaving. This 360° approach will give you an insight into the impact this individual has on your organisation.

6. Measure retention 

Have you made changes in your organisation as a result of exit interview feedback? If so, always connect the data back to your retention rate to see if you’ve made an impact.

By implementing these exit interview best practices, you will see enhanced employee engagement, boosted Net Promoter Scores and promote brand ambassadors.

Do it All with Talivest 

Talivest  provides third party, anonymous exit interviews to help you understand why employees are leaving. Our exit interview best practices are built into our employee engagement solution software, so you don’t have to do the work.  Our intuitive dashboards mean you can get instant and up to date insights and feedback at any time.

Download the case study below to learn how our customer boosted their exit survey response rates by 195% using Talivest.