Leadership Laboratory
- Leadership Lab: Management Competencies
Situational Awareness Advice for Security Managers - February 4th, 2008
Tenet Nosce - January 29th, 2008
Using Key Competencies to Manage Career Development and Direction - May 30th, 2008
The Meeting before the Meeting - September 17th, 2008
Leadership in a Technical Role - September 17th, 2008
Motivation Mistakes Inexperienced Leaders Make and How to Avoid Making Them - March 10th, 2008
Improve the performance of a project with a good start - January 11th, 2008
Project Management for Security Managers: Develop a Plan - January 29th, 2008
Resolving Performance Issues Caused by Lack of Skill or Ability - December 24th, 2007
Living Life on Purpose - Personal Branding - Updated September 6th, 2007
Positional and Personal Authority - Updated September 6th, 2007
Cross-training: A Case Study - July 27th, 2007
How to "Pushback" - July 17th, 2007
Should I Apply for this Middle Management Position? - Updated June 13th, 2007
Groups in Conflict: How to Manage their Relationship - June 8th, 2007
Creating the Next Generation of Cyber Security Leaders - May 8th, 2007
How To Budget Time - February 8th, 2007
The Security Manager and Business Situational Awareness - January 29th, 2007
How to Address Shortcomings in Employee Evaluations - January 1st, 2007
Conducting an Exit Interview - March 22nd, 2007
Measuring Employee Performance - November 14th, 2006
Coaching to Improve Performance - March 12th, 2007
Conducting an Exit Interview
March 22nd, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
A final exit interview is typically a meeting between at least one representative from a company's human resources (HR) department and a departing employee.1 They typically have general questions such as:
- Is there something you didn't like about your boss?
- How would you rate our work environment?
- What improvements would you suggest about your job/working conditions/management support?
- What do you think it takes to succeed at this company?
- What has been good/enjoyable/satisfying for you in your time with us?
- What has been frustrating/difficult/upsetting to you in your time with us?
- Did your job duties turn out to be as you expected?
- Did you receive enough training to do your job effectively?
- What would you tell your replacement (or the next person hired) about the company?2 - 5
First, and most important, is to let the employee vent. As Traci Elllis says in her excellent web site, "If the employee wants to vent, let him talk for a few short minutes, acknowledge that you've heard what was said (but not that you agree with it) and then wrap it up!" She is actually talking about the termination itself, but the "be brief" principle applies to the exit interview as well.6 People want to be listened to: in fact, that may be one of the reasons the employee is lost to the organization. Consider the words of Dori Maynard, "People want to be listened to, they want to be challenged and they want to see room for advancement," she states. "Without that room for advancement, why would you stay in a career that you view as a dead end?"7
Second, to look for process improvements, opportunities to improve retention. Employee turnover is expensive and finding ways to keep employees happy and motivated is a good idea. Sometimes it is a management issue; you know the famous statement,"people don't leave companies they leave bosses".8 And there is supporting information for that, "According to a survey in Flex execs, the main reason people leave their jobs is because of their supervisor."9 The exit interview can help capture that information and use it to improve the performance of the management team.
Third, litigation. There are a number of issues here; the employee may bring suit or the organization may later find out they have to sue the employee. The employee is leaving with access to information. In terms of risk to intellectual property, there is a questionnaire on the web site of Smith-Robertson that is useful.10 During the exit interview the HR representative takes notes and is sensitive to statements by the employee that might lead to litigation.
Fourth, knowledge transfer. It should never be the job of HR at the last interview with the employee to have to identify knowledge that is about to be lost. However, it never hurts to ask the specific question, "is there any knowledge that only you know that is not written down anywhere?" Depending on the answer to that question, your organization may want to offer a termination agreement to the employee where you make regular payments in return for getting timely accurate answers to questions for 30 - 90 days. In some sense the amount of the payment is dependent on the value of the information; many organizations offer what they paid in salary, but it doesn't have to be that much, just enough to be interesting will usually work.
A final thought: it is better to work from a form than to shoot from the hip. A sample form can be found here.11
1 http://jobsearchtech.about.com/cs/interviewtips/a/exit_interview.htm
2 http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/haexit.htm
3 http://www.businessballs.com/exitinterviews.htm
4 http://jobsearchtech.about.com/cs/interviewtips/a/exit_interview_2.htm
5 http://www.mftrou.com/exit-interview-questions.html
6 http://www.traciellis.com/blog/?m=200610
7 http://www.blackpressusa.com/news/Article.asp?SID=3&Title=National+News&NewsID=4301
8 http://www.wolfmotivation.com/speaker/leave-bosses.htm
9 http://www.recruitireland.com/careercentre/news/rinews.asp?articleid=1237&zoneid=19&subcat
10 http://www.smith-robertson.com/Litigation/Trade%20Secrets%20Questionnaire%20Austin%20Attorney.htm
11 http://www.hrvillage.com/hrforms/ExitInterview.htm