The important criteria for every business’ success depends on the employees in the organization. Your company’s growth depends on how you treat your employees. On the other hand, it is important to note that no matter how gracefully you treat your employees and no matter how many benefits you offer, there is always a better option they could find. In this never-ending loop where your employees can always find a better option, your organization will face employee turnover regularly.
Employees quitting the organization may come as unexpected news. But, as a business, it is important to be prepared and give more importance to making a seamless exit process for the employees. It is important to make the exit process favorable to the organization to streamline the process and also reduce turnover.
Before understanding how to reduce employee turnover in a company, let us understand what an exit interview is.
Exit Interview:
An exit interview is a formal interview between the employee and the management when the employee decides to separate from the organization. Resignation is a phase where the employee chooses his voluntary separation from the organization, either communicated orally or in a written format.
Exit interviews can be awkward or uncomfortable for small companies and start-ups. The exit process can be done smoothly with a proper system and tools that serve as a knowledge base, such as an employee handbook. Here are a few ways how exit interviews can help reduce the employee turnover:
- Understand the employees
Understanding the employee’s preferences might be a great task. Exit interviews can be a terrific opportunity to understand what was missing in your organization and why they are moving on to the other one. This also helps your business figure out the changes that need to be made to improve the business. Maintain all this information regarding the exit process in an employee handbook or a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
- Helpful reviews to implement
Once the management conducts exit interviews and understands the employees, it is important to take immediate action. You need to implement meaningful reviews in the organization. And although it may not be possible to implement the reviews immediately, management can discuss the changes that can be made to benefit the existing employees. Creating a proper timeline regarding the changes that have to be done would also help reduce employee turnover in the future.
It would be best to consider exit calls as a business. As the number of exit interviews increases, the number of reviews will also increase. It is important to prioritize what should be done first and how to act accordingly. This helps the overall well-being of the employees in the organization and, in turn, reduces employee turnover.
- Identify trends
An exit interview can be of immense help in identifying trends in your organization. You cannot conclude something just because you heard about it from one of the employees leaving the organization. You will take it under consideration when employees who leave the organization constantly leave similar feedback. This shows the trend of a problem that has been continuing for a sustained period of time, and this would help the company take immediate action and resolve the matter, which will, in turn, reduce employee turnover.
The identified trends can also be mentioned in the employee handbook so that both the existing and new employees will know about the dos and don’ts in the organization.
- Alternate best options
Exit interviews can lead the way to show you better employees and pave the way for new ones. Such instances are possible when the existing employees do not feel aligned with their tasks and decide to move to a better role that makes them feel aligned with the work. In such situations, companies can use this phase to understand potential employees during the initial stages of hiring. This will help in reducing employee turnover.
- Asking the right questions
This is one of the key areas that management must focus on when conducting employee exit interviews. Most companies perform exit interviews just for the sake of it. It would be a notable change if exit interviews were planned well with the right questions. When you ask employees the right questions, you will know what changes need to be made in the organization.
These questions can be stored as an SOP in an HRIS which eases the exit interview. This will be a time-saving activity as well.
Wake-up call!
All these tips shared above cannot help your current employees stay in the organization. But, when the exit interviews are done right, it can help prevent employee turnover. No employee would be willing to move out when their needs and demands (including compensatory benefits) are met. It is important to focus on employee wellness to help employees stay in the organization.
You can strengthen your business only with the right employees. So, you need to take care of your employees. If you want to focus on an ever-growing business, keeping the right fit in your company is important. It is also important to take care of their needs in the first place to help them stay in the organization.
Final words
Exit interviews can function as a magic wand, and you can make the best use of them when they are utilized in the right way. It helps your company build a company culture that makes employees love the organization. With the insights from exit interviews, it could be beneficial for you to discuss and implement necessary changes to avoid unfortunate events in the future. This is how exit interviews can be of immense help to companies in reducing employee turnover. In short, exit interviews can make or break the organization.
Considering all the tips above, we hope you take some to implement in your organization to conduct the exit interview in the best way possible and get the maximum benefits from it.
