Why Exit Interviews Matter
Gallup recently conducted a survey showing 51% of employees are actively seeking a new job. It’s no secret that the average job tenures have been shrinking for decades, but since 2015 the numbers have gotten significantly worse. We hear terms like “quiet quitting” where an employee is asking to get fired by disengaging and doing the minimum possible. This coincides with a massive spike in job insecurity due to not having clearly defined goals for an individual or their team. The Harvard Business Journal, in a recent article about exit interviews, shared the story of a new manager who lost 9 of the 17 employees in their first year due to a lack of clear vision and division of responsibilities. So, we have much of the workforce looking around for jobs, much of the workforce scared to lose their job, and much of the workforce doing the least amount possible to keep their job. This seems like a mess, how do we clean it up.
We’re not going to fix every problem in the workplace in one article. However, we can look at how a company, at the very least, can have an accurate understanding of why they are losing people. The answer is Exit Interviews, and they need to be conducted by an external party. Work Institute wrote an article in 2019 highlighting the key reasons why: They are more accurate. About 63% of responses changed when the departing employee spoke to an external agent about why they left. Response rates overall increased by almost 40%. If the responses aren’t real, aren’t exposing the actual reasons for why employees are leaving, then nothing is accomplished. People just feel more comfortable talking when they know they won’t be burned.
Over the last two decades, companies have poured resources into creating the best work environments possible in order to retain employees. It’s been an arms race to not only increase compensation but offer benefits, work from home or remote, more vacation, etc. that the competition doesn’t have. However, the two most common reasons for quitting, more money and a better boss, have nothing to do with all those benefits.
Ultimately, each company needs to have honest assessments of their leadership or they will continue to make the same mistakes time and time again. Micromanagers are typically those who only see their way and can’t be brought to understand a different point of view. “I was successful, so I’m going to make a bunch of mini-me’s so they’ll be successful too.” It doesn’t matter if you believe you are right, if you keep losing great employees and you don’t even know why, your business is going to suffer. Hearing the truth can hurt, but let’s all be adults and focus on creating a better workplace.
