We have already looked at why and how you should hold exit interviews with staff who are leaving your business.
In this blog post, we’ll examine how you can make the most of the information you gather, using it to inform and shape the hiring of new staff and the retention of your current employees.
Summarising exit interview results
Summarising the feedback is one of the most crucial parts of the exit interview process. It allows you to implement the feedback into actionable steps and improve the business. The summary notes should be digitally recorded and categorised for ease of use.
Once the interview’s complete, the qualitative feedback should be recorded and categorised in an organised way. If recorded correctly, you can accumulate a valuable amount of qualitative and quantitative data over time which you’ll then use to spot trends. Many HR professionals review and analyse this information on a quarterly basis to identify any potential business improvements.
Qualitative employee data
- Any negative/positive experiences mentioned
- Any suggestions for improvement
- Employee manager feedback y Employee department feedback
- Employee level (junior/senior/management)
Quantitative employee data
- Number of years at the company y Length of time employed
- Date of notice
- Any scoring from exit surveys e.g. 7/10, likely to recommend the employer to a friend
- Employee performance/ratings
Identifying issues
An exit interview can help you identify issues within your business that you need to address. While these concerns will vary from company to company, here are some you may typically encounter:
- A certain manager has a low staff retention rate
- Particular members of staff frequently receive negative feedback
- People tend to leave when they join a particular department/team
- Changes in company policies have triggered people to leave
- Consistent dissatisfaction with aspects of how the company is run
- Employees tend to leave within a certain number of years of employment
- Employees frequently leave to join one company competitor in particular
How to share exit interview results
Any feedback from the exit interview should be put to good use and shared with the wider business. What you want to achieve from the feedback will determine who you share it with. Remember, feedback should always be delivered anonymously or in aggregate form, and the employee should be made aware of this ahead of the exit interview.
Sharing with HR
Exit interview information should be shared with HR in all its entirety since it’s HR’s responsibility to notice trends and spot any areas of concern that need escalating. Having access to all the information allows HR to create an organised and visual representation of the feedback that can be easily accessed at any time by authorised personnel.
Sharing with management
Certain aspects of the interview feedback will need to be shared with the management team. Employers should avoid openly discussing any feedback that relates to another member of the management team – this should be done privately. Any points shared with the wider management team should aim to collaboratively correct any cultural, structural or procedural problems.
Sharing with individuals
It may be appropriate to share feedback with specific individuals if they’re mentioned in the exit interview. Any feedback that relates to one person specifically can be relayed on a 1:1 basis in a private setting rather than in a group setting. Feedback should be constructive whilst also giving the member of staff an opportunity to share their perspective. Employers should use their discretion and may feel that it’s not necessary to share the feedback with the individual concerned.
Sharing with the wider business
It’s good practice for companies to share regular updates with their staff about improvements from feedback. This could be done on a quarterly basis via an email or a quarterly meeting. This update shouldn’t detail where the feedback has come from specifically or relate to any particular events. Instead, it should explain that the company is always gathering feedback for improvements via surveys, exit interviews, meetings and 1:1s. This will have the benefit of showing employees that you’re proactive in taking their feedback and acting on it to improve their working environment.
Possible action points from exit interview feedback
The action points you create from the feedback will vary significantly from organisation to organisation. Here are some examples of typical action points you might need to address:
- Further training for staff members
- Restructuring
- Improving company benefits
- Introducing remote working options
- Increasing staff wages
- Improving company culture
- Developing a clearer progression structure
- Disciplinary action
- Investigation into misconduct
