Exit Interviews Reveal What Your Employees Really Think. Are You Ready?
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Whenever I’m asked about my metrics for success, I have an unusual answer. After the obvious stuff, like financials, I look at what people say in exit interviews. Believe it or not, what people say then might just be the best soft metric for success you can find.
The primary reason for this is culture — which I firmly believe is vital to success. And if my firm belief doesn’t convince you, research published in the Journal of Financial Economics and MIT Economics should. Multiple studies have proved that companies that show up in lists like Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For financially outperform those that don’t.
That said, no one has invented the perfect culture-o-meter yet. Some try gauging it with things like employee-satisfaction surveys or retention metrics. But neither of those is foolproof, and the latter can be especially misleading. People stay in jobs they hate for a lot of reasons, not least because no one else wants them. Exit interviews are a better success metric, and here’s why.
Leaving a job doesn’t mean you hate a company anymore. The average stay at a company nowadays is only 4.6 years. In faster-moving industries like mine, that number is much less. We lose great people who like us all the time. They leave because they feel they’re stagnating, or somebody else offers a position or salary we can’t match. They’ll also leave because that’s what career counselors advise them to do. Seriously. People used to tell you to stay a certain amount of time in a job, even if you’re not happy — now they want you to leave no matter what.
Exit interviews are honest, if you handle them correctly. You should never be hostile to a departing employee. Instead, show some compassion and interest for what’s going on in their lives. Typically, the reasons they’re leaving are complicated and not just about you. If you approach it from their perspective, they’ll often open up. If they don’t like your culture, they’ll let you know in some way — perhaps politely, perhaps not.
Ex-employees are your best (or worst) ambassadors. We’ve all heard of the creepy company that every ex-employee trashes. Or the sweatshop with career opportunities or the fun company that just doesn’t pay enough. The sources for almost all of these things are ex-employees. When people leave a company, they’re going to talk about it, and they’ll be a trusted source for anyone who trusts them. So it’s good to know what people will be saying about you in the future.
Of course, we want every employee to love us so much that they just can’t quit us. Though in the end, that’s a little silly. Even companies with the most satisfied people in the world, like Google and Zappos, have ex-employees. In today’s marketplace, people will leave — and you really want to know what they’re saying when they do. And the only way to find that out is to ask.
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More posts on this topic:
- “Success Is a Moving Target. Here’s How I Know When I’ve Hit the Mark.” — Suze Orman, television host, author, motivational speaker, producer
- “If I Can Help Women Invest Better, My Life Will Have Made an Impact” — Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and Co-founder of Ellevest
- “I Thought I Was Short on Time; Now I'm Long on Meaning” — Maynard Webb, Chairman, Yahoo!; Former COO, eBay
- “Maybe Woody Allen Was Right — 80% of Success Is Just Showing Up” — Whitney Johnson, thinker, author, speaker, advisor, coach
- “How to Turn the To-Do List into a 'Winner List'” — Naomi Simson, Founding Director, RedBalloon; Author, Blogger, Speaker
- “Wisdom from My Grandfather: You're Only in Trouble When Life Stops Being Interesting” — Nicholas Thompson, Editor of NewYorker.com
- “There’s No ‘I’ in Team. No ‘I’ in Success, Either.” — Bob Nardelli, Former Chairman and CEO of The Home Depot and Chrysler Corp.
- “When Was the Last Time You Were ‘in the Zone’?” — Neil Blumenthal, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Warby Parker
- “Why I've Learned to Celebrate the Daily Successes” — Marcus Samuelsson, Chef and Author at Marcus Samuelsson Group
QLD Director @ Talent Focus Recruitment | Business Development, Business Management
8 年Really good article. I think an exit interview is critical to a business and have always approached mine with a positive and helpful mindset. Companies can learn and grow from what is revealed. I do agree that some people will use it as an opportunity to attack, which reflects more on the person than the company, I believe.
Community Volunteer - museums and libraries
8 年I doubt companies perform exit interviews in order to glean how to improve the company. I would hazard a guess that the REAL reason is early lawsuit detection...ie, is the employee leaving because of harassment, or does the employee harbor feelings of illegal discrimination. That's why it's done by HR.
Counsellor/Mental Health Practitioner at Anglicare Sydney Supporting Recovery Program
8 年Well said
Trust, Relationship, Reputation: Analyst, Consultant, Advisor and Communications
8 年Employees still might not feel comfortable being completely forthright in an exit interview. The best time to speak to employees, solicit their feedback is while they are still employed. Choose being engaged. Proactive. Curious. Empathetic. Do the research on a regular basis. Listen well. Show your people you heard and understand them. Ask if you have it correctly. Then empower your people to be part of any necessary change that benefits the mission and culture (also should be part of the mission). Build a successful team that also benefits the individual. People will leave at times for different reasons yet your company will then attract bright new skilled professionals.
It takes a courageous Leadership Team to confront the feedback and handle it appropriately. This phenomenon seems to be more prevalent in larger organizations. Mr. Singh's comments are spot-on re: HR but often HR is pushed into the same pattern as the rest of the organization: agree with peers and Leaders, gently nudge to make incremental changes, and only respond to customer complaints or significant external threats. Over time, even response to customer complaints tends to become numbed. More agile competition (external threats), working from data/feedback (e.g., sentiment analysis), and building internal change coalitions, one leader at a time, seem to the tools and approaches to move a larger organization.