No matter how often it happens in your years as an agency owner, it still comes as a shock to lose someone you thought was vested in the company. But it certainly happens—good employees move along steadily working the job day in and day out, and then drop the bombshell on you. “Hey, do you have a minute...?”
Why are we always surprised when a good employee suddenly resigns to seek career opportunities elsewhere? There are many reasons—or perhaps excuses would be a better word, because the loss of a good employee should never be unexpected. Indeed, in most cases, you can look back at an employee’s history after they are gone and recall signs you noticed but paid no attention to at the time. You were really busy. You had a big meeting to prep for. You were focused on an out-of-town client’s approaching visit. You had to review agency health care benefit costs, or had accounting issues to resolve. Any of a multitude of small business matters demanded your time. So it was easier to assume everything was good with your key employees, and decide to “think about it later.”
Now the dust is clearing and your key employee’s imminent departure—with all the related issues of hiring/promoting a replacement, training, downtime, project delays, etc.—is staring you in the face. But before you move on to deal with those issues, there is something very important to your agency’s future that you need to do. That is an Employee Exit Interview.
Understanding Why
An exit interview should become a routine part of every employee resignation (and possibly of every termination as well, although how the interview is conducted and by whom may be somewhat different). Why do you need an exit interview? You probably think you can figure out why the employee is leaving—later, when you can spare a few moments to think about it. But that worked really well before the resignation, didn’t it? Conducting an exit interview compels you to make the time to understand why that good employee left, and enables you to “fix” what they perceived to be wrong or inadequate about your agency as a place of long-term employment. And that may prevent the loss of more good employees.
An exit interview can be an eye-opener for any employer. You will hear things from a departing employee no longer looking to keep his or her head below the line of fire that no current employee will ever voice. Unless you have the remarkable ability to foster an environment where employees can feel free to express their feelings about areas where the agency needs improvement without fearing reprisals or career suicide, your employees will probably just let bad feelings fester. Worse, they may simply decide that if no one (that would be you, Mr. or Ms. Principal) is going to notice the problems, let alone fix them, then the employee can feel free to go someplace where the owners are “more involved” and perceptive.
Gone are the days when employees had job expectations amounting to no more than a desire to earn a steady, equitable paycheck with some nice benefits and a couple of weeks of vacation. Employees today expect so much more than you can begin to imagine. That is why an exit interview is critical to your agency’s future, specifically to your ability to retain valuable employees. What causes one employee to leave is certainly likely to be affecting others in your employ. Stop the cancer now!
An HR Best Practice
Make the exit interview a regular part of closing out a personnel file. Ideally, the employee’s direct supervisor should conduct the exit interview, as that individual is most familiar with the employee’s workload, job performance and teammates. However, if you believe the supervisor relationship is a key factor in the employee’s departure, someone else should conduct this interview. The interview should be face-to-face—no email or paper surveys. This should be a dialogue, not a quiz. The tone should be friendly, not accusatory. This is not the time for recriminations or holding a pity party over your loss. You are trying to learn how to manage your agency better, and perhaps even keep the door open for the good employee’s return at some future date. Express regret at the employee’s leaving, thank them for their contribution to the agency’s success, and wish them luck.
Keep all exit interviews in a “my-eyes-only” file, for occasional review and to reassess how your agency is progressing based on past criticisms. Positive or negative, exit interviews can ground you in the realities of your employees’ day-to-day work lives, and teach you things about your employees’ perceptions and morale that you might never otherwise have noticed.
Ask, Then Act
Take what the departing employee says seriously. It may pay to do a job satisfaction survey of all of your employees, to see if the departing employee's perceptions are widespread, and if morale is being affected throughout the agency or only in certain departments. One principal we know conducts a sort of “state of the agency” meeting every year, where all employees join in assessing the agency’s health and future prospects, needs, wants and problems that need fixing. Everyone gets a chance to speak. All notes are then reviewed and to-do lists are prioritized by designated leadership groups, with the understanding that not all recommendations can or will be implemented, as management is ultimately responsible for agency finances and the direction the agency will pursue. Most groups prioritize correctly once they understand the trade-offs and issues.
The principal cautions that the process will “stir up all kinds of things. You MUST make quick and highly visible changes... otherwise, it will make any problems worse as [employees] will feel let down.” She also advises that a) no one be penalized for expressing an opinion; b) there are no bad suggestions; and c) no management comments should be made during the "brainstorming" process.
Ultimately, as busy as you are, it is YOUR responsibility to build an organization where valuable employees want to stay and grow. You need your employees’ full and enthusiastic participation to do this. Use exit interviews to “know why” good employees leave and to start the process of retooling for a brighter future.
