Everyone knows it’s important to make
a good first impression when interviewing for a job. What you say and how you conduct yourself will go a long
way in determining whether you get the
job.
But what about on your way out of a
company? What would you tell a former
employer on the way out the door and how
can the employer use that information to
improve the company?
“Employers have learned that, many
times, someone who is on the way out will
tell the employer things that they would
have been afraid to say while they still
worked at the company,” says Sue Burnett,
president of Burnett Staffing. “However,
the terms the employee leaves on has to be
taken into consideration.”
Smart Business talked to Burnett about
what employers can learn about their own
companies and what they can do with that
information.
Do people have more to say if they leave on
good terms or bad?
If they’re leaving on good terms, they are
generally more than happy to share their
thoughts and are actually pleased to be
asked for their opinion. We have an exit
interview form with about 20 questions
that we e-mail to former employees after
they are gone. After they fill it out and
return it, I will schedule a personal exit
interview with them. If they work in an out
of town office, I will conduct it over the
phone.
The questions include what they liked
most and least about the company; what
were their primary reasons for leaving and
if it involved a new job, what made the new
job more attractive; what they felt about
the other employees in their department;
did the job meet their career objectives;
what they would have done differently if
the manager and why and how they rated
their pay and benefit packages. We also ask
them to evaluate their own performance
and what, if anything, they would have
done differently.
Next I read the responses and have them
expound on their comments. I take notes
and then give the results to the managers
of the people that left. I get a lot of valuable
information this way because we ask them
their thoughts about their former managers and what they think the managers
could have done differently.
How important is the personal interview?
The questions asked during the personal
interview involve things people generally
don’t like to talk about. I get a lot of information that, frankly, most owners or presidents wouldn’t get unless they hear it for
themselves. Now, I’m not saying people are
sharing every candid thought with me. I’m
sure a lot of it comes through a filter, but
there have been times when people have
been extraordinarily candid with me concerning certain situations or people in the
company. The former employees respected me and the company enough to let me
know when situations existed that needed
my attention. I appreciate that very much.
The bottom line is, it’s best to hear it for
yourself. Even if you have a HR manager
do the exit interview, that manager will
give you the information through a filter.
Do the terms people leave under determine
how truthful they will be?
It depends a great deal on the person he
or she is and how much he or she will open
up and communicate. If someone has been
terminated, you often get a ‘I didn’t deserve
this’ attitude and a lot of finger-pointing
and blaming other people in the department. It’s important to hear that while taking into account that the person is not
speaking from a completely truthful standpoint and he or she is not viewing himself
or herself honestly.
How soon after a person leaves do you conduct the interview?
If someone is terminated, I call them the
next day if I wasn’t involved in the termination. I want to hear the opinions before
the terminated employee has a chance to
cool down and maybe take some of the
edge off of what he or she wants to say.
Again, it’s important to hear that because
even though there is a lot of anger, some of
what he or she says may be brutally honest
and he or she is saying, ‘This is why I wasn’t successful.’ Especially if you’ve had
other problems in that same department
and others that have left had mentioned
the same things or people. If you’ve had
turnover and the same individual is always
singled out, then you have an issue, and
you need to take action.
Have you ever had someone’s comment lead
directly to a change?
Absolutely, because maybe that comment was the final straw and we say
enough is enough. Some people say that
exit interviews are too time-consuming. I
say if you’ve invested so much time and
money in this person, you need to spend an
hour of your time finding out why he or she
is leaving your company.
SUE BURNETT is president of Burnett Staffing. Reach her at
(713) 977-4777 or [email protected].