Exit interviews no longer a formality

Feedback from employees who resign can provide valuable insights into how a company is perceived.

It is said that an employee is best-placed to assess and evaluate a company"" especially when he is set to leave or is planning to leave, because then he has nothing to win or lose by being frank and honest.

This is the premise on which exit interviews are based"" a practice that has become de rigueur among Indian companies. Exit interviews are conducted for employees after they have resigned and just before they leave.

"Firms with strong HR processes in place are the ones that have exit interviews," says B S Murthy, CEO of Human Capital, a Bangalore-based recruitment and training firm.

The feedback elicited during an exit interview gives the management a measure of employee perceptions of the company. Exit interviews of key managers yield insights into what may have prompted them to leave, and whether the needed systems and processes are in place.

As E Balaji, chief operating officer of Ma Foi Management Consultants, a search firm, points out, years ago there was no great attrition and people largely stayed in a job for life. Today, even CEOs regularly ask for analyses of exit interviews. "Today an exit interview is not a mere formality, but a necessity. If an employee is leaving, a company needs to know why."

But who conducts the exit interview is vital, notes Murthy. If done by a junior person, it is probably being done as a mere formality. When conducted by a senior person, it can give a company valuable insights into why an employee is leaving and what is wrong with the firm's systems and processes.

Being a frank and open discussion, an exit interview gives HR departments a perspective on what they may have to change or correct.

In day-to-day conversations, many issues and problems do not crop up and HR departments are often at sea about them. It is only during exit interviews that HR departments come to know of key ground realities and ways to resolve them.

Says Sudhakar Balakrishnan, director and chief operating officer of Adecco India, a recruitment solutions firm: "Exit interviews give every company an opportunity to gain an insight into employees."

Firms with a strong people-orientation and respect for the individual conduct them to help improve the way they work by making the required changes in HR policies, he adds.

"Exit interviews at the CXO level are taken more seriously by companies. It is a learning process for companies," says S Krishna Prakash, managing partner of EMA Partners International, a global executive search firm. At junior levels exit interviews are one-off affairs.

At senior levels they could be spread over more than one session, and at the CXO level they often take the form of efforts to understand problems and retain the individual.

Exit interviews could even be done three or six months after an employee leaves, explains Balaji, "because those who have just put in their papers can be emotionally charged, but later, they may feel they have something to contribute."

Resignations may be related to compensation, loss of chemistry with the immediate superior, or a feeling that the individual is no longer growing or learning by staying on. All HR experts are unanimous that the precise cause must be identified and addressed.