Apropos Shyamal Majumdar’s column “The final meeting” (Human Factor, February 14), the agony of exit interviews can be sub-grouped in three categories on the basis of the employee’s number of years of work experience:
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Between two and nine years: The possible reasons for leaving the company are shifting to a higher-level organisation; better remuneration; migrating abroad or higher studies. Except big corporations that spend a lot of time and money on the recruitment and training process, others don’t bother much about such employees. In most cases, the HR department does not spend more than five minutes on their exit interviews.
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Between nine and 20 years: They mostly leave any company owing to a lack of growth/motivation; work environment; and area of operation. Normally, such employees start giving direct and indirect feedback at least six to eight months before they put in their papers. An honest employee gives the feedback in his/her self-appraisal as well — which in most cases is not read by level-1 or level-2 bosses. Blame the HR manager for not catching the signal. Later, an exit interview for them does not serve any purpose.
- Twenty years or more: Such employees are either not able to carry out with the top management, or they quit owing to the work pressure or health reasons. In this category, the top management is well aware of the situation. Most companies take corrective measures to avoid the separation of an experienced employee. If no corrective action is taken, the exit interview remains a formality.
Pramod Dixit Vadodara
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