Holding The Door Open For Them

The world as we know it today has shrunk! With networking playing a humungous role in our lives, everyone seems to know everyone else. And this all-pervading networking extends to the professional arena as well. So when your employee decides to leave you for various reasons and move to a different, or perhaps, a greener pasture, wouldn’t you want to know why? Especially considering the fact that he/she does in some way become a sort of brand ambassador for your organization.

Which is exactly where the importance of conducting an exit interview, and a personalized one at that, gets highlighted. Traditionally, the focus of conducting one such interview was to understand what the exiting employee really thought about your organization, its work culture, its processes and systems, its R&R, its day to day working, the management, facilities, compensation etc., but today, his/her role also extends to that of a devil’s advocate – a reflection on what needs to be improved from within. Which can then be deployed as a tool to understand the trend in resignations and reduce your attrition rates as well.
Till recently, an exit interview was seen as a feedback tool and a kind of closure, but things in the corporate world have changed in the recent past. With more and more organizations offering returner’s schemes to their employees and many of them also encouraging their ex-employees to return to them after a point in time, exit interviews no longer have that certain dong of a closing door. In fact, many organizations and job portals today even have a column for returning professionals, which of course is something different. It indicates professionals on a break who are looking to enter the mainstream again. But when you magnanimously open the door for your exiting employees, not only do you show that you are open to criticism and give them a say in your scope for improvement, but you also show them that they are always welcome to come back and perform.
So when you create a system in your HR to capture and analyse the reasons for exit, either as an online survey, a face to face discussion, or a telephonic exit interview, the personal touch does go a long way in extracting the information that is most relevant to you. Many corporates are outsourcing the task to highly specialized HR firms to get honest and unbiased feedback.
So dont shut the door when your valued employees quit, instead hold the door open for them!