Forums

Hello everyone

I am looking for information about best practices for conducting exit interviews.

By way of context, I am in the UK IT industry and I manage the graduate population in my office (generally 10-12 of them at a time). It is a matrix organisation and I am on the resourcing side of the matrix.

One of my team, a good performer who we believe to have a lot of potential, is leaving the company soon. We have decided to start doing exit interviews but have no experience in them, so I'm looking for advice on what the best practices are.

I already know the reason why he is leaving if it makes a difference, it's more the other things to get from the interview and how to run it I'm interested in.

Many thanks in advance

Rob

quietlife4me's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

Given that MT recommends to people leaving to shut their mouth and answer nothing....I'm not sure MT finds much value in them.

 

See: http://www.manager-tools.com/2009/04/handling-exit-interviews

mmann's picture
Licensee Badge

Hello Rob,

What do you or your organization hope to gain from exit interviews?

 

--Michael

rrothwell's picture

Hi folks. Thanks for the responses.

I actually did the exit interview this morning and found it useful. One of my bosses was due to be present but turned up at the end it which was probably a good thing as he gets very defensive about anything he interprets as criticism.

To answer Michael's question, the goal was to find out what the person's high and low points were, and to look for areas to improve as an organisation. We have a relatively high turnover in my office, over 10%, so there is also a case for trying them as a means to stem the flow of talent (not applicable in this case, he's moving to focus on his sports career and attempt to represent his country :-)

I respect the fact that MT isn't keen on them, but I found this one a useful experience.

Rob