Exit interviews will be more commonplace. With one in five employees expected to change jobs this year, you may have already lost some of your team. Did you hold an exit interview? If you didn’t then you could be missing out. It’s your opportunity to find out things that need to be actioned to help improve your retention rates. No matter the size of your company, it’s likely you don’t really know how your employees are feeling. So, utilising the exit interview for an insiders view is invaluable.

But how do you make sure that you get the best out of your time? You need to carefully consider what you’d like to find out. And more importantly, what you’ll do with it.

First, let’s cover some exit interview do’s and don’ts

Exit Interview Do’s

It’s always best practice to get a member of the HR team to conduct the interview. Your employees may be more honest with HR than with a line manager or director. Your employees will need to feel comfortable that their honesty will be appreciated. It’s important that they don’t feel judged. Reassurance is also key when it comes to confidentiality. An employer is likely to share more if they know it’s not going to be widely shared.

Exit Interview Don’ts

You know the well-known phrase about making assumptions. It’s important not to assume anything. Keep an open mind and don’t allow bias, or even disappointment to creep in. Don’t email a list of questions and expect an honest response. Exit interviews should always be conducted face to face if you are to really benefit. And finally, don’t forget to say thank you. Thanks the employee for their time and their honesty. Remember, they are likely to share some of their experience with their colleagues.

Questions to ask

It’s key that you approach each exit interview individually. Having a set list of questions that you use for every employee isn’t going to give you the answer you need. However, here’s 10 examples to get you started –

• What was it that made you start to look for another role?
• Was it the salary or the culture that attracted you to this new role?
• Do you feel that you were supported in your role?
• Did you feel that you could cope with your workload? – Burnout is on the rise. This is a key question to determine if it’s a problem in your workforce
• Have you been given extra training?
• Did you receive regular feedback from your line manager? – If so, it’s good to ask if it was predominately positive or negative
• Do you feel that you have all the tools you needed to do the role?
• Is the company culture what we promote it to be?
• Do you feel that your contribution was recognised?
• What would be one thing you could change about your role?

Looking to recruit?

If you are performing an exit interview, it’s likely there’s also the need to hire. The jobs market isn’t what it used to be. With more vacancies than ever before, it’s getting harder to find the right candidates. That’s where using an agency comes in. In times like this, it’s important that you are still able to secure the best people for your role. Working with an agency can make it all a lot easier. When you choose to work with Langley James, you get to benefit from our decades of experience and network building. This is where your next hire can be found.

So, if you are looking to recruit into your IT team, get in touch with our IT recruitment experts today and let’s help you to recruit someone worth recruiting.