So Long; Farewell; Auf Wiedersehen; Goodbye!

Exit interviews can be such an impactful and intriguing experience. This is your time to find out the answers to any burning questions that you may have. Some specific questions that I typically ask during my exit interviews are:

1) Why have you decided to leave the organization?

2) Was a single event responsible for your decision to leave?

3) Did you share your concerns with anyone in the organization prior to deciding to leave?

4) Could anything have been done to prevent your departure?

5) What things did the organization or management do to make your job more difficult/frustrating/unproductive?

6) What extra responsibility would you have welcomed that you were not given?

7) What can the organization do to retain its best people (and not lose any more like you)?

8) What training and development that you had did you find the most helpful?

9) What specific suggestions would you have for how the organization could manage issues better in the future?

10) What could your direct manager do to improve his or her management style?

Many of these questions can give you insight as to current employees---what could you be doing to make them happy...to retain them as team members. Questions like number 3 can also give you additional insight beyond whether as a manager you ignored requests or concerns by that team member may have made...It tells you if they have "vented" to your remaining staff-potentially stirring the pot or raising concerns or creating "fires" before their departure. Having the opportunity to sit down with your team and address these issues head on will gain you respect among your staff and will boost morale.

Your team wants to know you are listening and that they are being heard. If you don't take time out of your day to be the mentor, counselor, friend (in the office--never outside--but that's another blog rant), and a teacher, your team will stop coming to you for assistance, advice, concerns and will begin to go to their co-workers. When employees start to take their concerns to other staff members, you have lost control and are no longer seen as someone who is able to "fix" their problems. They are trying other outlets.

When I performed (or tried to perform) an exit interview recently, I was told that that particular employee preferred not to participate in the exit interview. This is always their choice. However, a comment she made really struck a chord. She said "I decline to participate, but I think those would be great questions to ask your current staff". It was beside the point that we have provided this survey to the staff twice in the time she had been employeed--her memory did not recall that she had been given an outlet a couple of times to anonymously answer these questions. I quickly went home and created a survey on http://www.surveymonkey.com/ so that the staff could answer these questions candidly and from the privacy of their own home. I hope to get some good answers and be able to address any issues that may come up that we have not realized. The fact that this employee told me I should do this gave me the sneaking suspecion that she had heard some grumblings.....you know...those grumblings that everyone else in the practice hears and never make their way firsthand to management.

Have an open door policy. Take the time (at least a couple of hours per day) to do walk around management---listen to the staff; listen to how the staff communicates with one another; listen for patterns or grumblings and see if you can address them as a mentor/friend/coach.

Do you perform exit interviews? If so, what questions do you ask your staff? Do you give them verbally, written, in a survey form, etc?

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. ~Epictetus