This attitude is short-sighted
at best and highly damaging at worst. There are a range of flaws to this line
of thinking. Here's a few for starters: 1.
What do you do if you have a hole in your bucket? You plug it! (Fast) Whilst
a certain percentage of your departing staff may be considered 'Desired Departures',
on the flip side a significant percentage of any organisation's departing staff
can typically be categorised as 'Undesired Departures'. So if people you don't
want to leave (eg. the valuable type that generate revenue or make significant
contributions to the success of the organisation) go ahead and leave, you better
be making it your business to find out what's prompted their decision. 2.
A great opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Nobody's perfect right?
So if you do have a weakness with your organisation's training and development
plans, or remuneration alignment with industry peers, or your onboarding process,
do you stick your head in the sand like an Ostrich, or do you do the right thing.
That would be to LISTEN
and preferably act on addressing the reoccurring
weaknesses that you have uncovered. 3. The 'naked truth'.
With less fear about treading on toes of bosses and colleagues, the exit survey
is a golden chance to understand the 'naked truth' form departing staff about
what's really going on within your organisation. 4.
A pulse on HR program effectiveness. If a year ago your organisation had
issues with its in-house training program, and over the course of the year HR
invested significant time and expense on addresses this issue, wouldn't you want
to know employees' thoughts on the impact of these changes. Wouldn't it be useful
to see that the average score for 'in-house training' was 61% in 2009, but had
risen to 76% in 2010 as a result of your renewed efforts? (Grounds for pay rise
I'd say!) One valuable opportunity for this un-vetted feedback is the exit survey
(see The 'naked truth' above). 5. Protect your employment
brand and reputation. When people leave they go elsewhere - sometimes
to your competitors, sometimes to bar-b-ques or dinner parties where your future
employees may be lurking. And they talk - they talk about their memory of your
organisation. What lasting final memory do you want them to convey? One of an
organisation that, even in the 11th hour, didn't bother to enquire about the reasons
for your departure, and offer you an opportunity to have your say about how the
organisation can improve? An organisation that really didn't care about what you
thought?
I could go on
but I
think you're getting my point.
With the total cost of departing
staff widely accepted to be between 100% and 150% of their annual salary[1],
it certainly makes good commercial sense to measure and track the reasons for
their departure, and use this feedback to implement strategies to reduce the organisation's
staff turnover rate. A solid Exit Survey process will be
designed to streamline your organisation's exit interview data collection and
deliver you ongoing accurate and actionable reporting data for many years to come. Written
by Paul Quinn, of Quinntessential. © 2010. Trial
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starter' feedback surveys to name a few popular uses. 
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