Exit interviews are often more of a formality than a genuine attempt to guide organizational change. What are the alternatives?
January 08, 2025
By Rachel Smith
Most of us have had jobs we were sad to leave and others whose door we couldn’t get out fast enough. No matter the individual’s reason for leaving, employee turnover is a financial strain on any organization. Studies estimate that the cost of losing an employee is between six to nine months of their compensation. For tech and executive positions, it’s even higher—up to two times the employee’s annual salary. Ouch.
It makes financial sense for companies to find out reasons for employee turnover so that it can be prevented in the future. That is, ostensibly, why there are exit interviews. But exit interviews, like so many other things (30-minute recipes, pixie haircuts, the NY Jets), sound great in theory but often don’t pan out in reality.
Think about it. If you already have one foot out the door, is it really worth ruffling any feathers? Maybe you have some suggestions as to how things could be made better for other employees, but you’ll still be relying on this employer for references. Plus, depending on how small of a sector you’re working in, feather ruffling simply isn’t worth it.
What does a soon-to-be ex-employee have to gain from an exit interview? As Meredith Turits states in her BBC article on the topic, “The exit interview is, undeniably, for the ultimate benefit of the employer.” It begs the question, from the employee’s perspective, “Why do you suddenly care what I think now that I’m leaving?” A 2024 Gallup survey found that 42% of voluntarily departing employees say that a manager or the organization could have done something to keep them from leaving. But by the time there’s an exit interview, it’s too late.
What could be happening instead of exit interviews that would help the organization and the employees? Here are some ideas.
Harvard Business Review’s (HBR) last issue of 2024 explored why employees quit. In it, they recommend a sort of reverse exit interview. Sit down with your newest employees and ask them why they left their previous company. Something pushed them away from their last job and something pulled them into your organization. By understanding these pushes and pulls, you can learn what kind of experiences and environments could drive people away, as well as what they are expecting out of their new position.
How should you conduct entrance interviews? HBR recommends likening the conversation to creating a documentary film about the person’s career move. I love this description, but you could also think of it as a discovery call. In fact, the specific advice provided in the article lines up nicely with how Maestro suggests approaching sales conversations.
HBR has been studying the behavioral patterns of job switchers over the past 15 years. While there are several reasons for job changes, the overarching theme of what pushes people away from a job is that they aren’t making the progress they are seeking. An entrance interview gives you the opportunity to ask about what kind of progression someone is hoping for. It allows you to align their goals with their responsibilities (which hopefully are not too rigid because you used a great job description when hiring).
The reverse exit interview gives the opposite sentiment of the traditional exit interview. Not only does my employer want to hear my feedback, but they want it right away.
One issue with exit interviews is that most people don’t think they lead to any sort of change. And the research bears that out. A (different) HBR study looking at exit interviews found that three-quarters of companies do conduct some kind of exit interview. When executives at these companies were asked for an example of a specific action taken in response to the interviews, fewer than a third were able to do so.
Stay interviews are generally informal check-ins. They aren’t tied to any sort of annual review. The goal is to find out from current employees what motivates them to stay with the company as well as what could be done to make things even better. The information gathered helps the company learn what it’s doing well and where it could do some work before anybody leaves. As Elissa Tucker of the American Productivity & Quality Center explains, the interview itself drives retention. Employees feel seen, heard, valued, and more engaged.
When you conduct stay interviews, it’s critical that you are transparent about what you plan to do with the information. After an exit interview, a former employee will never know whether their suggestions were put to good use. Not true for stay interviews. These conversations will quickly backfire if employees see that their input is not truly being heard or acted upon.
The stay interview can even be part of a larger commitment to current employees called re-recruitment. Think of all of the money and resources that go into attracting new hires—professional development opportunities, competitive compensation. Now apply some of that to your current employees.
Pulse surveys are a (usually short) set of questions that are sent to employees on a regular basis. It allows employees to provide feedback in a way that’s much easier to anonymize. Since pulse surveys happen more often, they provide more of a real-time insight into how people are feeling about the organization.
It’s important to think about how quickly your organization can react to survey results. Like stay interviews, your employees will know whether you actually do anything with their feedback. Pulse surveys let you do a pulse check of the organization, make changes, and then check in again to see how you’ve done.
Research conducted by UKG found that 92% of highly engaged employees feel heard at work compared to only 30% of highly disengaged employees, and we know that employee engagement has tremendous impacts on company performance. If you’re serious about showing your employees you value their feedback, pulse surveys are the quickest way to do so.
Pulse surveys also lend themselves to full transparency since it’s generally easier to analyze and share outcomes than it is from individual interviews. Even better than sharing results is sharing what actions will be taken based on those results.
Exit interviews, especially in the absence of any other kind of feedback-gathering effort, often feel disingenuous from the employee’s perspective. From an organizational perspective, they are a lost opportunity. There are ways to get genuine employee feedback that helps both employee and organization. And you won’t just be keeping good employees—you’ll be nurturing some of your most enthusiastic supporters. Current employees will tell others how great it is working where they do, and that will lead to your next entrance interview.
Are you ready to accelerate sales in 2025? Email us at mastery@maestrogroup.co to learn more.
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