How can you establish why there is a high turnover of staff in your business?

Whilst labour turnover can be healthy for an organisation it can also be very costly. There are costs associated with the payroll and HR administration of the leaver, direct costs of recruiting a replacement, management costs in time spent interviewing candidates, costs associated with the induction and training of a new employee and loss of productivity from those leaving and until a new employee is fully trained.

Exit interviews are a simple and effective way to establish why people are leaving. Wherever possible, the exit interview should take place a short time after employees hand in their notice, in private and the interviewer should not be the employee’s direct manager or someone who may be required to write them a reference in the future.

You should explain the purpose of the interview and assure confidentiality. Ask questions which will aid you in establishing the real reasons and influences behind an employee’s decision to leave your business.

If trends are identified as a result, then it would be appropriate for you to consider possible changes to working conditions, terms and conditions, benefits, internal processes and those issues that are specific to departments, including management styles.

If an employee is reluctant to attend an exit interview then you may want to consider an alternative such as an exit questionnaire. Ideally, the business should have a policy informing employees that they may be asked to attend an exit interview to enable the Company to learn how to improve the working experience for staff.