New twist on employee termination: Survey your ex-employees
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New twist on employee termination: Survey your ex-employees

Waiting a few months can provide more revealing insight on your employee terminations

Looking for a new, low-cost way to learn why good people leave your firm? Try surveying them six or eight months after the employee termination.
While traditional exit interviews are valuable to employers, more companies should conduct “former-employee surveys” to glean important information about turnover, the Hay Group’s Mark Royal told HR21.
According to Royal, former employee surveys:

  • Give a more balanced perspective. Employees may be highly emotional immediately after the employee termination. What they say on their last day will differ dramatically from what they’ll tell you several months later.
  • Show the real reasons for turnover. Workers who fear getting a bad reference may claim the employee termination is because they got a better offer elsewhere. But they may not admit they wouldn’t have looked elsewhere had they respected their boss, for example.
  • Keep you in touch with former employees. As we’ve written previously, former workers may want to “boomerang” back to the firm. Or they may refer top candidates to your company. These folks know your organization well. Touching base with them six months out expands your valuable contact network.

Royal says that the difference between what people say the day of the employee termination and three to 12 months later is often dramatic and revealing.

Source: The Hay Group. HR 2.17

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