Many people might cringe when they imagine an exit interview. Resigning from a job is already uncomfortable, as it's often tainted with feelings of guilt or anxiety for both employee and employer. Plus, sitting in a conference room with soon-to-be former employees discussing their departure isn't the most appealing way to spend an afternoon.
But it's time to drop these preconceived notions. Times have changed, and computer-based interview systems have revamped the traditional understanding of exit interviews. The process can help nip employee turnover in the bud by finding the root of the problem while leaving hospitals stronger and more attuned to employee's needs and morale.
Beth N. Carvin is a human resources expert and CEO of Nobscot Corporation, a global technology firm based in Honolulu, Hawaii, that is focused on key areas of employee retention and development. According to Ms. Carvin, the following eight points can help hospitals understand the types of questions hospital leaders should be asking, when to conduct the interview and why an economic recovery makes the exit interview more relevant than ever.
1. Exit interviews in the healthcare industry have surged in the past few years. Employee turnover has always been of interest in healthcare, but only in the past 2-4 years has the exit interview process really picked up steam. "There's always been a lot of interest in the concept of exit interviews, but only in the last few years have hospitals been able to approach them systematically," says Ms. Carvin. Time, infrastructure and technology were common barriers to exit interviews in the past. Now, hospitals are using technology to conduct the interviews and organize results in a systematic fashion.
2. Technology has removed some tension from the process. Exit interviews are much less awkward these days due to web-based exit interview management systems, which enable respondents to provide honest feedback without fear of retribution or strained interaction. The systems also ease the burden of organization and data-aggregation for hospitals, which would otherwise have to record data into spreadsheets and files.
3. Interviews are best conducted within a "sweet spot" of time before the employee leaves. The prime time for an exit interview is within a week of the employee's last day. This is when they will still provide valid feedback. "They still have ideas for improvements that could have been made," says Ms. Carvin. "They might say, 'I'm leaving, this is why, and as an organization you could really work on these things." This information is much more helpful, and thoughtful, when the employee still feels invested in the organization.
Post-exit interviews were a fad for a while, in which employers would interview former employees three to six months after they left the organization. Ms. Carvin says this approach is a "flop." It's often very difficult to reach people months later. Also, by that time, most employees have moved on and don't care about providing constructive feedback.
4. It's best to ask a combination of qualifiable and quantifiable questions. Interviews consisting entirely of qualitative, or open-ended, questions will result in pages of narrative information that can be difficult to record, analyze or aggregate on an organizational level. "It's hard to pinpoint the real issues [with qualitative data] because it's all over the place," says Ms. Carvin. That's where quantitative questions come in. These might be posed on a rating scale and can let hospitals see trends or issues over time.
Once the quantitative data identifies those issues, the narrative answers to open-ended questions can flesh it out with detail and personal anecdotes from employees. For instance, say several employees identified "work overload" as a problem. Individual answers to qualitative questions could then sharpen the aspects of work overload that really led them to resign, such as inadequate training, uncooperative staff or poor shift scheduling.
5. A successful interview will identify irritations unique to the hospital. One of the prime goals of exit interviews is to identify the irritations within the hospital that contributed to the employee's resignation. "These can vary from hospital to hospital," says Ms. Carvin. "You need to find your drivers of turnover."
Academic research has found some of the common drivers of turnover are work overload, interpersonal relationships or how well the individual works with co-workers, promotional opportunities and job stress, according to Ms. Carvin. While these may exist in any hospital, interviewers should aim to get specifics and details about any problems at their own institution.
6. Human Resources can help the hospital act on data. A sporadic approach to exit interviews will undermine their credibility. "They're not helpful on a one-off basis," says Ms. Carvin. "What one person says doesn't matter much in the entire scheme of an organization. Exit interviews should be about improving the organization as a whole."
The human resources department should control the process. The department, as well as hospital management, should be prepared to act upon information received during exit interviews or risk employee morale. "If you're getting all this feedback and you're not doing anything, you're wasting your money. People will stop giving you good feedback if word gets out that nothing happens with it," says Ms. Carvin. She recommends hospitals have plans to analyze the information rather than sticking it in a drawer or a file and never looking at it again.
7. Underlying reasons for employee turnover can be surprising — and easily fixed. Ms. Carvin recalled a few instances in which exit interviews revealed the underlying cause for significant employee turnover — and it was pretty surprising. One hospital was having a large amount of turnover in their pharmacy. When they analyzed the feedback from their exit interviews, the hospital found new pharmacy assistants were leaving because they were "afraid they were going to kill somebody," says Ms. Carvin. "They didn't have enough training, and were just petrified. It wasn't just one person but multiple people." The hospital increased training for these employees to ensure they felt comfortable communicating with patients about medications.
Ms. Carvin has also read about a hospital with a 64 percent turnover rate of its nursing assistants. Many would leave the hospital without even working there for a year. Data from exit interviews revealed the nursing assistants felt extremely overwhelmed at the hospital, which led them to resign. Armed with this information, the hospital launched a mentor/mentee program for the nursing assistants. Within two years, turnover for that position was down to 4 percent.
8. An economic recovery means exit interviews will be more important in the next few years. Voluntary turnover rates dropped dramatically during the recession, as employees knew it would be difficult to find another job if they left. While this decrease in turnover been helpful to hospitals, it won't stay steady. "As we get out of a recession, employee turnover will increase. In 2001, voluntary turnover rates were 25 percent for healthcare. In 2010 that was down to 15 percent," says Ms. Carvin. With an expected uptick in turnover, hospitals should be prepared to implement a systematic approach to exit interviews to learn more about their organization and what problems exist within it.
Learn more about Nobscot.
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But it's time to drop these preconceived notions. Times have changed, and computer-based interview systems have revamped the traditional understanding of exit interviews. The process can help nip employee turnover in the bud by finding the root of the problem while leaving hospitals stronger and more attuned to employee's needs and morale.
Beth N. Carvin is a human resources expert and CEO of Nobscot Corporation, a global technology firm based in Honolulu, Hawaii, that is focused on key areas of employee retention and development. According to Ms. Carvin, the following eight points can help hospitals understand the types of questions hospital leaders should be asking, when to conduct the interview and why an economic recovery makes the exit interview more relevant than ever.
1. Exit interviews in the healthcare industry have surged in the past few years. Employee turnover has always been of interest in healthcare, but only in the past 2-4 years has the exit interview process really picked up steam. "There's always been a lot of interest in the concept of exit interviews, but only in the last few years have hospitals been able to approach them systematically," says Ms. Carvin. Time, infrastructure and technology were common barriers to exit interviews in the past. Now, hospitals are using technology to conduct the interviews and organize results in a systematic fashion.
2. Technology has removed some tension from the process. Exit interviews are much less awkward these days due to web-based exit interview management systems, which enable respondents to provide honest feedback without fear of retribution or strained interaction. The systems also ease the burden of organization and data-aggregation for hospitals, which would otherwise have to record data into spreadsheets and files.
3. Interviews are best conducted within a "sweet spot" of time before the employee leaves. The prime time for an exit interview is within a week of the employee's last day. This is when they will still provide valid feedback. "They still have ideas for improvements that could have been made," says Ms. Carvin. "They might say, 'I'm leaving, this is why, and as an organization you could really work on these things." This information is much more helpful, and thoughtful, when the employee still feels invested in the organization.
Post-exit interviews were a fad for a while, in which employers would interview former employees three to six months after they left the organization. Ms. Carvin says this approach is a "flop." It's often very difficult to reach people months later. Also, by that time, most employees have moved on and don't care about providing constructive feedback.
4. It's best to ask a combination of qualifiable and quantifiable questions. Interviews consisting entirely of qualitative, or open-ended, questions will result in pages of narrative information that can be difficult to record, analyze or aggregate on an organizational level. "It's hard to pinpoint the real issues [with qualitative data] because it's all over the place," says Ms. Carvin. That's where quantitative questions come in. These might be posed on a rating scale and can let hospitals see trends or issues over time.
Once the quantitative data identifies those issues, the narrative answers to open-ended questions can flesh it out with detail and personal anecdotes from employees. For instance, say several employees identified "work overload" as a problem. Individual answers to qualitative questions could then sharpen the aspects of work overload that really led them to resign, such as inadequate training, uncooperative staff or poor shift scheduling.
5. A successful interview will identify irritations unique to the hospital. One of the prime goals of exit interviews is to identify the irritations within the hospital that contributed to the employee's resignation. "These can vary from hospital to hospital," says Ms. Carvin. "You need to find your drivers of turnover."
Academic research has found some of the common drivers of turnover are work overload, interpersonal relationships or how well the individual works with co-workers, promotional opportunities and job stress, according to Ms. Carvin. While these may exist in any hospital, interviewers should aim to get specifics and details about any problems at their own institution.
6. Human Resources can help the hospital act on data. A sporadic approach to exit interviews will undermine their credibility. "They're not helpful on a one-off basis," says Ms. Carvin. "What one person says doesn't matter much in the entire scheme of an organization. Exit interviews should be about improving the organization as a whole."
The human resources department should control the process. The department, as well as hospital management, should be prepared to act upon information received during exit interviews or risk employee morale. "If you're getting all this feedback and you're not doing anything, you're wasting your money. People will stop giving you good feedback if word gets out that nothing happens with it," says Ms. Carvin. She recommends hospitals have plans to analyze the information rather than sticking it in a drawer or a file and never looking at it again.
7. Underlying reasons for employee turnover can be surprising — and easily fixed. Ms. Carvin recalled a few instances in which exit interviews revealed the underlying cause for significant employee turnover — and it was pretty surprising. One hospital was having a large amount of turnover in their pharmacy. When they analyzed the feedback from their exit interviews, the hospital found new pharmacy assistants were leaving because they were "afraid they were going to kill somebody," says Ms. Carvin. "They didn't have enough training, and were just petrified. It wasn't just one person but multiple people." The hospital increased training for these employees to ensure they felt comfortable communicating with patients about medications.
Ms. Carvin has also read about a hospital with a 64 percent turnover rate of its nursing assistants. Many would leave the hospital without even working there for a year. Data from exit interviews revealed the nursing assistants felt extremely overwhelmed at the hospital, which led them to resign. Armed with this information, the hospital launched a mentor/mentee program for the nursing assistants. Within two years, turnover for that position was down to 4 percent.
8. An economic recovery means exit interviews will be more important in the next few years. Voluntary turnover rates dropped dramatically during the recession, as employees knew it would be difficult to find another job if they left. While this decrease in turnover been helpful to hospitals, it won't stay steady. "As we get out of a recession, employee turnover will increase. In 2001, voluntary turnover rates were 25 percent for healthcare. In 2010 that was down to 15 percent," says Ms. Carvin. With an expected uptick in turnover, hospitals should be prepared to implement a systematic approach to exit interviews to learn more about their organization and what problems exist within it.
Learn more about Nobscot.
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