I moderated a Keynote Panel Thursday at the Ethics & Compliance Initiative’s (ECI) 2021 IMPACT Conference. On the panel were Greg Keating, partner at Epstein Becker Green, Dr. Kyle Welch, Assistant Professor at George Washington University and Dr. Pat Harned, CEO of ECI. Our topic was whistleblowers, recent reports on whistleblower activity over the past year and whistleblower retaliation. Interestingly, Dr. Welch and Keating suggested that one of the key areas to obtain whistleblowing and other reporting information is in the exit interview.
Moreover, the exit interview can be a further mechanism to operationalize compliance. This type of interview is used when someone voluntarily departs from a company, as opposed to a lay-off or reduction in force exercise. Typically departing employees are more willing to share about their experiences, concerns and issues which led to their employment departure.
In a 2016 Harvard Business Review article, entitled “Making Exit Interviews Count”, authors Everett Spain and Boris Groysberg demonstrate that exit interviews, when conducted with care, can be a very useful tool in two important areas: to increase employee engagement, to reveal what may not be working in the organization. These points speak directly to operationalizing compliance through HR. Exit interviews can provide insight into what employees are thinking, reveal problems in the organization, and shed light on the competitive landscape. They believe that companies should focus on six goals in their exit interviews, that there must be an emphasis in both “tactics and techniques” and, finally, that the process is a continuing conversation.
Uncover issues. Organizations “that conduct exit interviews almost always pursue this goal but often focus too narrowly on salary and benefits.” The problem with this approach is that salary concerns are not usually what drives employees to seek employment elsewhere. It is almost always something else. The article stated, “One leader from a food and beverage company told us that exit interviews inform his company’s succession planning and talent management process.”
Understand employees’ perceptions of the work itself. The person conducting the exit interview should understand the departing employee’s job design, working conditions, culture, and peers. By understanding and questioning the employee on this information, the exit interview “can help managers improve employee motivation, efficiency, coordination, and effectiveness.”
Gain insight into managers’ leadership styles and effectiveness. Leadership style is an important reason many employees depart for greener pastures. By inquiring into and understanding this dynamic, an organization can begin to “reinforce positive managers and identify toxic ones. One executive at a major restaurant chain told us that several exit interviews she’d recently conducted revealed that micromanagement was a big problem. The conversations, she said, led to tangible outcomes, such as “establishing training and development initiatives to create better managers.”
Learn about HR benchmarks (salary, benefits) at competing organizations. While salaries and compensation packages are usually not the driver of departures, they certainly do play a role. You should use the exit interview to do some benchmarking. The authors cited to a HR executive at a global food and beverage who noted, “We use exit interviews to see how competitive we are against other employers: time off, ability to advance, different benefits, and pay packages. And we want to see who is poaching our people.”
Foster innovation by soliciting ideas for improving the organization. The authors believe that exit interviews should go beyond the departing employee’s “immediate experience to cover broader areas, such as company strategy, marketing, operations, systems, competition, and the structure of his or her division.” One practice to follow is to ask every departing employee to complete the sentence, “I don’t know why the company doesn’t just ____.” This can reveal important trends to consider.
Create lifelong advocates for the organization. This is perhaps the most innovative, yet in many ways the most basic, which is of course to treat departing employees with dignity, respect and gratitude. Such treatment at departure may well encourage departing employees to recommend their former companies to potential employees, to use and recommend the companies’ products and services, and to create business alliances between their former and new employers. The authors cite to one North American financial services executive for the following, “You want [a departing employee] to leave as an ambassador and customer.”
Companies need employees to tell them what is going on within the organization. Dr. Welch’s academic research has demonstrated material cost saving in fines and penalties for companies with robust whistleblowing reporting systems and culture. The exit interview is a tangible, cost effective strategy you can employ today to help create a culture of whistleblowing and reporting at your organization.
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