Ask HN: Does your company find value in exit interviews? - probinso
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hluska
I am a sample of one, but I've generally found exit interviews awkward and
tedious. In my mind, they stink for all parties. The person leaving genuinely
doesn't want to burn bridges, so they tend to overstate the positive and gloss
over the negative.

When I manage people, I prefer going out for coffee/a walk with someone once a
week. I ask them for candid feedback on what I'm good at, what I suck at, and
how I can make their jobs easier/more rewarding. And, after they leave, I like
to invite them out for a pint/coffee a few weeks after they've been in a new
gig. The pint/coffee is mostly social, but I've gotten some amazing feedback
once the pressure of 'keeping the reference' has been removed.

But again, I'm a sample of one and I have a thicker skin than average. Heck, I
was a fat kid who moved around a lot and stuttered. Hearing that I'm a shitty
manager doesn't even register....:)

~~~
dudul
I like this idea of getting together with former report a few weeks after they
leave. I'm definitely stealing that one :)

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tetraodonpuffer
there is no upside for the person leaving to be candid in an exit interview,
nobody wants to burn their bridges, and the amount of change you can effect in
the company by leaving is small most of the time (not to mention that having
left the employee cannot drive the changes anyways).

I personally think the only thing that might be worthwhile is to have an 'exit
questionnaire' where you only have a couple of options in 1-5 (strongly
disagree / neutral / strongly agree) with very non-threatening / non-personal
areas, something like

The following are areas that I feel contributed to my decision to leave, and
put 'compensation', 'technology', 'recognition', 'career', 'life changes'

if your managers are good you should also be able to talk to the person's
manager and get some more color on the above, if they have no idea it might be
a signal that you might want to double check on how that manager interacts
with their reports (regular 1 on 1s? how are the status reports? etc.)

If you see a lot of people leave for 'compensation' it's easy to see where the
issue is, 'technology' might make you adjust the messaging you do in
interviews (not everybody can work on the latest and greatest) for
'recognition/career' you can figure out if your promotions / career ladder are
ok, and if somebody is leaving because their life circumstances change, well,
not much you can do

I think this is better than having a forced session where the employee tries
to not burn any bridges and you try to infer what they are really thinking

~~~
flukus
> there is no upside for the person leaving to be candid in an exit interview,
> nobody wants to burn their bridges, and the amount of change you can effect
> in the company by leaving is small most of the time (not to mention that
> having left the employee cannot drive the changes anyways).

That and their care factor has hit 0, their future and the companies future
are no longer tied.

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codegeek
No. It is useless. Here is why:

1\. HR is never on your side but on their employer's side. Plain and simple.
You can spin it any way but that is the fact.

2\. You don't want to burn bridges when leaving. Real negatives are difficult
to share.

3\. You are not going to take any actions anyway based on that. It is more of
a paperwork formality I think.

If someone has already decided to leave a company, it is too late for an exit
interview. People leave due to reasons such as bad boss, bad environment, shit
money, better opportunity that they want to pursue elsewhere, start their own
stuff etc. All these reasons have no use in an exit interview because as a
company, it should be your job to ensure you focus on these issues while the
employee is working for you.

