Exit interviews: A useful tool or an unethical practice

 

Introduction

Many human resource practitioners and researchers have spent years attempting to understand what motivates a seemingly pleased employee to voluntarily retire (Brotherton, 1996; Johns and Johnson, 2005). Exit interviews have been used by many human resource practitioners and researchers in an effort to understand the ills that led to such an occurrence. The belief is that exit interviews can help uncover possible reasons for voluntary employee turnover and that the information gathered from the interviews can help identify ways of improving firm performance.

Exit interviews are intended to:

 (1) Identify the true reasons for voluntary terminations - push and pull factors,

 (2) persuade the employee to stay if the organization desires,

(3) acquire information that will help management identify problem areas and set up controls,

(4) clarify charges or complaints against employees, who are being separated involuntarily,

(5) Provide references, job leads, and outplacement counseling.

The following advantages can be gained via exit interviews:

• Work-life balance: Find out how employees feel about work-life balance options such as remote work and scheduling flexibility.

• Organizational culture: Identify the communication and behavioral factors that contribute to a toxic or healthy workplace culture.

• Management: Demonstrate how management communicates with and supports employees. • Employee support: Investigate employee development, onboarding, and training approaches. 

• Retention and turnover: Determine whether employee departures are due to flaws in your business or unrelated factors, and identify opportunities to improve retention and turnover rates, as well as hiring and training costs.

Conclusion

Job satisfaction, commitment, and voluntary labor turnover are all concerns that academics and human resource practitioners have grappled with for decades. While the Australian HR practitioners in this study appear to be well informed and work for organizations that use the exit interview process, the current study calls into question the extent to which the information generated is collocated and disseminated. Although the results are not representative, they are consistent with earlier study findings (Woods & Macaulay 1987; Johns 2005) that show that exit interview data almost invariably finds up in the employee's file, where it is rarely used. Previous research findings are bolstered by the current study's conclusions, which

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