hello all
i came across this dicussion while searching info for best practices...this dicussion seems to focus only on talent mgmt in bpo....
what about other industries......does anybody know what are the best practices for curbing attrition and engaging employees...
thanx
From India, Mumbai
4i came across this dicussion while searching info for best practices...this dicussion seems to focus only on talent mgmt in bpo....
what about other industries......does anybody know what are the best practices for curbing attrition and engaging employees...
thanx
From India, Mumbai
>what about other industries.....
does anybody know what are the
best practices for curbing attrition
and engaging employees... <
The best practice is what will be adopted and what works. We have more than 35,000 employers in all industries using the job matching method to hire employees who are motivated to do their jobs, who enjoy doing their jobs and who do their jobs for along time. Some people call it hiring for talent or getting the rignt people on the bus. We call it job matching since we match employees to the demands of the job.
From United States, Chelsea
does anybody know what are the
best practices for curbing attrition
and engaging employees... <
The best practice is what will be adopted and what works. We have more than 35,000 employers in all industries using the job matching method to hire employees who are motivated to do their jobs, who enjoy doing their jobs and who do their jobs for along time. Some people call it hiring for talent or getting the rignt people on the bus. We call it job matching since we match employees to the demands of the job.
From United States, Chelsea
Hi all
Every employee has desire to work in good companies ,Attrition rate is higher in 2-5 Yrs of Experience employees compare to 5 yrs above.
if any company has the attrition rate around 5% its ok.its a general trend but if its more than that company should look in to the matter and should compile the exit interview views given by employees.
Blaming HR for everything is wrong, each department HOd should take care thier employees.
From India, Ludhiana
Every employee has desire to work in good companies ,Attrition rate is higher in 2-5 Yrs of Experience employees compare to 5 yrs above.
if any company has the attrition rate around 5% its ok.its a general trend but if its more than that company should look in to the matter and should compile the exit interview views given by employees.
Blaming HR for everything is wrong, each department HOd should take care thier employees.
From India, Ludhiana
I was going through the list of the
The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For List [2005 List]
At number one position is W L GORE & ASSOCIATES (UK) LTD
I am listing the Highlights of the practices they follow
Looks very much like the 360 appraisals, many companies use, but only few have been successful
Very practical as already proven by W.L.Gore Associates. So next time there is a turn of promotions, let their be elections..
All the managers should be trained specifically for this type of attitude.. It will definitely help
Clearly defined principles / policies that everyone follows. That keeps the focus clear and consistent..
Give your employees some important work, and remind them regularly about their importance to the company. It really helps boosting their morals
Stock options should not only be for the senior management, it should include all the employees.
Most employees would prefer lunch for 2 rupees, then Rs.800/- Sodexho.. atleast keep it as an option.. And a Cashless Health Insurance.. Well most of the IT companies are giving this, others should follow the best practices
That's what should be given, We all know that a person, if committed and happy would work even from their home, if need be to complete the task, so why not be some flexible with work timings
Think about it .. The practices are the ones followed by the best employer.. the firm is the first to top the 100 Best Companies To Work For list for two years running.
Some radical changes required in organizational culture... but maybe worthwhile effort... they have only 5% as labour turnover, that also for a privately held company having 429 employees. Some achievement
From India, Ahmadabad
The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For List [2005 List]
At number one position is W L GORE & ASSOCIATES (UK) LTD
I am listing the Highlights of the practices they follow
Looks very much like the 360 appraisals, many companies use, but only few have been successful
Very practical as already proven by W.L.Gore Associates. So next time there is a turn of promotions, let their be elections..
All the managers should be trained specifically for this type of attitude.. It will definitely help
Clearly defined principles / policies that everyone follows. That keeps the focus clear and consistent..
Give your employees some important work, and remind them regularly about their importance to the company. It really helps boosting their morals
Stock options should not only be for the senior management, it should include all the employees.
Most employees would prefer lunch for 2 rupees, then Rs.800/- Sodexho.. atleast keep it as an option.. And a Cashless Health Insurance.. Well most of the IT companies are giving this, others should follow the best practices
That's what should be given, We all know that a person, if committed and happy would work even from their home, if need be to complete the task, so why not be some flexible with work timings
Think about it .. The practices are the ones followed by the best employer.. the firm is the first to top the 100 Best Companies To Work For list for two years running.
Some radical changes required in organizational culture... but maybe worthwhile effort... they have only 5% as labour turnover, that also for a privately held company having 429 employees. Some achievement
From India, Ahmadabad
Of all the issues an HR professional is confronted with, is the nebulous issue pertaining to retention of employees.Many are my fellow HR professionals who are confronted by this issue and not clear as to how to respond and make a recommendation to their Management on how to tackle this issue.
Needless to mention ,recruitment is just the beginning of a long process that involves , once the employee comes on board,issues like motivation,growth,value addition and in the current context of knowledge worker "KNOWKER",employability .Try as they may,either due to paucity of clear cut strategy by companies towards making their employees "employable"or due to paucity of ideas on how to retain their employees, thru means other than Compensation ,managements of even so called "progressive"companies grope in the dark on how to come up with innovative ideas that would make their folks stay put.
It is in this context that one needs to look at exits and how exits ,while being painful in the short run,can give a wealth of information to the company, to device in the long run, strategies that can retain their most critical resources,the "KNOWKERS".
Exits are inevitable.This is a reality that we all need to comprehend.Whether the exit is due to a cultural misfit,poor performance,downsizing or right sizing is all a matter of detailing.Fact of the matter is that ,even in the current context of global recession ,when the popular and shortsighted notion is that there are no jobs going even if your employees are to look outside your company for a job,statistics prove that companies have lost maximum number of employees during this period.What we as HR professionals have to learn is that irrespective of the times,rare are the cases were employees have stayed put in a job that gives him\her no joy,they would rather take a plunge into the unknown than stay put in a job that gives him\her, no future value.
How have companies tackled this phenomenon?How do they learn their "lessons",so that the faults are not repeated with other employees and corrective action can be taken to improve the situation?This is where a stuctured intervention like EXIT interview comes into play.
Exit interview as a means to collate data on the exiting employees have been done by many companies.But more often than not, companies go thru with this as a matter of routine that has to be complied with and the data that emerges out of this exercise is seldom analysed.It is the analysis of the data that emerges out of this exercise, as well as the process of the exit interview adopted by companies ,that would determine whether the data is any good to go by and formulate strategies on employee retention.
FIRST THINGS FIRST.Is Exit interview required at all?Well the answer is a resounding YES, from all practitioners of this process, in a scientific manner.
The methodology differs from company to company, depending upon the specific cultures of these companies. Some companies let the department head of the exiting employee, do the exit interview, whereas in some companies it is only the HR department that does the exit interview and a third sort of company where it is a mixture of line and HR that does the exit interview.Be that as it may,the question that needs to be answered is whether the process is being gone thru, because it is a requirement for the settlement of the final dues of the employee and hence is yet another compliance which will have to be gone thru or is it a serious exercise meant to elicit from the departing employee the reasons for his departure and what needs to be done from the companies point of view as a corrective so that such sort of departures are minimised.
As I recently had a chance to listen to a CEO, who said "I do not mind if the employee is leaving for the right reasons, but let no employee from my business leave for the wrong reasons".The right reasons, according to this CEO, are reasons were the Company can’t possibly help out eg spouse employed in another city,family or personal reasons(which has nothing to do with the job or the company),requirement to move to another function or job,which is non existent in the current company etc.The wrong reasons are reasons like inability to get along with the team,morale,motivation etc which is upto the company to provide. ,which knows the pulse of its employees.
EXIT INTERVIEW FOR ALL?This is a question which has been asked frequently since the last one year or so.The logic of this question emerges from the fact that in the last one year or so,due to the economic slow down and the recession,companies had to go thru with the painful task of reducing their manpower by reducing the number of employees who according to the company were engaged in non value adding functions or activities.The question was ,since exit interview is there as a process ,should not these employees too go thru with the process of having to undergo the exit interview.Well the answer is NO.Exit interview as a process is institutionalised to capture data on employees who are leaving us and whom we would like to retain and not to gather data and information on employees leaving the company because in any case the company does not want to retain that particular employee.Imagine a situation of a company that has done VRS for its staff and if all the VRSed employees were to undergo the Exit interview?The views of the VRSed employees can only be imagined!!!But more importantly,to answer the question of whether Exit Interview as a process needs to be done for all exiting employees,the answer is NO.
WHAT EXIT INTERVIEW METHODOLOGY TO EMPLOY ?Different companies employ different processes and procedures to capture the data emerging out of an exit.Some companies employ the interview methodology and the interviewer jots down the highlights of the exiting employees tenure with the company ,both the positives and the negatives.Some companies employ the questionnaire cum interview methodology,were the exiting employee fills in a standard questionnaire on the reasons for his exit,which is routed thru his supervisors to the HR department,to note the contents and take corrective action and this is supplemented by the interview with the exiting employee to clarify the points raised by him in the EXIT Questionnaire,so that it gives an input to the company on the areas to focus on, due to which this particular employee is leaving.And there are companies that employ only the Questionnaire methodology to capture the data.The last mentioned methodology is the least preferred since experience has shown that the exiting employee might jot down views which are extremes because of his status as a "departure" candidate and the company would have little means to ascertain the veracity of what has been stated by the exitee.What is ideally recommended is the questionnaire cum interview methodology,because of its inherent strengths as a database for corrective action and moreover the points raised by the exitee, would be substantiated by the interviewer during the interview process.
WHAT DATA TO LOOK FOR AND WHAT ANALYSIS ? Whatever be the methodology adopted by the company ,the data sought for should be consistent.The companies should look for information and data from the exitees, that would throw light on the good practices of the company as well as those practices which needs improvement and which has resulted in the employee taking a decision to exit from the company.This would give an input to the company on what they are doing right which needs to be reinforced and celebrated and what is being done poorly,which needs to be improved and done differently.The changes that needs to be brought about should be as a fall out of the data that emerges out of this input.
The data that emerges should be collated and analysed to study patterns and reasons for exiting.The data analysis is very critical and should be done sensitively and carefully ,otherwise the reasons that emerge out of this analysis might not give a correct direction for the company to focus and correct what needs to be corrected as emerging out of the exit interview process.Thus it is critical that the analysis be done once in six months so that ,a trend and a pattern can be ascertained from out of the data that emerges.It is equally critical that various cuts of the data be evaluated on the basis of Qualification,age,experience,department ,business etc since this data would help the company in focussing on issues impacting the various subgroups in the company.The reason why a management trainee you hire from a premier campus is leaving you in six months, could be quite different from why an employee with more than ten years of service in the company is leaving.Similarly the reason why a management trainee from the Marketing department is leaving and the reason why a management trainee, from the same business school, but assigned to the finance department is leaving, could be quite different.In fact data collation is only the beginning of the task, the real skill and challenge lies in data interpretation and analysis.The seriousness of this needs no emphasis ,since the action plan for the company to retain employees on the basis of employees exiting,is dependent on this data analysis.
In these times which are dynamic to say the least,if there can be one "listening post" for the company to hear the "grouses"of employees whom the company would have ideally liked to retain,then the only structured way of capturing the data is thru an institutionalised EXIT interview process
Ekta
From India, Ahmadabad
Needless to mention ,recruitment is just the beginning of a long process that involves , once the employee comes on board,issues like motivation,growth,value addition and in the current context of knowledge worker "KNOWKER",employability .Try as they may,either due to paucity of clear cut strategy by companies towards making their employees "employable"or due to paucity of ideas on how to retain their employees, thru means other than Compensation ,managements of even so called "progressive"companies grope in the dark on how to come up with innovative ideas that would make their folks stay put.
It is in this context that one needs to look at exits and how exits ,while being painful in the short run,can give a wealth of information to the company, to device in the long run, strategies that can retain their most critical resources,the "KNOWKERS".
Exits are inevitable.This is a reality that we all need to comprehend.Whether the exit is due to a cultural misfit,poor performance,downsizing or right sizing is all a matter of detailing.Fact of the matter is that ,even in the current context of global recession ,when the popular and shortsighted notion is that there are no jobs going even if your employees are to look outside your company for a job,statistics prove that companies have lost maximum number of employees during this period.What we as HR professionals have to learn is that irrespective of the times,rare are the cases were employees have stayed put in a job that gives him\her no joy,they would rather take a plunge into the unknown than stay put in a job that gives him\her, no future value.
How have companies tackled this phenomenon?How do they learn their "lessons",so that the faults are not repeated with other employees and corrective action can be taken to improve the situation?This is where a stuctured intervention like EXIT interview comes into play.
Exit interview as a means to collate data on the exiting employees have been done by many companies.But more often than not, companies go thru with this as a matter of routine that has to be complied with and the data that emerges out of this exercise is seldom analysed.It is the analysis of the data that emerges out of this exercise, as well as the process of the exit interview adopted by companies ,that would determine whether the data is any good to go by and formulate strategies on employee retention.
FIRST THINGS FIRST.Is Exit interview required at all?Well the answer is a resounding YES, from all practitioners of this process, in a scientific manner.
The methodology differs from company to company, depending upon the specific cultures of these companies. Some companies let the department head of the exiting employee, do the exit interview, whereas in some companies it is only the HR department that does the exit interview and a third sort of company where it is a mixture of line and HR that does the exit interview.Be that as it may,the question that needs to be answered is whether the process is being gone thru, because it is a requirement for the settlement of the final dues of the employee and hence is yet another compliance which will have to be gone thru or is it a serious exercise meant to elicit from the departing employee the reasons for his departure and what needs to be done from the companies point of view as a corrective so that such sort of departures are minimised.
As I recently had a chance to listen to a CEO, who said "I do not mind if the employee is leaving for the right reasons, but let no employee from my business leave for the wrong reasons".The right reasons, according to this CEO, are reasons were the Company can’t possibly help out eg spouse employed in another city,family or personal reasons(which has nothing to do with the job or the company),requirement to move to another function or job,which is non existent in the current company etc.The wrong reasons are reasons like inability to get along with the team,morale,motivation etc which is upto the company to provide. ,which knows the pulse of its employees.
EXIT INTERVIEW FOR ALL?This is a question which has been asked frequently since the last one year or so.The logic of this question emerges from the fact that in the last one year or so,due to the economic slow down and the recession,companies had to go thru with the painful task of reducing their manpower by reducing the number of employees who according to the company were engaged in non value adding functions or activities.The question was ,since exit interview is there as a process ,should not these employees too go thru with the process of having to undergo the exit interview.Well the answer is NO.Exit interview as a process is institutionalised to capture data on employees who are leaving us and whom we would like to retain and not to gather data and information on employees leaving the company because in any case the company does not want to retain that particular employee.Imagine a situation of a company that has done VRS for its staff and if all the VRSed employees were to undergo the Exit interview?The views of the VRSed employees can only be imagined!!!But more importantly,to answer the question of whether Exit Interview as a process needs to be done for all exiting employees,the answer is NO.
WHAT EXIT INTERVIEW METHODOLOGY TO EMPLOY ?Different companies employ different processes and procedures to capture the data emerging out of an exit.Some companies employ the interview methodology and the interviewer jots down the highlights of the exiting employees tenure with the company ,both the positives and the negatives.Some companies employ the questionnaire cum interview methodology,were the exiting employee fills in a standard questionnaire on the reasons for his exit,which is routed thru his supervisors to the HR department,to note the contents and take corrective action and this is supplemented by the interview with the exiting employee to clarify the points raised by him in the EXIT Questionnaire,so that it gives an input to the company on the areas to focus on, due to which this particular employee is leaving.And there are companies that employ only the Questionnaire methodology to capture the data.The last mentioned methodology is the least preferred since experience has shown that the exiting employee might jot down views which are extremes because of his status as a "departure" candidate and the company would have little means to ascertain the veracity of what has been stated by the exitee.What is ideally recommended is the questionnaire cum interview methodology,because of its inherent strengths as a database for corrective action and moreover the points raised by the exitee, would be substantiated by the interviewer during the interview process.
WHAT DATA TO LOOK FOR AND WHAT ANALYSIS ? Whatever be the methodology adopted by the company ,the data sought for should be consistent.The companies should look for information and data from the exitees, that would throw light on the good practices of the company as well as those practices which needs improvement and which has resulted in the employee taking a decision to exit from the company.This would give an input to the company on what they are doing right which needs to be reinforced and celebrated and what is being done poorly,which needs to be improved and done differently.The changes that needs to be brought about should be as a fall out of the data that emerges out of this input.
The data that emerges should be collated and analysed to study patterns and reasons for exiting.The data analysis is very critical and should be done sensitively and carefully ,otherwise the reasons that emerge out of this analysis might not give a correct direction for the company to focus and correct what needs to be corrected as emerging out of the exit interview process.Thus it is critical that the analysis be done once in six months so that ,a trend and a pattern can be ascertained from out of the data that emerges.It is equally critical that various cuts of the data be evaluated on the basis of Qualification,age,experience,department ,business etc since this data would help the company in focussing on issues impacting the various subgroups in the company.The reason why a management trainee you hire from a premier campus is leaving you in six months, could be quite different from why an employee with more than ten years of service in the company is leaving.Similarly the reason why a management trainee from the Marketing department is leaving and the reason why a management trainee, from the same business school, but assigned to the finance department is leaving, could be quite different.In fact data collation is only the beginning of the task, the real skill and challenge lies in data interpretation and analysis.The seriousness of this needs no emphasis ,since the action plan for the company to retain employees on the basis of employees exiting,is dependent on this data analysis.
In these times which are dynamic to say the least,if there can be one "listening post" for the company to hear the "grouses"of employees whom the company would have ideally liked to retain,then the only structured way of capturing the data is thru an institutionalised EXIT interview process
Ekta
From India, Ahmadabad
Hi Ekta
great article. It is very clear and crisp on the exit interview process and when going through it, I realised that most of us want to and set out to do the correct work but fall mid way for the routine process and as a result the essence of the entire exercise is lost. Thanks for reminding all of us about that.
I would also like to request if you could share a good questionnaire of exit interview. Though we follow a fairly decent one here but value add is definitely welcome anytime.
Cheers
Pooja
From India, Delhi
great article. It is very clear and crisp on the exit interview process and when going through it, I realised that most of us want to and set out to do the correct work but fall mid way for the routine process and as a result the essence of the entire exercise is lost. Thanks for reminding all of us about that.
I would also like to request if you could share a good questionnaire of exit interview. Though we follow a fairly decent one here but value add is definitely welcome anytime.
Cheers
Pooja
From India, Delhi
Nice article.
But all the research tells us that exit interview data is unreliable. (departing employees give socially acceptable reasons to protect their references)
Using quantitative analysis on unreliable data is asking for trouble.
Exit interviews can be structured to provide some insight but they should not be used to diagnose the key drivers of turnover.
I have spent several weeks looking into the exit interview process and the different approaches adopted, for a report I am writing.
Sadly, many companies make fundamental errors with their exit interviews. One of which is believing that all their employees will tell the truth.
Col
From United Kingdom, London
But all the research tells us that exit interview data is unreliable. (departing employees give socially acceptable reasons to protect their references)
Using quantitative analysis on unreliable data is asking for trouble.
Exit interviews can be structured to provide some insight but they should not be used to diagnose the key drivers of turnover.
I have spent several weeks looking into the exit interview process and the different approaches adopted, for a report I am writing.
Sadly, many companies make fundamental errors with their exit interviews. One of which is believing that all their employees will tell the truth.
Col
From United Kingdom, London
Hello Col:
>But all the research tells us that exit interview data is unreliable.<
I agree.
>Using quantitative analysis on unreliable data is asking for trouble.<
Employers that wait until their employees leave before asking them for their comments deserve the turnover they have.
>Exit interviews can be structured to provide some insight but they should not be used to diagnose the key drivers of turnover. <
The key drivers for turnover are the executives who ask for exit interviews. Why wait until employees quit to learn what they think?
>Sadly, many companies make fundamental errors with their exit interviews. One of which is believing that all their employees will tell the truth.<
There are other problems with exit interviews such as...
-- poor performers' opinions are given too much weight
-- top performers opinions are often given too little weight
-- the reasons for turnover read the reports but don't see themselves.
Well done Col.
From United States, Chelsea
>But all the research tells us that exit interview data is unreliable.<
I agree.
>Using quantitative analysis on unreliable data is asking for trouble.<
Employers that wait until their employees leave before asking them for their comments deserve the turnover they have.
>Exit interviews can be structured to provide some insight but they should not be used to diagnose the key drivers of turnover. <
The key drivers for turnover are the executives who ask for exit interviews. Why wait until employees quit to learn what they think?
>Sadly, many companies make fundamental errors with their exit interviews. One of which is believing that all their employees will tell the truth.<
There are other problems with exit interviews such as...
-- poor performers' opinions are given too much weight
-- top performers opinions are often given too little weight
-- the reasons for turnover read the reports but don't see themselves.
Well done Col.
From United States, Chelsea
Bob,
I have to agree with your comments. Employee insight needs to be obtained before someone has decided to leave.
Employers must gain a greater understanding of employee needs, aspirations and preferences, if they are to retain good performers during periods when the labour market is tight.
Employee value propositions need to be developed once you understand what it is your employees really value. (and not just copied off whatever happens to be in vogue at the moment)
Exit interviews are incredibly difficult to do well. And as you point out, you do need to take into consideration whether these are the views of someone you really wanted to retain.
The smart move is almost always to conduct stay interviews with those you really want to retain.
Col
From United Kingdom, London
I have to agree with your comments. Employee insight needs to be obtained before someone has decided to leave.
Employers must gain a greater understanding of employee needs, aspirations and preferences, if they are to retain good performers during periods when the labour market is tight.
Employee value propositions need to be developed once you understand what it is your employees really value. (and not just copied off whatever happens to be in vogue at the moment)
Exit interviews are incredibly difficult to do well. And as you point out, you do need to take into consideration whether these are the views of someone you really wanted to retain.
The smart move is almost always to conduct stay interviews with those you really want to retain.
Col
From United Kingdom, London
Hello Col:
>I have to agree with your comments.<
Thanks.
>Employee insight needs to be obtained before someone has decided to leave.<
Yes, once an employee has intellectually left the organization it is too late.
>Employers must gain a greater understanding of employee needs, aspirations and preferences, if they are to retain good performers during periods when the labour market is tight. <
Our clients do that as part of their selection process.
>The smart move is almost always to conduct stay interviews with those you really want to retain.<
That is the approach we use, we learn what it is about the best employees that allows them to be the best employees then hire more of them.
Bob
From United States, Chelsea
>I have to agree with your comments.<
Thanks.
>Employee insight needs to be obtained before someone has decided to leave.<
Yes, once an employee has intellectually left the organization it is too late.
>Employers must gain a greater understanding of employee needs, aspirations and preferences, if they are to retain good performers during periods when the labour market is tight. <
Our clients do that as part of their selection process.
>The smart move is almost always to conduct stay interviews with those you really want to retain.<
That is the approach we use, we learn what it is about the best employees that allows them to be the best employees then hire more of them.
Bob
From United States, Chelsea
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