Dismissal from work is a difficult moment for both the employee and the employer, and properly conducting this process is of great importance for the organization. One of the important elements of an employee leaving the company is the exit interview process, which allows the company to collect valuable feedback from the departing employee. In this article, we present advice from an IT recruitment agency on how to conduct effective exit interviews to maximize their value to the organization and future employees.
In the article below you will also find information about:
- onboarding and offboarding.
- what are the most common mistakes made during offboarding,
- how to properly conduct an exit interview,
and more.
Enjoy the read 🙂
Support from the IT recruitment agency – Next Technology Professionals
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What are onboarding and offboarding – why are they important?
Onboarding is the process of introducing a new employee to an organization and familiarizing them with its policies and work culture. The process begins with acceptance of a job offer and continues until the employee reaches full productivity as a team member.
Offboarding, in turn, is the process of saying goodbye to an employee leaving the organization. It includes all the steps involved in ending an employee’s employment with the company, including formalities. Handing over responsibilities and collecting feedback is a key stage in the employee life cycle, and is of great importance to the organization.
We also encourage you to read our separate article “Top 5 Tips for Remote Onboarding”.
Onboarding or offboarding – which process is more important?
Both processes, onboarding and offboarding, play an important role for both the company and the employee – onboarding introduces them to the organization, while offboarding prepares them for departure. Although it is important to do both correctly, offboarding provides valuable feedback, including constructive criticism and suggestions for possible improvements in the company’s operation.
The most common mistakes made during the offboarding process
Forcing employee to participate in offboarding
A farewell conversation should be an invitation, not an obligation. Forcing an employee to participate can affect their feelings and overall impression of the company. The company should show employees that feedback is valuable and supports development, but participation should be completely voluntary in order to obtain honest information from departing employees.
Lack of empathy for the leaving employee
In the event of a layoff, it is important to first address the employee’s emotions. After finding out how the departing employee really feels, you can begin to gather their opinions. An empathetic and understanding atmosphere promotes openness and makes it easier to share observations.
Inappropriate person conducting the conversation during offboarding
If the exit interview is conducted by a direct superior, the employee may fear the consequences of their opinions and feel uncomfortable expressing their own opinion, which may not be perceived as constructive criticism. To obtain honest answers, it is worth having such an interview conducted by a specialist from the HR department, who will create a neutral and comfortable space.
Rigid form of exit interview
Too formal structure of a conversation can discourage employees from speaking honestly. The casual nature of the meeting allows open communication and a better understanding of the departing employee’s perspective.
Wrong choice of questions during offboarding
The lack of carefully selected questions leads to low-value answers. Questions should be fitted to the employee’s specific situation and experiences, and constructed in a clear and objective manner to obtain the most valuable feedback.
No use for collected information
Collecting feedback during offboarding only makes sense if it is analyzed and implemented. However, the collected data is often ignored and abandoned, which prevents drawing conclusions and implementing improvements in the company.
Exit interview – what is it?
An exit interview is a formal interview or survey conducted with an employee who is leaving a company. The purpose of an exit interview is to collect feedback from the employee, including: the strengths and weaknesses of the company, the reason for the employee’s decision to leave the company, and the employee’s general impressions and opinions about the company.
Conducting an exit interview can be an extremely important point in the offboarding of an employee. A professional approach is to ensure that the employee feels appreciated for the time they have spent working for our company, even at the time of departure. The exit interview is intended to culminate the current cooperation and find out what the employee actually thinks about the company, as well as what is worth considering.
During an exit interview, an employee can provide valuable information about why they decided to leave the company. This can clarify the situation at the company and indicate areas that should be worked on to prevent further potential employee departures.
How to correctly conduct an exit interview?
To properly conduct the exit interview process with a departing employee, you should first of all:
Highlight the purpose and essence of the exit interview
The purpose of an exit interview is to obtain honest feedback from departing employees to identify strengths and areas for improvement. It is an important process for the organization, providing valuable information to support improvements in the company, therefore the purpose and essence of the exit interview should be transparent to the employee.
You need to choose the right person to conduct the exit interview
It is best for it to be a person from the HR department or another impartial person who will not put pressure on the departing employee with his presence. Then we can be sure that such an employee will be more willing to provide honest answers and constructive criticism.
It is worth preparing a list of appropriate questions for an exit interview
It is worth preparing a list of questions about the employee’s general feelings, reasons for leaving, and suggestions for improving work in the company.
Conversation as a form of exit interview
Many companies choose an interview because it allows for additional questions to be asked and a deeper understanding of the situation can be obtained than in the case of a survey, where questions may take the form of closed-ended or yes/no questions.
Also check out what not to say at an exit interview as an employee in the material prepared by LinkedIn News.
Reasons why employees leave work
Recently, interesting reporting data from INTOO and Workplace Intelligence has appeared, which shows that 46% of 1,600 full-time employees believe that their managers do not know how to support their career development. Additionally, 59% said their company rarely or never helps them explore opportunities outside of their current department.
More than half of these employees feel that their workplace does not provide adequate support for career development, both in terms of promotion to higher positions and expanding competences in various areas of the organization.
Why do IT specialists change jobs?
The reasons, of course, may be different. As an IT recruitment agency, we have investigated the reasons for leaving work in our IT job market data report for 2024. Inside you will find detailed results and much more from the world of IT. You can download it here.
What can we do to make our employees stay with us?
It is extremely important to have regular conversations with employees, which allow you to better understand both the weaknesses and strengths of the organization. Such meetings provide an opportunity to obtain valuable feedback from employees, which helps to identify areas that require improvement and those that are working well and can be further developed.
Conversations may take the form of interviews, individual meetings with managers, employee surveys or group sessions. Regularly collecting feedback from the team allows the company to better adapt its strategies and build a more effective and engaged work culture.
Get to know your employees
Do you want to learn more about the preferences of IT employees? Check out our articles that will help you 🙂
- The most popular employee benefits in the IT industry in 2024,
- Talking With an Employee About a Raise – 5 Useful Practices,
- The preferences of Polish IT specialists are changing [REPORT 2024],
- The impact of work mode on IT specialists.
We recruit IT employees for companies
If you are looking for new employees and you want to take care of the Candidate Experience, our IT recruitment agency can help you significantly and provide appropriate support.
As an IT recruitment and IT outsourcing company with over 9 years of experience on the market, we take on various challenges and make the greatest possible effort with each process ordered by the client.
We have successfully conducted over 1,000 recruitment processes 🙂
Get to know us better here and also check out our article on Positive Candidate Experience!
Do you want to recruit new IT specialists for your company?
Contact us, an IT recruitment and IT outsourcing agency. We will also help and advise you in creating an offboarding process or with an exit interview process.
Write to us at contact@nexttechnology.io, fill out the contact form or sign up for your first free consultation!
