As unemployment continues to decline and job market competition increases, companies in the environmental drilling industry are very much aware of how critical it is to recruit and retain the best employees. But what happens when an employee leaves the company? Even more important, how can we use that turnover as a learning opportunity? If a great employee gives notice, chances are you won’t convince them to stay. However, employee turnover provides an opportunity to learn the causes of attrition.

One key strategy a company can, and should, embrace when managing employee turnover is an exit interview or survey. These important assessment tools identify trends and challenges that your employees may face. Using these tools strategically and sharing the information learned with key business leaders can allow you to correct lingering workplace issues and boost morale, and ultimately lead to higher retention rates.

What Are They?

Exit interviews are like a job interview, but instead of asking questions to determine an individual’s qualifications for a job, you ask questions to determine why an employee is leaving the organization. This gives the departing employee an opportunity to share feedback about their experience as an employee.

In some cases, an interview may not be feasible. Many companies instead use an exit survey, which asks similar questions to gain information about why employees leave the company. Regardless of whether you choose to use a survey or an interview, the information you ascertain will be similar.

Why Use Them?

One main reason that companies don’t utilize exit surveys or interviews is because they may already be aware of issues and prefer not to draw more attention to them. Some organizations might also fear negative feedback. Instead, I urge you to look at exit surveys or interviews as invaluable opportunities to improve workplace culture, morale and retention efforts.

Through exit surveys or interviews, an organization can learn:

• How employees feel about:
• The way the company communicates with employees
• Morale within the workforce
• The need for training or development opportunities
• The appropriateness or cost effectiveness of employees benefits
• The culture within the organization
• The leadership and the overall direction of the company
• Opportunities for career progression and growth
• Reasons employees leave and the impact this has on remaining employees
• What type of employment opportunities employees are seeking elsewhere
• Feedback about improvements that could prevent future turnover

While this isn’t an exhaustive list of benefits, it certainly gives organizational leaders a head start identifying areas for potential improvement efforts.

What Do We Do with the Results?

For employees to provide feedback, they need to know you take it seriously. You should also communicate how organizational leaders use the feedback to make improvements. Some tips:

• Provide the option of anonymity in your exit surveys
• Redact any unique identifying information, such as the date an employee left the company, their location or job title
• Share the feedback to all stakeholders in a timely manner
• Review any programs, policies or procedures that a separating employee references to identify areas for improvement
• Include open-ended questions that allow departing employees to share additional thoughts and concerns

Acting on information is critical when conducting exit interviews and surveys. If you make a change within the organization based on employee feedback, communicate it! This shows that you take employee feedback seriously.

While exit surveys and interviews shouldn’t be your organization’s only source of information about the employee experience, they are certainly an important part that you can leverage to enhance retention efforts. Retention efforts start the moment a new employee is hired! Seek employee feedback consistently throughout the employee lifecycle to identify and alleviate issues before they cause employees to consider leaving.