Why Should Good Employees Leave?

When an employee leaves there are indirect costs in relation to the time and effort that is required to replace any employee as direct recruitment and advertising costs, there are also less tangible cost associated to losing knowledge and experience that is specific to an organization; Losing good employees is a problem where prevention is most definitely the best cure.

From time to time employees will leave an organization but it is important for an employer to know that people are leaving for the right reasons and not for reasons that could have been addressed and resolved.

Concerns of employees can be identified early by the regular use of well designed job satisfaction surveys, allowing for problems to be resolved and helping to minimize needless loss of staff. However, some problems, especially those that are the result of a clash of personalities, are not always brought to the surface until it is too late.

When personnel decide to change jobs it is very often due to a lack of career development and/or poor management. Both of these problems can be difficult to identify even for organizations that adopt regular 360-degree appraisals (i.e. where as part of the overall appraisal system, employees evaluate their managers).

While employed employees can be reluctant to criticize their managers for fear of the consequences, they can however be more candid when completing an employee exit survey.

Exit surveys are unlikely to prevent an individual from changing their mind and staying but what they will do is help an organization identify problem areas that if left unchecked could result in the remaining employees suffering form poor moral and further resignations.

Limited Career Development

Not all employers can offer, and nor do all employees desire, a clear and long term career path. There are just as many people that find comfort and security in doing one job well as there are people that need to feel that they are continual being challenged, learning new skills and moving onwards and upwards with respect to the corporate ladder. A successful organization will maintain the balance of having high flyers and more modest and humble employees.

Where losses due to a lack of career development are occasional they may also be inevitable, but where they are frequent, then changes to the organizational structure might need to be considered to allow for greater career development of the employees.

Poor Management

Many a manager has achieved their managerial position through hard work and a deserved promotion, but a good worker does not always make a good manager and many are awarded a management position without any management training.

Poor managers can be quick to discredit the views of disgruntled staff, ‘I was thinking of getting rid of them anyway’ and ‘they were a waste of space’ are typical responses to being asked if there is a problem causing people to leave an organization.

It is understandable that senior management would want to support their line managers by giving them the benefit of any doubt and a poor employee may not be averse to unfairly criticising their line manager. If through an Exit survey a man-management problem were to be identified early it presents a realistic chance that the problem could be properly addressed and resolved with appropriate formal training and guidance.

Records

It is not uncommon for people to leave an employer and at a later date put in a claim for constructive dismissal. With ‘No win no fee’ legal representation this has become a real problem for even good employers. Exit surveys will at best, provide a valuable record of the employee’s reasons for leaving, and at worse, provide early warning that a possible claim might be expected.

A tribunal may not readily accept the word of an employer that when the employee left they did so without indicating any grievance.

Timing

Exit surveys can with the employee’s agreement be delayed for a few months or be conducted as part of the termination procedures.

If the timing of the exit survey is delayed for a month or two it could allow for a period of reflection where the ex-employee may be less prone to emotion and more objective and if they have started a new job they may be in a position to compare their previous role with their new role.

Conducting an exit survey as part of the termination procedure has the advantage that although the leaving employee may be emotional their views may be more reflective of their true state of mind and therefore closer to the real reasons they have decided to leave. If left until later any comparison between their old and new roles may be the result of them putting on a brave face, and if reasons are given that require action, the delay may well hinder the problem from being resolved.

Summary

By including exit surveys as part of the employee termination procedures organizations will generally benefit in multiple ways. Having good records could prove to be very valuable later and they will also provide management with information that can help them improve an organization’s moral as well as the bottom line.

See the following survey for sample exit interview questions.

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