Exit interviews are conducted when employees leave an organisation, to provide useful information and feedback to the service. Stay interviews give an overview of what encourages the person to stay, what improvements can be made and what may cause them to look for external opportunities.
Exit interviews
It is good practice for each individual who leaves an organisation to be offered an exit interview. The feedback provided can help organisations to understand how to better retain employees, reduce staff turnover and potentially improve the service. Information gathered during these interviews can be used for a variety of purposes, for example:
- To identify areas of good practice
- To identify issues of concern and develop action plans where required
- To update/change jobs and job descriptions
- To monitor effectiveness of recruitment
- To try to remedy high turnover by identifying trends regarding the reasons for leaving
(NHS England, 2021)
- ESR Standardised Survey is a standardised survey that helps NHS organisations get to know their workforce on a system and trust level – providing greater visibility to trust-wide exit questionnaire data. This can help for smoother internal processing of information and accessibility. Responses provide impartial feedback which can lead to more valuable and reliable data.
- In Person Exit Interview usually conducted by the staff members manager and contains a range of questions related to their experience of working in the organisation. These interviews can help managers learn about strengths of the role, challenges employees face and make changes for future employee retention and service improvements.
Consider who is in attendance
Ideally interviews would take place between the member of staff leaving and their direct line manager. However, it is important to offer staff a choice about who they complete their exit interview with and that they feel comfortable and confident to provide honest feedback. It may be that the line manager is absent or the relationship between the line manager and employee could prevent honest and genuine feedback. For these reasons its important staff are given the option to have the exit interview completed by another manager (or equivalent within the organisation).
Preparing for the inteview
- A quiet room/space should be organised that will allow privacy. It is important to make sure the room suits the accessibility needs of the individual.
- Using a proforma set of questions as a guide can be useful for structuring these interviews – it can be helpful to send this to the staff member in advance so they can prepare their responses.
- Ensure you are clear and able to explain how any information, notes or feedback from the interview will be recorded, shared or used.
During the interview
- Make sure the staff member feels welcomed and ready to start.
- Explain the purpose of the interview; i.e. to discuss their reason(s) for leaving, their experience(s) working in the trust, and any recommendations or learning for the service / organisation going forwards.
- It is important to outline what will happen with any information shared in the interview and answer any questions about this.
- Staff should be encouraged to discuss their experiences openly and honestly to enable the service to learn and potentially improve.
- Take notes, as agreed, throughout the interview of key points raised or any additional actions that need to be taken forward.
- Thank the employee for their commitment, time, cooperation and input.
Stay interviews
Typically conducted between a manager and employee, the aim of a stay discussion is to help understand why staff stay and what might cause them to leave. It is also a good way to engage and support your staff, and in doing so, encourages retention. Early identification of issues and concerns, and taking action on them, contributes towards:
- Long-term retention
- Increased motivation and morale
- Improved productivity and overall success for both the business and its people.
The discussion should be undertaken in an informal and conversational manner and should take less than 20 minutes. It can be done following a discussion/meeting you are having with the individual already but should be undertaken in private.
Example of an opening conversation
"You’ve been here __ number of months and I’d really like to have a discussion with you about how you are finding your role so I can do my best to support you as your manager, particularly with issues within my control.
Our meeting is part of a wider initiative to help aid retention of staff within the Trust and themes/points from our discussion may be used to help support this. Any such information would be anonymised and other staff are having similar conversations with their managers across [organisation]."
Example of questions
You can use the list below to select a sample of questions you feel most appropriate for your discussion.
Please note you don’t have to use all of them, they are just useful prompts/ideas to help the conversation.
• What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?
• What do you like most or least about working here?
• What keeps you working here?
• What part of your job is most challenging?
• If you could change something about your job, what would that be?
• What would make your job more satisfying?
• What talents are not being used in your current role?
• What motivates (or demotivates) you?
• What can I do to best support you?
• What can I do more of or less of as your manager to improve your experience at work?
• What might influence you to leave?
• Do you feel you are learning here?
• Is the role what you expected following your inductions?
• Is there any development you have not received that would help you in your role?
On conclusion of the discussion
To close the discussion, summarise the key reasons the individual gave for staying or potentially leaving the organisation, and advise on key action points that you will follow up with them. It is advisable to document this for your reference and reiterate that this information is to help inform wider organisational interventions on retention and will be anonymised in the event this is shared further. You should record your discussion as you would a normal management supervision session.
Next steps
Follow up on the action points and feedback your progress to the individual. Not doing so will mean the staff member will likely feel that their views have not been considered. If these are not within your control ensure you escalate and let the employee know you have passed on their issue/concern.
Following your discussions please ensure you feedback the key themes centrally so that this data can be used to inform further interventions to aid retention. You should do this through completing the feedback section via your organisations internal systems.