The Hindu Business Line : Companies get curious to know why employees really leave

Chennai, May 9 That the boss is the chief reason for employees quitting an organisation has long been suspected. That they often couched it in such vague terms as ‘better prospects’ or ‘family circumstances’ in internal exit interviews is also perhaps known.

Now there is research evidence to support such a belief. Quoting Mr Marcus Buckigham and Mr Curt Koffman (authors of the book First Break All the Rules), Mrs Saundarya Rajesh, CEO, Avtar Career Creators, said, “employees do not leave organisations, they leave managers. This was quite true.”

Avtar conducted an ex-employee feedback survey for a large FMCG multinational, which spanned collecting inputs from over 250 people who had worked with the organisation. This study revealed a whole lot of information about the culture of the company, the management style, the compensation and opportunities for growth, said Mrs Rajesh.

Till a year ago, companies let employees leave without analysing their reasons of quitting. But, with attrition rate as high as 30 per cent in sectors like BPOs, companies are curious to know why employees make that final decision.

They are approaching specialised HR companies to undertake exit interviews so they can take corrective action to retain employees. This trend is also catching up with non-IT sectors like FMCG.

Notes from feedback

Feedback from the exit interviews helps clients. For instance, one of them revamped the entire salary structure, pruned hierarchy to enable effective communication, and altered the recruitment process to look at different pools of talent, said Mrs Rajesh.

Now, exit interviews are getting more detailed and revealing. Companies want to get behind what soured the relationship between an employee and his boss. They are hiring third party HR consultants to do detailed exit interviews and the results are helping companies come up with systemic remedies.

“Exit interviews help clients understand real issues behind attrition,” says Mr E. Balaji, CEO, Ma Foi Management, a Chennai-based HR company. In the last 15 months, Ma Foi added 12 clients seeking exit interview services, he told Business Line.

What’s more, ex-employees tend to be more open when a third party conducts the exit interview.