Exit Interviews
 January 1, 2006

Everyone agrees that exit interviews are valuable. Employees tend to be more candid on the way out and the interview leaves them (hopefully) with a positive impression of the firm. But, like so many important task on the HR department’s plate, the interviews often get shoved aside to accommodate the crisis de jour. And the window of time for an exit interview is small because once the employee is gone, it is awkward to make contact. The problem, of course, is that erstwhile employees don’t want to burn bridges and rarely provide true insight into their experiences.

That’s why a number of law firm HR departments have embraced using web-based surveys to replace exit interviews. The results can be tabulated anonymously, they don’t require any management time and remove any interviewer bias from the process. Unfortunately, most law firms we talked to have been less than satisfied with the on-line exit interviews. The greatest difficulty is that the response rate tends to be below 20 percent and those who do respond have a higher likelihood having had an extremely negative or positive experience with the firm. A study of employees who failed to respond to the exit interview indicated that, even though the questionnaire was anonymous, they feared reprisals if they responded honestly.

A new middle ground has been created. Outsourced exit interviews. A live interviewer calls the terminating employee and asks the questions on the firm’s behalf. One such provider is Wachenhut (http://www.ci-wackenhut.com/Anything2Say.htm) where a live interviewer will ask terminating employees your list of questions by telephone and report and analysis results.

Legal Resource Group has developed a brief white paper on Exit Interviewing including a list of questions you may consider asking. To request a free copy, contact us at 1-800-688-4147 or by email at bob@LRGLLC.com.