Best Practices for Conducting Exit Interviews to Address Voluntary Turnover

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a magnifying glass to zoom into your organization and find out the reasons for voluntary turnover? 

It would help you proactively tackle attrition and stop any workflow disruption and negative effects it might have caused. 

While we understand that employees are the key to building a thriving business, voluntary turnover continues to obstruct organizational growth. In 2020 alone, 3 million employees quit their jobs for various reasons, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics.

From work culture to better opportunities- there are several voluntary turnover reasons. The good news is that now, CHROs and HRBPs can identify the root causes and take the necessary steps with the help of a magnifying glass called inFeedo. Let’s learn how.

First, What is Voluntary Turnover and Voluntary Turnover Rate?

Employees voluntarily leave an organization for greener pastures, among many other reasons. This is called voluntary turnover. 

Voluntary turnover rate, however, is a metric that measures the percentage of employees who choose to leave a company over a specific period. It is typically calculated by dividing the number of employees leaving voluntarily by the average number of employees in the organization.

Importance of Tracking Voluntary Turnover Rate

Tracking the voluntary turnover rate is necessary to determine employee engagement and satisfaction. It is categorized as functional and dysfunctional turnover.

When poor performers voluntarily resign, it is termed functional turnover. It can prove beneficial for the organization as it can hire fresh talents to fulfill the deficit.

But when top employees quit voluntarily, it is called dysfunctional turnover. That indicates organizational issues which need to get fixed.

The HRBPs must track the voluntary turnover rate to decipher the functional and dysfunctional turnover. The analysis helps with crucial decision-making that fixes problems leading to a dysfunctional turnover. 

With the help of inFeedo’s attrition prediction platform, HRBPs can take necessary actions to avoid losing valuable employees. Amber’s AI and predictive analytics can help to predict real-time disengagement and its drivers and suggest data-driven counter-action.

Reasons for Voluntary Turnover and its Impact

There are numerous voluntary turnover drivers that an organization must consider. However, their impact on the organization varies. Here are a few such reasons:

• Lack of career progression
• Job dissatisfaction due to extreme pressure, lack of appreciation, and monotonous work 
• Toxic culture resulting from Internal politics and abusive and unprofessional attitudes 
• Management issues including rigid and micro-management by the higher authority. 
• Inflexible work ambiance
• Poor compensation 
• Burnout
• Lack of learning curve 

Strategies to Predict and Manage Voluntary Turnover

HRBPs often find managing voluntary turnover tricky. Especially since employees are not always open about discussing their reasons for quitting. Reasons could include work culture and management issues making fixing the problem even more difficult. This is where AI-driven solutions like Amber can help:

Predict Turnover and Take Preventive Measures.

HR can recognize turnover intentions and take measures to fix the problem before it gets too late. AI-driven periodic surveys with the employees help identify those with turnover intent. With the help of the "People to Meet" (PTM) module of Amber, they can quickly recognize such employees. 

Amber’s powerful analytics also helps you with actionable insights about the next steps and employee feedback analysis to understand disengagement and its drivers.

Once such employees are recognized, the HRBPs can assign engagement tasks or talk one-on-one to fix the problem.

Recognize At-risk Employees

A continuous channel to listen, recognize and understand at-risk employees can help HRBPs take the necessary measures to curb attrition and retain employees. 

Amber helps them find out how employees feel about changes in work. Analyzing employee sentiment help to recognize at-risk employees. They get highlighted in the PTM dashboard, and HRBPs can provide specific attention to fix the issues.

Take Cues from Exit Interviews

Amber is a conversational AI chatbot with an employee exit pulse survey module. It provides metrics that help senior management to recognize and identify root causes of attrition and take necessary measures to minimize future attrition.

Select the Right Talent

Hiring is not just about onboarding skilled employees but also choosing the best based on the cultural and behavioral beliefs of the organization. Employees who fit the organization best tend to stick around longer.

A great tactic to find the right talent is to ask questions to analyze the behavior of candidates. Ai-driven metrics from Amber that analyze employee sentiment can help you design a tailor-made interview questionnaire to determine a candidate’s behavior, culture fit, and attitude.

Rewarding and Appreciating Employees

Appreciation, recognition, and proper feedback motivate the employees. Through periodic surveys conducted by scheduled check-ins, you can evaluate deserving candidates. Come up with new ideas to reward and recognize such employees. This will help to retain top talents, as well as inspire other employees to perform better. 

Encourage Work-life Balance

Employees remain loyal and dedicated to a healthy workplace. Promoting work-life balance is the key to creating such a work environment. Encourage employees who complete their daily tasks on time. Discourage extra hours at the office. CHROs and HRBPs can come up with various fun events that break the monotony of work. 

Take advantage of inFeedo’s AI employee engagement platform to automate calendar schedules for such activities.

Learning and Development Programs

Along with a good pay package, employees look for a growth opportunity that hones their skillset. HRBPs can introduce various learning and development programs that offer certificates and recognition for their skills to keep them engaged.

Case Studies of Successful Strategies to Tackle Voluntary Turnover

Voluntary turnover can get reduced but not completely eradicated. 

Let us take two voluntary turnover examples where the companies imbibed ingenious strategies to improve retention based on the exit interviews conducted by the companies.

Case Study 1

Group M is a leading organization with over 3000 employees and 160 departments. 

Problem - They had a high attrition rate because of rising market demand. But with such a huge workforce, HRBPs needed help connecting personally with everyone.

Solution - They were among the early adopters of Amber to evaluate employee sentiment and fix problems using the data collected during exit interviews. Amber highlighted disengaged employees and analyzed their sentimental state through carefully curated surveys 

Result - Amber's automation sorted the gap and collected all relevant data that helped them devise engagement strategies. Now they effectively engage 2000 employees across 157 departments with the help of a scheduled one on one feature.  Amber integrated with their HRMS and now provides daily highlights email- a feature that makes it easier to recognize "at-risk employees" and take a timely step.

Case Study 2

L&T Heavy Engineering faced employee disengagement that affected their ROI. 

Problem - The company needed help identifying reasons behind disengagement as connecting with 1300 employees personally was difficult for HRBPs. As a result, realizing their true sentiments was getting tricky too.

Solution - Amber simplified connecting with employees individually through AI-driven surveys and scheduled check-ins. The data collected and analyzed by inFeedo AI helped HRBPs implement policy-level changes to promote work-life balance.

According to Manish Gour, General Manager & Head of Human Resources & Operational Excellence - Heavy Engineering Division, Larsen & Toubro, Amber has become the core feedback tool for the company since it was adopted. 

Result - With the help of Amber, they could realize 5.2x ROI by improving employee engagement. 

Conclusion

Voluntary turnover costs much more than just the loss of talent. HRBPs can work towards minimizing the rate in the organization. Make the workplace more engaging by determining the root causes behind past attritions.

With the help of AI-driven employee experience platforms like inFeedo, HRBPs can easily reduce turnover rates, improve employee retention, and create a more stable and productive workforce.

Book a demo today to strengthen the foundation of your organization - your employees!