Are You Listening To Your Exiting Workforce?
Catherine Horgan February 11, 2008
I am always intrigued to learn why organizations aren’t adopting and embracing the power of analytics. Even more interesting is the amount of companies that are not capturing critical data from their employee population. Why is that? Don’t have the time? Don’t have the resources? Don’t have the funding? Don’t care?
As important as capturing the many voices within your organization is listening to what your exiting employees are saying. Why are they leaving? And how does it impact your company and the bottom line? How much will you spend to re-recruit and re-train? Chances are, you could learn a thing or two from the folks turning in their resignations. How you act upon that data could make all the difference in the future of your organization. Take this scenario: you have an employee who’s been around for a couple of years, made great impact while in their role and now they are leaving. Identifying the reasons why could save millions of dollars for years to come - simply by listening. Every time you lose an employee, you spend money, time and resources to do it all over again with their replacement. What if you learned it was a structural issue or a workload issue? Could the issue(s) be addressed, alleviated? Is there even a potential to retain the employee by making a few adjustments? I fall back on the infamous line “you don’t know what you don’t know.” And on top of the unknown is the fact that by not uncovering the premise for the resignation, you could be sending a negative message to your entire employee population, therefore impacting morale.
A recent article discussed a new program that IBM is taking on, launching this July. It’s designed to persuade previous and current employees to consider working for the Department of Treasury. Why is IBM taking on such a program? This is IBM’s way of helping their employees thrive, not only in a global workforce, but in the global economy. And IBM will still benefit. Think about the positive impact on its culture. Stanley Litow, Vice President for Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, says
It builds a more effective workforce when the company helps people think through transitions in their life. It will improve people’s view of the brand. It is good business to operate this way.
According to IBM, employee engagement doesn’t end when someone leaves the payroll. I couldn’t agree more. By listening to your employee population, and even helping employees determine a direction before walking out the door, you will actually increase their affinity for your company.
Posted in Human Resources Analytics, Hodes QTrac, Employer Branding, HR Metrics, HR Analytics, HR Benchmarking, HR Consulting, Recruiting, HR Scorecards, Recruiting Consulting, Retention, Workforce Planning
February 11th, 2008 at 8:36 am
This partnership,FedExperience Transitions to Government, is a pilot program. News of this prompted me to post a note about this on my Philadelphia-based blog, Career Acceleration Notes.
It is mind-boggling to think that the government may actually be leading the way by promoting movement between the private and public workforce. If this pilot program is successful, these second- or third-act employees could help to dismantle many negative perceptions about “older workers.”
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:24 am
As a physician recruiter, I strongly believe in the power of an exit interview to help manage attrition and improve the workplace. Though an interview may take time and effort (and requires the interviewer to respond to the feedback with action), the cost of losing good employees in much greater, For instance, replacing one primary care physician can result in $20,000 - $26,000 in recruitment costs, loss of $300,000 - $400,000 in annual gross billings, and the loss of $300,000 to $500,000 in inpatient revenue. Clearly, it makes more sense to interview exiting employees and act on the feedback.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
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