Employee Exit Interviews

Employee Exit Interview Case Study

A Fortune 500 Manufacturer engaged NBRI to conduct employee exit interview surveys on an ongoing basis by telephone in order to determine why employees were leaving their employ. The surveys were conducted after the employees had physically left the premises in order to obtain the purest data possible. Although this methodology negatively impacts the response rate, NBRI consistently reaches a 95% Confidence Level. Based on this reliability, management can be certain that the data truly represents the thinking of the employee population as a whole.

Supervision was by far the overriding factor contributing to employee turnover. The NBRI Root Cause Analysis provided even greater, pinpointed insight. Performance evaluations were perceived to be unfair. This drove employee beliefs in a negative manner regarding diversity, discrimination, career advancement, and a host of other issues.

NBRI recommended that the Client focus solely on the root cause determined by a thorough analysis of the employee exit interview data. Within six months of changing the employee perceptions of the fairness of performance evaluations, the scores of all items driven by the root cause increased as well. Since the root cause was driving 45% of all of the Client's survey questions, this was significant improvement indeed. More importantly, employee turnover was reduced by over 80%, and the most common reason for leaving became 'to start a home business.'