Exit interviews – why are your employees leaving you?

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Have you ever stopped to think how much staff turnover you have had in the last two years or even in the last year? If the answer is ‘Yes, we have lost a few people’, do you actually know why, and whether it was avoidable?

Losing a staff member doesn’t just end with them walking out the door and a farewell cake or drinks – what else are they taking with them – knowledge about your business, customers that they have built rapport with, and knowledge of systems and processes. Think about a time when you had been an employee and resigned from a role – what knowledge did you bring to the next role or to your own business? Although it is generally unintentional to use this information in a harmful way against your business, you can’t undo the training that the now ex-employee has gained on how your business operates. If moving on to a competitor, it is this knowledge and training that has made them valuable – that’s why they employed them – right?

At the end of the day, staff will inevitably leave you at some time. However, getting a better insight into why staff leave will help in minimising this and could possibly lead to having skilled people knocking on your door to join you as an employer of choice! Who wouldn’t love that?

Working with some great local clients and through our own research, has shown us some effective tips and processes that would actually capture this information – some organisations are really doing a great job of this, others just aren’t doing it at all. We have all heard of exit interviews or exit surveys but do you do them, or more importantly, do you conduct them 100% of the time?  An effective exit interview will show you a number of things about your business, your staff, internal communications, the role that they performed in, and the perception of the business among other things. Generally an employee leaves “for a new opportunity” but did that just disguise the fact that they really weren’t happy with a number of things and wanted to leave on good terms?

Wouldn’t you love to know the following?

  • Were they happy with their direct supervisor? (4 staff leaving in 9 months may tell you a different story)
  • Did they feel that they received sufficient training in their role(s)
  • What did they enjoy?
  • What didn’t they enjoy?
  • Have they heard good or poor feedback about the company?
  • Do they believe in your product or service?
  • Did they feel adequately paid in their role? (this is actually not the main decider for a person to leave – there is always something else that tips them)
  • Were there any internal conflicts (a covert workplace bully can often be identified over a short time – we have seen it happen!)
  • If anything had changed, would that have kept them on board?

There are so many questions that could be asked and answered however, you want to keep it relevant to your workplace. Always keep the aim of the interview firmly in your mind when designing the survey and include open ended questions to get appropriate feedback to action. If you would like to know more about exit interviews and the questions that can help your business retain valuable staff, please call David on 0414862979 to discuss this further.

Wouldn’t it be great to know why an employee has left you? It could make a huge difference to the way you manage your business… and in this economy… every little bit helps!

Photos on resumes and what really counts to get that job!

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All this “controversy” about a recent study on having your photo on your resume and whether it can hurt or work for you has really got me thinking. The short answer is yes either way however, there is no really defined answer. If you have the skills and right attitude and are going to be screened out by a person judging you from a “professional” photo attached, do you actually think that you would want to work alongside that person? They have really done you a favour, not a disservice. What can appear as a great job or career could turn into the worst workplace you have been to based on having to work with that person and their circle of influence.

I mentioned the word “professional” when writing about your photo. I have seen so many people take care with their resume, format it nicely, check spelling and then… attach a really inappropriate picture of themselves. Some memorable photos attached to resumes have included:

  • The old “cropped from a group night club shot” – she is drunk isn’t she? We get quite a few of these!
  • The “pixelated” photo from a 1/2 Megapixel camera  – I didn’t know that a Lego man was applying for our role?
  • The “Guy with the fully sick Nissan Skyline”  – we will hear him coming for interview
  • The “Yes it’s cold and I’m in a swimsuit” girl – yes I really received this for a reception position. No, we did not meet!

I assist candidates with creating resumes to give them the best opportunity when applying for a new role. I often get asked whether to add a photo and I give my opinion at the time as it depends on the type of position and whether the person has an appropriate photo. Working on the client side, I actually like receiving applications with photos as it gives a personal feel and helps me picture how that person could work for the company.

Let’s really put things into perspective though, our role as a recruiter is to select the right person for the role. We are seeking the right skills and training, the right experience, right presentation appropriate for the role and the right attitude to fit with and work alongside our client and their employees. I take photos on resumes with a grain of salt, I want to know who you are, what you bring to the role and what your intentions are for the role.

This is what really counts!

So… you’re about to start recruiting a new person…

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It’s Wednesday morning and your personal assistant has just resigned… she saw a “new opportunity” and just really needed to take it. She knows everything about how you run your day and all the ins and outs of your business. So… where to from here?

You have two weeks notice up your sleeve, do you:

(a) grab out the old trusty bottle of scotch and have a drink (why is this at work???)

(b) jump onto SEEK and write a quick job advertisement to attract a new employee

(c) get to work on capturing what she does to build a great job description and job advertisement so that you can employ another strong (or stronger) skilled employee?

If you chose (a) we will forgive you for that, we all need to calm the nerves in these situations. Seriously though, (c) is going to be your best bet! Quite often in the workplace when we look at recruiting for roles we are programmed to replace what we had. We are addicted to Job Titles and Position Descriptions (even though 95% of PD’s include the phrase “any additional duties as required”, which often means anything and everything). We are so used to them that you would probably rewrite an old advertisement and readvertise the role again, but… has your business changed? We need to look harder at the business and ask ourselves “what do we need now?”

Coming back to our person that has given notice to leave you… it would be a great idea to sit down with them and find out what they specifically do in their day / week / month. Have they coped with the workload, what did they like / didn’t like about the role, what new technologies do they deal with now? Now ask yourself the question: “Has their job description significantly changed?”. We bet it has!

A great example is social media. Just over a year ago, most administrative/personal assistant Job Descriptions would not have referred to the updating of social media sites as part of an employee’s role, however the person leaving has set up a great Facebook page that attracts a growing network of potential clients. Without asking what the person does, new and important tasks can be missed when advertising and hiring a new employee. What happens when you advertise omitting this crucial part of the “new” role, employ a person based on the old skill set and find that they have no social media skills or interest in that space? The referral rate tumbles as potential customers leave your site and we don’t want that to happen.

We have a strategy in place to capture that information and you can too:

  • Sit down and talk to the person and capture what they do in their role, break it down to daily/weekly/monthly
  • Ask what technologies they use. You know that a new program was rolled out late last year but do they actually use it?
  • What did they like / didn’t they like about the role? (is this the real reason that they are leaving? Were they overloaded with work?)
  • With this new information, pull out the old job description and cross reference the information to update where necessary. Also look at tasks that could be directed elsewhere, are all tasks necessary for this role and has it shifted from the original direction?

Whilst you will miss your trusty employee, turn this around and think of it as an opportunity to now employ exactly what you and your business needs to move forward. Time to write a brilliant advertisement that attracts a great range of skilled candidates… good luck!

Interviews from the darkside…

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Toast crumbs across his cheek and around his lips said to me… this is not the guy for our role. I didn’t feel comfortable looking at him and was really just trying to conduct an interview. He should have had breakfast before meeting me, not at the actual interview!

The resume and his experience were fantastic but his presentation oozed the questions; “Did he wear that stuff to bed and come straight to meet me and why is he having breakfast now at 11:30am?”. I enjoy meeting a candidate over a coffee – it offers a more relaxed setting away from an office and at least 99.5% of the time the candidate just has a coffee, tea or cold drink however on this occasion, there was an order of raisin toast to go with the coffee. Who orders breakfast at an interview???

How often have you had an interview and wished you had a portal to see how a candidate was going to present so that you could just save everyone’s time? You have gone through the trouble of sorting the many applications, carefully pre-screening your short-list over the phone and then… one of them turns up for interview and it’s not what you expected.

 Have you ever experienced:

  • the nervous candidate that smells like they just had to have that last minute cigarette before interview
  • the candidate that decided thongs were great business shoes (and met OH&S requirements)
  • the swearer (enough said)
  • the girl in the nightclub outfit
  • the guy that forgot to put deodorant on – do you remember smelling yourself after they left the room just in case you thought it was you?

What I love about what I do as a recruiter is that I save my clients from these disasters by meeting candidates first to experience how they will represent your organisation. OK, I had one fail – the cigarette guy just couldn’t help himself and had to have one puff literally outside my client’s front door. Ultimately I want you, my client, to have a positive experience, seeing only the best for your interview, let us deal with the wayward ones. Rest assured, we can have a good laugh about those once we have selected your new employee.

For those of you who feel comfortable recruiting a new employee by yourself and don’t mind the roller-coaster of emotions that can happen during a recruit, try something new to see what works best for your business. If you generally meet candidates at your office for interview, meet them for a coffee instead on neutral ground. You have already selected the candidate based on their skills, experience and a good phone pre-screen, now you will see them in a more relaxed setting where they may reveal a lot more of their personality. It gives you a better indication of their communication skills, how they interact with those around them (do they get annoyed or distracted easily by other people in the coffee shop or are they focused on you?) and even more importantly, you will get a less rehearsed interviewee.

However, if they just happen to order breakfast whilst you are standing in line to be served… you know what to do!!!