Exit Interview - An Important But Frequently Overlooked Tool

Exit Interview

Failure to retain your experienced staff can cost your firm thousands of dollars as well as loss of knowledge management. It is therefore vital to recognize this and take proactive steps to reduce staff turnover, and determine ways to retain your employees. Exit interviews are a start in the right direction to work towards achieving this.

An exit interview is a survey conducted with an individual who is separating from an organization or relationship. An exit interview is typically a meeting between at least one representative from a company's human resources (HR) department and a departing employee. (The departing employee usually has voluntarily resigned vs. getting laid off or fired.)

Purpose of an Exit Interview

Conducting exit interviews can be a valuable experience for any organization. Human resources departments conduct exit interviews (also called exit surveys) to gather data for improving working conditions and retaining employees.

·         One of purposes of the exit interview is to obtain feedback on why your employee is leaving.

·         Another purpose is to find out what the employee likes or dislikes about their employment, what areas of the firm that they feel needs improvement and often even though it may be too late for the exiting employee- they may leave with a more positive view of the firm, and you get to retain some of the employee's knowledge.

·         Exit interviews are one of the most widely used methods of gathering employee feedback, along with employee satisfaction surveys. Sometimes exit interviews help retain the leaving employee.

·         Guarding against potential lawsuits,

·         Smoothing over any conflicts with co-workers or managers,

·         Learning about problems with other employees,

·         Helping to discern whether the employer's pay is competitive,

·         Learning how to retain their best people,

·         Reducing problems in the workplace.

·         Exit interviews also provide employers an opportunity to control any negative publicity that might come from a discontented employee, pinpoint specific areas causing employee dissatisfaction and turnover, and to openly share information that will bring the employment relationship to a positive close.

·         The information obtained during an Exit Interview is often the most candid and valuable information an employer can hope to receive from an employee, since there is no longer the pressure for the employee to guard one's responses in an effort to improve their individual status within the firm.

Points to be Kept in Mind While conducting an Exit Interview

·  Exit interviews should be conducted for every exiting employee, regardless of their level in the organization.

·  Interviews (questions and procedures) should be executed with a standardized methodology in order to make the interpretation of results useful.

·  Interviews should be prepared for in advance with a clear determination of the goals for the interview and any specific items that should be covered.

·    The information received from the Exit Interview should be utilized to implement real change in the workplace, and not just to store as employee documentation.

·   In addition to the HR Director, senior management should be copied on the reports generated from the Exit Interview, and required to provide feedback.

·    Interview questions and answers should be well-documented by the employer in order to assist with any future legal case brought about by the employee.

·   Employers should ask open-ended questions and probe for opinions about the employee's job, supervisor, and general management, subordinates, working conditions, opportunities for advancement, firm policies, training programs (or lack of), reasons for leaving and any potential legal issues.

·    Record the reasons in writing why the employee is leaving to avoid employee claims such as wrongful termination. The information you receive can be used to offset any claims that are not addressed in the Exit Interview.

·    Try to obtain recommendations on continuing health benefits and the discontinuation of other benefits.

·     Settle up on any payments for accrued vacation or wages due.

·  Obtain the transfer of all company property such as keys, credit cards, books, or other materials.

·     Readdress any non-compete or confidentiality agreements, should they apply.

An exit interview can be a valuable tool for both the employer and departing employee, minimizing the likelihood of future legal problems resulting from the employment relationship.

Talent Management - Need of the Hour..

Talent Management

"Talent Management" has become one of the most important buzzwords in Corporate HR and Training today. 

The purpose of TM is to ensure that the right supply of talented workforce is ready to realize the strategic goals of the organization both today and in the future.

Talent management includes a series of integrated systems of:

ü  Recruiting,

ü  Performance management,

ü  Maximizing employee  potential, managing their strengths and developing 

ü  Retaining people with desired skills and aptitude

What is Talent?

According to McKinsey; talent is the sum of:

ü  A person’s abilities,

ü  His or her intrinsic gifts,

ü  Skills, knowledge, experience ,

ü  Intelligence,

ü  Judgment, attitude, character, drive,

ü  His or her ability to learn and grow.

Assessment Tools for TM

The five assessment tools should be linked to ensure that each assessment is consistent:

ü  Competency Assessment

ü  Performance Appraisal

ü  Potential Forecast

ü  Succession Planning

ü  Career Planning

Talent Management Model

Benefits of Talent Management

ü  Right Person in the right Job: Through a proper ascertainment of people skills and strengths, people decisions gain a strategic agenda. The skill or competency mapping allows you to take stock of skill inventories lying with the organization

ü  Retaining the top talent: Despite changes in the global economy, attrition remains a major concern of organizations. Retaining top talent is important to leadership and growth in the marketplace. Organizations that fail to retain their top talent are at the risk of losing out to competitors. The focus is now on charting employee retention programs and strategies to recruit, develop, retain and engage quality people.

ü  Better Hiring: The quality of an organization is the quality of workforce it possesses. The best way to have talent at the top is have talent at the bottom. No wonder then talent management programs and trainings, hiring assessments have become an integral aspect of HR processes nowadays.

ü  Understanding Employees Better: Employee assessments give deep insights to the management about their employees. Their development needs, career aspirations, strengths and weaknesses, abilities, likes and dislikes. It is easier therefore to determine what motivates whom and this helps a lot Job enrichment process.

ü  Better professional development decisions: When an organization gets to know who its high potential is, it becomes easier to invest in their professional development.

Talent and performance management is all about engaging, developing, and inspiring your organization’s most important asset — its people — to deliver on business strategy. It is estimated that most organizations achieve only 60% of their projected value from business initiatives because of major gaps in how managers and employees deliver their talent management planning strategy. Thus the need for talent management in the modern day world is very evident.

Competency Mapping

Over the past 10 years, human resource and organizational development professionals have generated a lot of interest in the notion of competencies as a key element and measure of human performance. Competencies are becoming a frequently-used and written-about vehicle for organizational applications 

Competencies include the collection of success factors necessary for achieving important results in a specific job or work role in a particular organization.

Competency

Any underlying characteristic required for performing a given task, activity or role successfully can be considered as competency

Competency Mapping:

It is a process of identification of the competencies required to perform successfully a given job or role or a set of tasks at a given point of time. It consists of breaking a given role or job into its constituent tasks or activities and identifying the competencies (technical, managerial, behavioral, conceptual knowledge and attitude and skills, etc) needed to perform the same successfully.

Objectives of Competency Mapping:

Competency mapping serves a number of purposes. It is done for the following functions:

ü  Gap Analysis

ü  Role Clarity

ü  Succession Planning

ü  Growth Plans

ü  Restructuring

ü  Inventory of competencies for future planning

Need for Competency Mapping:

ü  Long Learning Curves & Lack of Succession Planning

ü  Want for Organizational Change

ü  High Turnover & Low Retention

ü  Poor Performance

ü  Unrecognized Training Needs

Steps In Competency Mapping:

ü  Decide the positions for which the competencies need to be mapped

ü  Identify the location of the positions in the organizational

ü  Identify the objectives of the function or the department or the unit or section where the position is located

ü  Identify the objectives of the role

ü  Interview the position holder to list the Tasks and activities expected to be performed by the Individual

ü  Collect the Key Performance Areas (or KRAs, Tasks, etc.) of the position holder for the last two to three years from the performance appraisal records

ü  Interview the position holder to list the actual knowledge, attitude, skills, and other competencies required for performing the task effectively

ü  Repeat the process with all the position set members

ü  Consolidate the list of competencies from all the position holders’ by each task

ü  Edit and finalize. Present it to the supervisors of the position holder and the position holder for approval and finalization

Methods adopted for Competency Mapping by Most Organizations:

ü  Assessment Center

ü  Critical Incidents Technique

ü  Interview Techniques

ü  Questionnaires

ü  Psychometric Test

Team & Teamwork

TEAM & TEAMWORK

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success-Henry Ford”

Teams are formed when individuals with a common taste, preference, liking, and attitude come and work together for a common goal. Teams play a very important role in organizations as well as our personal lives

Teamwork:

ü  Creates synergy – where the sum is greater than the parts.

ü  Supports a more empowered way of working, removing constraints which may prevent someone doing their job properly.

ü  Promotes flatter and leaner structures, with less hierarchy.

ü  Encourages multi-disciplinary work where teams cut across organizational divides.

ü  Fosters flexibility and responsiveness, especially the ability to respond to change.

ü  Pleases customers who like working with good teams (sometimes the customer may be part of the team).

ü  Promotes the sense of achievement, equity and camaraderie, essential for a motivated workplace.

ü  When managed properly, teamwork is a better way to work!

Importance of Team & Teamwork:

Team work is essential in corporate for better output and a better bonding among employees:

ü  No organization runs for charity. Targets must be met and revenues have to be generated. A single brain can’t always come with solutions or take decisions alone. In a team, every team member has an equal contribution and each team member comes out with a solution best suited to the problem.

ü  Tasks are accomplished at a faster pace when it is done by a team rather than an individual. An individual will definitely take more time to perform if he is single handedly responsible for everything. When employees work together, they start helping each other and responsibilities are shared and thus it reduces the work load and work pressure.

ü  Work never suffers or takes a backseat in a team.  In a team, the other team members can perform and manage the work in the absence of any member and hence work is not affected much.

ü  There is always a healthy competition among the team members. Competition is always good for the employee as well as the organization as every individual feels motivated to perform better than his other team member and in a way contributing to his team and the organization.

ü  Team work is also important to improve the relations among the employees. Individuals work in close coordination with each other and thus come to know each other better. Team work also reduces the chances of unnecessary conflicts among the employees and every individual tries his level best to support his team member. The level of bonding increases as a result of team work.

ü  Team members can also gain from each other. Every individual is different and has some qualities. One can always benefit something or the other from his team members which would help him in the long run. 

Services provided by Leadoff Management Consultants (P) Ltd.

1. Incorp. @ India – Setting Up

India has, over the last decade, achieved a position of pre-eminence in many spheres of economic activity, most notably in information technology, business process outsourcing, and various other service industries and also increasingly in manufacturing. Doing business in India offers immense benefits for international organizations. India's economy over the last decade looks in many ways like a success story; after a major economic crisis in 1991, followed by bold reform measures, the economy has experienced a rapid economic growth rate, more foreign investment, and a boom in the information technology sector. India is the largest democracy in the world. It ranks second in terms of population.

The policy of liberalization has transformed the prospects for the Indian economy. Today India is one of the favorite destinations for global investments. The major investors in India are Mauritius, Singapore, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, etc. The sectors that attracted maximum FDI last year include services (financial and non financial), telecom, housing and real estate, and construction and power.

Our services include:

a. Conceptualization of Business Model

b. Registration, Approval, Permissions & Licenses

c. Feasibility Study and Detailed Project Report (DPR)

d. Fund Raising- Grant, Private Equity, Venture Capital and Angel Funding (DPR)

e. Organization Designing, Structure, Formation (headhunting) of the Senior / Top Management

f. Hand holding to client till the time their business is up in running state with its basics in place

2. Corporate Talent Tracker ( CTT)

People are of paramount importance in the organization.  People comprise the human element of the organization.  People provide the hands that do the work of the organization.  And people lead and manage the organization.  The integrity of any organization, its effectiveness in achieving its purpose and even its continued existence, all depend entirely on the people that comprise it. The people are significant donor in the development of the organization, since every person has unique talent, skills and abilities that are useful for development. Now a days clients don't look for a 'one stop shop' across the spectrum. Instead they go to 'specialists' for hiring needs. While 'Speed' & 'Numbers' may be the mantra for mass hiring; the top end of the market is driven by 'Industry Expertise' & 'The Ability To Engage’.

We have distinct brands to address each segment, to best address specific client needs. We act as a spokesperson between the client and candidate.

a. Global Talent Acquisitions: Identifying and acquiring senior, critical and niche talent through an experienced and diverse team of handpicked consultants who understand complex, dynamic and varied needs of competitive businesses.

b. Volume Hiring - Part time and Full time: Headcount caters to volume hiring needs of client organizations across the industry to address the war for “right” talent at the bottom of the pyramid, which is every organization's biggest challenge today

c. Best suited Executive Search & Head Hunting

d. Expatriate search with expertise in realty, retail, hospitality, telecommunication, healthcare, education, and infrastructure

e. Non Resident Indians – Willing to come back to India

f. Indian professionals with global education, exposure & experience

3. People Management Services (PMS)
“Good People management is the most important and challenging skill required in the workplace”
Managing people effectively to release their full potential and enable them to succeed is a key factor for any business. This includes attracting, training and retaining key personnel with the essential skills, abilities and aptitude for the work involved. For any business, a major capital investment is the investment in people – ‘human capital’.

We offer a wide range of services that can support organizations in developing their existing staff to achieve their full potential. We can help you understand people’s motivations and preferred style of working, so you can be confident that you have the right people in the right jobs. We work with individuals too, offering a range of bespoke personal development support that can help you achieve more, whether in a professional or personal capacity.

Our services include:

a. Creating Positions Description, Role Clarity, KRAs & KPIs
b. Organizational structure or restructuring
c. Developing People Practice Manual
d. Benefit and Compensation Survey, Strategy and Management
e. Building HR strategy for Non HR
f. Organization Diagnosis (Audit) -  A method of reviewing various policies and procedures within human resources and other areas of an organization
g. Talent Engagement
h. HR Drivers & Checks:
i. Designing People Practice Manuals
j. Rightsizing (As & when required)

4. Off-shoring Business Activities (OBA)Off shoring is an integral part of the rising tide of globalization. In the past, many developing countries could only really compete in global agricultural markets. Today the ability to provide services, such as IT, accounting, call center work, etc. has a real impact on these countries’ economies. It has opened up opportunities for organizations to utilize skill sets and expertise that they normally would not be able to access without large investments. It has also become a savior to start ups and small businesses which have to work with modest capital.

India’s recent huge economic growth is not solely down to off shoring, but it is an essential factor. To grab the opportunity to begin outsourced the Non-Core business activities of any organization, Leadoff offers an array of service lines in the vertical.:
a. Business Advice and Liaison Services on Retainer-ship
b. Compliance- Education & Management
c. Accounts Management System
d. Payroll Administration & Management
     oGratuity & Superannuation
     oProvident Fund Activities
     oEmployee State Insurance (ESIC) Activities
e. IT Services- Facility Management and AMC
f. Legal Services