Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Exit interviews no longer a formality, a necessity
Business Standard - 21st Feb 2007
TRENDS: Feedback from employees who resign can provide valuable insights into how a company is perceived.
It is said that an employee is best-placed to assess and evaluate a company— especially when he is set to leave or is planning to leave, because then he has nothing to win or lose by being frank and honest.
This is the premise on which exit interviews are based— a practice that has become de rigueur among Indian companies. Exit interviews are conducted for employees after they have resigned and just before they leave.
“Firms with strong HR processes in place are the ones that have exit interviews,” says B S Murthy, CEO of Human Capital, a Bangalore-based recruitment and training firm.
The feedback elicited during an exit interview gives the management a measure of employee perceptions of the company. Exit interviews of key managers yield insights into what may have prompted them to leave, and whether the needed systems and processes are in place.
As E Balaji, chief operating officer of Ma Foi Management Consultants, a search firm, points out, years ago there was no great attrition and people largely stayed in a job for life. Today, even CEOs regularly ask for analyses of exit interviews. “Today an exit interview is not a mere formality, but a necessity. If an employee is leaving, a company needs to know why.”
But who conducts the exit interview is vital, notes Murthy. If done by a junior person, it is probably being done as a mere formality. When conducted by a senior person, it can give a company valuable insights into why an employee is leaving and what is wrong with the firm’s systems and processes.
Being a frank and open discussion, an exit interview gives HR departments a perspective on what they may have to change or correct.
In day-to-day conversations, many issues and problems do not crop up and HR departments are often at sea about them. It is only during exit interviews that HR departments come to know of key ground realities and ways to resolve them.
Says Sudhakar Balakrishnan, director and chief operating officer of Adecco India, a recruitment solutions firm: “Exit interviews give every company an opportunity to gain an insight into employees.”
Firms with a strong people-orientation and respect for the individual conduct them to help improve the way they work by making the required changes in HR policies, he adds.
“Exit interviews at the CXO level are taken more seriously by companies. It is a learning process for companies,” says S Krishna Prakash, managing partner of EMA Partners International, a global executive search firm. At junior levels exit interviews are one-off affairs.
At senior levels they could be spread over more than one session, and at the CXO level they often take the form of efforts to understand problems and retain the individual.
Exit interviews could even be done three or six months after an employee leaves, explains Balaji, “because those who have just put in their papers can be emotionally charged, but later, they may feel they have something to contribute.”
Resignations may be related to compensation, loss of chemistry with the immediate superior, or a feeling that the individual is no longer growing or learning by staying on. All HR experts are unanimous that the precise cause must be identified and addressed.
TRENDS: Feedback from employees who resign can provide valuable insights into how a company is perceived.
It is said that an employee is best-placed to assess and evaluate a company— especially when he is set to leave or is planning to leave, because then he has nothing to win or lose by being frank and honest.
This is the premise on which exit interviews are based— a practice that has become de rigueur among Indian companies. Exit interviews are conducted for employees after they have resigned and just before they leave.
“Firms with strong HR processes in place are the ones that have exit interviews,” says B S Murthy, CEO of Human Capital, a Bangalore-based recruitment and training firm.
The feedback elicited during an exit interview gives the management a measure of employee perceptions of the company. Exit interviews of key managers yield insights into what may have prompted them to leave, and whether the needed systems and processes are in place.
As E Balaji, chief operating officer of Ma Foi Management Consultants, a search firm, points out, years ago there was no great attrition and people largely stayed in a job for life. Today, even CEOs regularly ask for analyses of exit interviews. “Today an exit interview is not a mere formality, but a necessity. If an employee is leaving, a company needs to know why.”
But who conducts the exit interview is vital, notes Murthy. If done by a junior person, it is probably being done as a mere formality. When conducted by a senior person, it can give a company valuable insights into why an employee is leaving and what is wrong with the firm’s systems and processes.
Being a frank and open discussion, an exit interview gives HR departments a perspective on what they may have to change or correct.
In day-to-day conversations, many issues and problems do not crop up and HR departments are often at sea about them. It is only during exit interviews that HR departments come to know of key ground realities and ways to resolve them.
Says Sudhakar Balakrishnan, director and chief operating officer of Adecco India, a recruitment solutions firm: “Exit interviews give every company an opportunity to gain an insight into employees.”
Firms with a strong people-orientation and respect for the individual conduct them to help improve the way they work by making the required changes in HR policies, he adds.
“Exit interviews at the CXO level are taken more seriously by companies. It is a learning process for companies,” says S Krishna Prakash, managing partner of EMA Partners International, a global executive search firm. At junior levels exit interviews are one-off affairs.
At senior levels they could be spread over more than one session, and at the CXO level they often take the form of efforts to understand problems and retain the individual.
Exit interviews could even be done three or six months after an employee leaves, explains Balaji, “because those who have just put in their papers can be emotionally charged, but later, they may feel they have something to contribute.”
Resignations may be related to compensation, loss of chemistry with the immediate superior, or a feeling that the individual is no longer growing or learning by staying on. All HR experts are unanimous that the precise cause must be identified and addressed.
Psychometric testing catches on
Business Standard - 21st Feb 2007
BEST PRACTICE: Companies now conduct objective assessments.
Infosys and Wipro use them, as do Bharti Enterprises, Hindustan Lever and about 250 other companies in India. Welcome to the world of psychometric tests.
The underlying logic: In times of high attrition, being able to fit people into jobs that match their aptitude, rather than fitting jobs into people, is key to minimising staff turnover.
That in turn requires doing away with subjectivity in candidate assessment, through the use of standardised tests that have been evolved for a given job. The 360-degree assessment method, one of the latest in the assessment field, helps firms find the right kind of position for an individual, given his or her core strengths.
This helps firms get the best fit for a given job, sometimes even from within the company. Since the tests tell how best a person can be used to meet the firm’s needs, their use is catching on.
“When people get jobs in line with their aptitude, they give their all. Since it seems so natural to the individual, the stress of the job is minimal and the person is happy,” says Y V L Pandit, managing director of SHL India, the local subsidiary of London-based global assessment firm SHL, the world leader in objective assessment of people based on the science of psychometrics.
If an individual is on the rolls of a firm, it may even need to relocate him or her to get the best out of them. The objective in this case is to take a holistic look at individuals and their abilities, which helps increase the productivity of an individual.
Before assessing employees, however, SHL gets clients to promise that the assessments will not be used to victimise anyone. It says that the assessments are for trying to find the best way to benefit the company.
Pandit stresses that in times when the demand for people is high and there is a talent crunch, it is better to go in for the best candidates, even if this means a company is unable to fill all posts.
Reason: This ensures minimal attrition and helps cut recruitment and training costs. It is an individual’s displeasure with the job that makes him or her leave, forcing the company to hire another person to fill the vacancy— and incur the attendant costs.
SHL has eminent psychologists on its board who meet regularly and give the company feedback on the latest research and development in academia.
These individuals, some of the best minds in occupational psychology and psychometric testing, give independent advice to SHL.
BEST PRACTICE: Companies now conduct objective assessments.
Infosys and Wipro use them, as do Bharti Enterprises, Hindustan Lever and about 250 other companies in India. Welcome to the world of psychometric tests.
The underlying logic: In times of high attrition, being able to fit people into jobs that match their aptitude, rather than fitting jobs into people, is key to minimising staff turnover.
That in turn requires doing away with subjectivity in candidate assessment, through the use of standardised tests that have been evolved for a given job. The 360-degree assessment method, one of the latest in the assessment field, helps firms find the right kind of position for an individual, given his or her core strengths.
This helps firms get the best fit for a given job, sometimes even from within the company. Since the tests tell how best a person can be used to meet the firm’s needs, their use is catching on.
“When people get jobs in line with their aptitude, they give their all. Since it seems so natural to the individual, the stress of the job is minimal and the person is happy,” says Y V L Pandit, managing director of SHL India, the local subsidiary of London-based global assessment firm SHL, the world leader in objective assessment of people based on the science of psychometrics.
If an individual is on the rolls of a firm, it may even need to relocate him or her to get the best out of them. The objective in this case is to take a holistic look at individuals and their abilities, which helps increase the productivity of an individual.
Before assessing employees, however, SHL gets clients to promise that the assessments will not be used to victimise anyone. It says that the assessments are for trying to find the best way to benefit the company.
Pandit stresses that in times when the demand for people is high and there is a talent crunch, it is better to go in for the best candidates, even if this means a company is unable to fill all posts.
Reason: This ensures minimal attrition and helps cut recruitment and training costs. It is an individual’s displeasure with the job that makes him or her leave, forcing the company to hire another person to fill the vacancy— and incur the attendant costs.
SHL has eminent psychologists on its board who meet regularly and give the company feedback on the latest research and development in academia.
These individuals, some of the best minds in occupational psychology and psychometric testing, give independent advice to SHL.
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