Did you know that on average, the resignation of an employee costs a company about $18,000 💸?
Since your company is not immune to departures, it may be beneficial to learn about the reasons why employees leave their positions. What better way to do this than to conduct an exit survey!
🖩 How much does a resignation cost in your organization? To find out, take the test with our Turnover Cost Calculator!
What is an exit survey?
An exit survey allows you to ask employees before their departure about their reasons for leaving, their history with the organization and what they believe could have been done to prevent their resignation.
Considering that these employees have a particular perspective of your organization and that these surveys are anonymous, such a survey allows you to get a lot of honest answers about your employees' experience.
It is recommended that you send this type of survey 1 week prior to the employee's official departure date, ensuring that they receive and complete it, especially if you are using business addresses to send your surveys.
💡 Reminder: Unlike our other types of engagement surveys, the confidentiality threshold is 3 respondents.
You will then be able to consult the data as soon as 3 questionnaires have been completed, allowing you to act more quickly.
Why conduct an exit survey?
The main purpose of the exit survey is to allow you to understand the organizational conditions that led the employee to want to leave the company and what could have been improved to prevent their departure.
Employee feedback can also help you to improve internal processes to promote team satisfaction and retention.
The exit survey also allows you to end the collaboration with the employee on a positive note. In fact, it allows the employee to have had the opportunity to tell the employer everything.
🔎 Tip : If you have specific needs for certain employee groups, the Amelio platform allows you to create different exit surveys that you can modify based on the reality of different groups.
Here are some other benefits of conducting this type of survey.
Comfort zone
Voluntary departures can sometimes create discomfort or situations that are more difficult for employees to address.
For example, if an employee has experienced conflict with his or her manager or with senior management, it may be difficult for him or her to address these issues during an exit interview.
Thus, by having the opportunity to share their opinion anonymously, it allows them to provide more candid answers that can really enlighten you.
The words fly away, the writings remain
For some, it may be easier to express themselves in writing than verbally, as it allows them to take the time to think about their words, how to say things.
Exit surveys can also be combined with an exit interview. The survey provides a second chance to share important information that the employee may not have thought of at the time, but would like to share confidentially.
You certainly don't want to lose this potential source of useful information for your organization!
Retention strategies
Compiling the data from the exit surveys will first allow you to determine whether the causes of employee departures are specific to each employee (relocation, return to school, career change, etc.) or whether they are causes related to your organization, if they are generalized to several employees.
In the case of generalized causes, you will be able to identify your shortcomings as a company and what you could improve. The answers provided by outgoing employees will allow you to identify what you could do to improve employee retention.
What drives employees to leave your organization, but more importantly, what would keep them?
The results of the survey will quickly give you actionable insights. You will then be able to improve your employer brand, which will promote the recruitment and retention of talent.
To learn how to create and schedule an exit survey on our platform, read our article 📑.