In this episode of Your Practice Ain’t Perfect, we’re talking about Why Exit Interviews Are Stupid and What You Should Do Instead.

Joe Mull, M.Ed, is a practice manager leadership trainer and keynote speaker who works with healthcare organizations that want their practice leaders to engage, inspire, and succeed. As an expert in employee engagement and healthcare leadership development, Joe gives physicians and managers the skills and tools they need to engineer teams that work hard, get along, and wow patients. After more than a decade in healthcare, Joe knows that when leaders develop skills related to leadership, communication, and teambuilding, they can stop putting fires out every day and prevent them from sparking in the first place. Bring Joe in to keynote your conference, design and facilitate a retreat, or beef up your practice leader training. For more info or to book Joe now visit www.joemull.com.

“It’s a bit absurd if you think about it. The employee who has chosen to leave is consulted as to the direction and performance of the team and organization. That doesn't make a lot of sense. For some reason, we assume that, freed from the need for self-preservation, these departing employees will shine a light on what’s really going on in the unit or practice, and that these interviews, when compiled over time, might help identify patterns or prevalent issues in need of reform.

That never happens.

Exit interviews are stupid. They're a waste of time. Stop doing them. In this episode of Your Practice Ain’t Perfect, I’ll tell you why and what you should be doing instead. Stick around…

So let me get this straight. An employee has decided they are no longer going to be a part of the future of your organization, so NOW’s the time to solicit their feedback, or hear their concerns, or mine them for ideas? It really is silly, if you think about it.

Here’s an idea. How about asking your current employees?

Personnel on their way out may be honest in an exit interview, but often they are not. In fact, I’ve seen many experts encourage those leaving NOT to be honest in exit interviews as it could still be professionally harmful.

Stop wasting your time with exit interviews. Instead, engage your current employees. Develop and install ways to hear their feedback, their ideas, their opinions and concerns. In fact, here are 3 specific things to try instead of exit interviews:

• Do stay interviews. Develop a set of questions you use once or twice a year to ask direct reports about their fulfillment level at work. Ask them what would cause them to leave. Ask them what keeps them there. Ask them for suggestions on how to improve … anything. And if you already do recurrent one-on-one meetings with your direct reports, that’s even better, as long as you have these kinds of conversations during those meetings.

• 360 Feedback assessments. A 360 feedback instrument invites others to evaluate and comment on the performance of a single employee. If the process is administered correctly, it can be a valuable tool for all involved, especially leaders. 360 assessments are a great way to draw out things that live under the surface, which is what you’re trying to do in those exit interviews anyway, right?

• Town hall meetings: Once or twice a year, set aside time for a wide-open town-hall style meeting, where your teams, the entire department, or everyone in the organization gets together and sits down with leadership to share concerns, ask questions, and discuss challenges. Leadership must be genuinely invested in drawing these things out, so set ground rules that make it safe to be honest, and as the leader, be prepared with a few thought-provoking questions to get started.

I write extensively about these tactics and more in my book, Cure for the Common Leader: What Physicians & Managers Must Do to Engage & Inspire Healthcare Teams, which is available on Amazon.

Nobody has time to waste at work anymore, so stop wasting time on exit interviews. When employees depart, thank them for their service, regardless of their performance. Wish them well on their next adventure. If you didn’t ask for their feedback while they were there, don’t bother asking as they depart. Instead, turn around and initiate that conversation with individual contributors who are sticking around. Chances are, they’ll tell you the truth, because they care enough to stay.

If you like this video, then please share it and tell me why in the comments box below. While you’re there, tell me about the people management problems or staff drama you want me to talk about in future episodes of Your Practice Ain’t Perfect, which you can subscribe to by going to joemull.com. See you next time.”

Joe Mull- Speaker, Author, Trainer
www.joemull.com
Twitter:@joemull77

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