An Employee Quits: Control the Exit Interview

One of your employees walks into your office and says I”I need to talk to you.” In the next few minutes the employee quits. You need to be prepared in advance for this eventuality because if you have employees some will leave. There can be several different scenarios.

The Friendly Quit: This might happen if the employees spouse is transferred, other family changes or other reasons not related to the company or their compensation. This will be the easiest conversation but you need to treat it the same as the other scenarios.

The Unfriendly Quit: The most likely scenario is the employee has found another job and is leaving for more pay or promotion.

The Hostile Quit: The employee announces he no longer can stand working for the company.

Often the “quit” is a combination of the above. I had an employee who apologized for leaving. She said she needed to stay home to take care of her elderly parents. A few weeks later I received a call from one of our customers who told me this employee was working for a competitor and was soliciting our customer’s business for her new employer. 

You should have a scripted exit interview. Get it out and complete the interview immediate while everything is fresh. It will likely you will catch the employee off guard and you will get the best information before they have too much time to think and develop excuses instead of reasons for quitting.

Once you complete the interview (see article Script an Exit Interview) you or a trusted employee should escort the former employee out of the building. If you return to the now former employee’s office or work station, do not leave them alone. Let them collect their personal articles and escort them out of building. If the exit interview shows any signs of hostility then escort them out and send them their personal items. Allowing a former employee even a friendly one to work for several weeks after they give notice is inviting lose of critical data and even theft of proprietary information.

original content copyright Thomas Robinson 2010