Exit interviews
If people are leaving an organisation in increasing numbers, figuring out why is crucial. The most useful tool for doing this is by conducting an exit interview. Following the interview, the data collected needs to be analysed, shared, and actioned. Exit interviews helps improve approaches to recruitment and retention (Sutton et. Al 2011).
Relatively easy to implement
Regular staff reviews and opportunities (annual surveys, networking, staff meetings) need to be made available for employees to discuss factors that may improve retention. This may be generic or confidential depending on the content the individual wishes to discuss. Interviews do not have to be conducted ‘face to face’. It is important to structure the meeting to enable the best means of communication between the employee and the organisation. This may be through written communication (followed up with a meeting), or via telecommunications.
Success factors
Exit interviews work best if conducted prior to the individuals last day of employment. This allows the orgainsation to engage with the employee to try and resolve the reason for resignation, and has the potential to retain the worker, by discussing reasons why they intended to resign (Bragg & Bonner. 2015). Organisation’s can then attempt to anticipate problems and use this ‘window of opportunity' for retention.
Once potentially negative trends are discovered; employee engagement and satisfaction should increase. Content employees will lead to less turnover, saving time and money for the organisation. This may lead to the identification of significant areas contributing to increased turnover.
If the process is adequately conducted, and the data sufficiently analysed and actioned, a greater awareness of the efficiency and effectiveness of management and organisational processes will be achieved. All these factors will contribute to an overall improvement of the induction process.
Challenges
Employees feel that it is the organisation's responsibility to approach them, to negotiate their reasons for resignation. Their needs to be the opportunity for effective two-way communication.
The quality of the data collected is important. The usefulness of an exit interview depends on the honesty of the departing employee. The timing of the exit interview is crucial. If the interview is conducted on the last day of employment, it is likely that the employee has already disengaged, making the possibility of retention unlikely.
A decision needs to be made on who is best placed to conduct the exit interview, to ensure the quality of data. This may be a member of the organisation or an external body. A consultant is less personal, but may extract more honest answers.
Organisations need to be mindful that they don’t focus solely on financial compensation as a retention strategy. Recognise that it may be a Human Resource issue that is contributing to the employee’s decision to leave, so the relevant questions need to be asked.
A socially accountable organization designs its services to meet the needs of the population it serves. This implies having systems in place to regularly assess the population needs or monitor changes on an on-going basis.
How can we be sure that our service model best meets the needs of our population, provides the most cost-effective solutions, and leverages advances in technology? The service model must best meet the needs of the population, and metrics are required to monitor the effectiveness of the service model. In addition to understanding the population’s
service needs, a strong body of evidence suggests that, especially in rural and remote environments, the most successful health-service models are explicitly tailored to the local environment.
Delivery of safe and effective healthcare in remote and rural areas requires a specific additional skill set including ongoing skills maintenance and continuing education. In addition to ensuring there are appropriately tailored education and training opportunities that are accessible to remote and rural practitioners, there is a need to ensure recruits are learning-focused and have the ability to develop the remote and rural skill set that is required. This Framework challenges this perception and encourages organizations to seriously consider the characteristics of the person you would like to hire. Management may find that the promotion and advertising materials used may be targeting the wrong person.
Supporting your professional teams to access professional development that is relevant to their rural and remote work environment can be a significant factor in enhancing the quality of services in your community and in retention of employees. A mixture of well designed “at distance or “technology enhanced” education programmes together with some “face-to-face” education and training should be offered.
Developing an academic/training mandate for an organization, and potentially seeking funds to allow professional teams to dedicate time to training the professionals of the future will lead to a strong return on investment. There is a clear and substantial body of evidence which confirms that offering health professional training in rural and remote environments leads to increased retention of those professionals. Furthermore, training and rural and remote environments ensures that professionals have the unique skills that are needed for rural practice.
Hall DJ, Garnett ST, Barnes T, Stevens M. Drivers of professional mobility in the Northern Territory: dental professionals. Rural and Remote Health (Internet) 2007; 7: 655. Available: http://www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewnew.asp?ArticleID=655
Rohatinsky NK, Jahner S. Supporting nurses’ transition to rural healthcare environments through mentorship. Rural and Remote Health (Internet) 2016; 16: 3637. Available: http://www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewnew.asp?ArticleID=3637