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Turnover Exit Interviews

We recently hired a new manager, and now turnover in her department is skyrocketing. We hear she is tough and demanding, and we are concerned that she may be the wrong person for the job. Turnover is very costly, and we are wondering what we can do to stem the tide besides just replacing her.



Before trying to stem the tide of turnover, you should check the tide more carefully. There can be many reasons for turnover, and some of them are not bad.

First, it is possible that this new manager has nothing to do with turnover at all. Perhaps other independent factors are behind it, such as new opportunities in your geographical area, other problems within your company, or even personal events in the employees' lives. The arrival of this new manager is correlated with the turnover, but might not be causing it.

Assuming that she is the cause, the next step is to see who is leaving. It is one matter if she is forcing out weaker and less productive employees, and a totally separate issue if you are losing excellent employees. One way to find out what is happening is to conduct real exit interviews that include a scripted set of questions to identify the reasons behind an employee's desire to leave. Another key step is for you to manage by wandering around and spend more informal and formal time in her department.

There is no doubt that turnover is costly, but there can be even greater costs if you jump to conclusions in determining why people are jumping ship.



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