Seasonal Interviews Can Help You Avoid Exit Interviews

According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, most of those who quit their jobs during the Great Resignation have now returned to the labor force—with better jobs. The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffling.

If you’re an owner, employer, an HR rep or hiring manager, you’re likely wondering what this means for your business. Maybe you’ve already felt the brunt of this great upheaval, having conducted way more exit interviews in the past year than you might have wished. Or maybe your company has been a beneficiary of it, having perfected the secret sauce of worker satisfaction. Either way, you’ve likely arrived at the same take-away from it all. Simply put: Employee satisfaction is good business practice. 

This concept is actually one of the core tenets of my work. With more than seven successful businesses behind me, I’ve spent the past two decades as an organizational strategist, helping transform the cultures of more than 180 organizations. One of the messages I always have for clients is to constantly be working towards greater employee satisfaction.

The reason isn’t simply because it makes you a better person or boss, though that’s a good enough one. It also makes good business sense. As too many organizations learned the hard way, your workers are the backbone of your business, and without them, there is no business to run. Moreover, when you grow employee engagement, you grow your business at the same time. 

One of the most important tools I use with my clients is a survey that measures worker satisfaction. I call it simply the Seven Questions. The survey measures company morale and is best administered seasonally—that is, perhaps three or four times per year. Equally important, you must act on the results of the survey, implementing systemic changes to try to correct any issues that come to light in the survey responses. 

Take a look at the Seven Questions below: 

7 Question Engagement and Culture Survey (scored from 1-10)

1. Do I belong? I understand and embrace my organization’s core values and I have, or, I can develop the skills my accountability positions demand. I belong.
2. Do I believe? I know and believe in my organization’s “why.” I also believe in leadership, my teammates, our strategic direction, and the products or services we provide. I believe. 
3. Do I understand and embrace what I am accountable for? I understand and embrace the purpose of my job and the roles that make up my job. I know why and what I should be thinking about, and doing. I am accountable. 
4. Do I understand and embrace how I am measured? I understand and embrace how and why I am measured, and I know what constitutes “a good job.” My measures give me direction and help me to form strategies to fulfill the accountabilities of my job and roles.
5. Do I understand and embrace how my organization listens and how I am heard? I understand and embrace how and when my organization listens, and how my opinion is heard. I am heard.
6. Do I understand and embrace how I am developed? I understand and embrace my organization’s development mechanisms and how I am developed; I take an active role in my own development. I am developed.
7. Do I understand and embrace how I maintain balance? I understand and embrace my organization’s balance mechanisms and actively participate in our goal of balance. I am balanced. (Three components of balance: 1. Work-life, 2. Compensation, 3. Health and Wellness.)

These questions are all about assessing an employee’s satisfaction with work. Your employees are looking for the same thing we all are looking for from our jobs: opportunities for growth and development, plus feeling valued, respected and a part of something meaningful.

If you’re a company leader, perhaps you’ve heard complaints about some of these elements during an exit interview. But wouldn’t it be so much better to get this information while there’s still a chance to course-correct? Seasonal interviews give you that chance. Just as valuable—conducting these surveys conveys to employees that the organization values their input and feelings. It’s an instant morale boost—and one that you can sustain as long as you follow up on their feedback with real adjustments where appropriate. 

The Great Reshuffling has hopefully been a great wake-up call to businesses that deprioritized worker morale. We are in a time of great transition, and many workers have done their own personal surveys, quitting jobs where they couldn’t answer yes to many of the questions above. Perhaps they shared their dissatisfaction in an exit interview on the way out, but either way, those companies lost those workers. The companies that benefited? Those where workers feel that they can belong, believe, be accountable, understand the expectations, be heard, be developed, and feel balanced. 

Take the 7 Question Survey here.

Walt Brown has helped transform the culture and effectiveness of more than 200 organizations across the US through his work helping them create clarity and consistency around Culture, Operations and Structure.