Exit Polls and Exit Interviews

For the two days preceding the Bihar election results on 8^th November 2015, most TV channels indulged in serious as well as trivial debates based on exit polls sponsored or partnered by the respective broadcast companies. If we take the average of nine different exit polls that got published NDA was to win 119 seats and the Grand Alliance to win 117 seats. In other words, all the pollsters predicted a narrow victory to one of the two formations. Obviously, the real outcome on the 8^th of November was miles away from the predictions by the exit pollsters.

It was intriguing to most rational Indians as to why is it that a country that launched an unmanned spacecraft to the Mars can’t do an approximately accurate post poll survey.

Well, not completely true. There was one exit poll agency (Axis) which predicted between 169 and 183 seats for the Grand Alliance and 58 to 70 seats to the NDA. They were the most accurate going by the final outcomes. But unfortunately the channel that sponsored this agency refused to air their findings for some unknown reasons.

We knew that millions of citizens cast their votes in Bihar. We also knew that within 48 hours of closing of the last phase of voting the actual votes will be counted and results published by reliable government machinery. Then, what value is added by two days of discussions around highly unreliable and speculative predictions of those exit polls?

The answer probably is: pure entertainment. The dance of democracy is the new Bharatanatyam! The voter fooled the pollster, the pollster fooled the media company and the media company fooled the public! These exit polls didn’t serve any other useful purpose.

You would tend to think that such purposeless things happen in media and politics, but not in private companies. Wait a minute.  Corporate companies conduct exit interviews when employees quit, just as the exit pollsters conduct interview with the voters after they have voted. Fortunately they don’t figure as much in the TV debates and media and hence the public is spared. Exit interview results are meant for private circulation. Many companies do this as a mandatory agenda of the employee separation process. The hope is that employees give honest feedback when they are leaving the company and the objective is to use the feedback for improving the way employees’ careers are shaped or facilities provided to potentially reduce the rate of employee attrition.

Very noble intention, indeed! But does it happen? No is the frequent answer. Why?

In many large organizations, often an HR representative or a third person conducts the exit interview. When the employee is loosely engaged with the organization she does not have much motivation to give an ‘honest’ feedback. Even if she wants to give an honest feedback she will think it unwise to make any sharp (read truthful) comments. Instead she will make some generally accepted positives and a few improvement areas to get out of this one item from a long exit checklist. She knows that there may be some reference check in future or for a safe return to the same company it is better to play safe now.

The person administering the exit interview too is doing this last ritual with a sense of detachment and a sense of duty rather with a sense of purpose. Someone with a sense of purpose will probably go beyond the format and seek genuine feedback. This too is an ideal situation rarely happening in most organizations.

Now, assuming there is indeed some genuine and useful input coming from the exit interview reports, few in the management hierarchy has time and mind share to delve into the underlying messages of the exit interview feedback. In best organizations this can be the last agenda in an otherwise packed business review. In other organizations, the exit interviews are done, circulated among some managers, quarterly summary made, quickly glanced and forgotten.

      So what needs to be done with exit interviews? Here are some suggestions.      

1. Make the exit interview voluntary. Let the employee decide if she wants to share any feedback at the time of leaving. Probably a few voluntary responses are better than a lot of mandatory interrogations. 
2. Provide multiple ways for an employee to provide exit feedback. (a) employee post on a specified site either under signature or anonymously; (b) send feedback in mail to the manager, manager’s manager or to HR representative; (c) talk to a company person in confidence, without any recording.
3. Pick one important or recurring feedback every quarter, act on it and broadcast to employees about what is done.
4. Complement the exit interview feedback with regular stay interviews (check what makes the employee stay with the company, and what will make the stay more meaningful and enjoyable) with random employees or on the basis of some stratified sample.
5.  Enhance engagement with employees- by managers, leadership and HR on a planned manner to make the exit interview eventually redundant.

Why do companies conduct interviews at the time of recruitment? Because, they are strangers and there is a need to know them before taking a hiring decision. Why do companies conduct exit interviews? May be because employees are still strangers in some way!