Wood Words

What’s REALLY Going On in Your Company? Exit interviews with temporary employees can help you find out

Why are employees leaving your company?

What’s your company’s corporate culture really like?

How could you improve the way work gets done, to make employees happier and more productive?

Believe it or not, your temporary employees can provide insights in all of these areas – and more – just like your direct staff.  Exit interviews with long-term contingent workers can help you:

  • find out why employees leave;
  • obtain candid feedback about your corporate culture;
  • learn how to retain existing staff;
  • gain insights about the employees’ managers and co-workers; and
  • identify opportunities for improving workflow processes.

By spending just 15 minutes asking a temporary what worked well on the assignment and what didn’t, you can dramatically improve your staffing results the next time around.

Because the temporary worked with your full-time staff each day, he may also be able to provide some insight into direct workforce.  For example, he could suggest process enhancements or tell you if a direct employee seemed disgruntled or overwhelmed with work.  Valuable insights like these make assignment exit interviews great learning opportunities that are worth the investment of time and energy.

To get the most from exit interviews with temporary employees, plan ahead.  Use these suggestions from Wood Personnel to maximize each opportunity for learning:

Establish expectations. Inform the individual that you’d like to conduct an exit interview upon the assignment’s completion.  If he knows he’ll be completing an exit interview, he’s more likely to provide high quality information that will help you ultimately achieve better results.

Create a list of questions. You wouldn’t “wing it” in a direct employee exit interview.  Put the same care into planning one for a long-term temporary.  Here are a few sample questions to get you started:

  • What was most/least rewarding about working on assignment with us?
  • What could your assignment supervisor do to improve his management style?
  • Did you have clear goals and know what was expected of you in your job?
  • How would you describe our corporate culture?  Employee morale?  Work environment?
  • What, if anything, could we have done to make you more productive while you worked here?
  • After working for us on assignment, would you want to work for us directly?  Why or why not?
  • Is there anything I should know about our direct staff?

Set time aside to analyze results. Once you’ve conducted an exit interview with a long-term temporary or contract worker, devote adequate time to review your findings.  Is your company using temporary employees to its fullest advantage?  What did you learn about your direct staff?  Use this new knowledge to improve your programs and processes.

An exit interview signals the end of one employee relationship.  But if it’s conducted properly, it can also be the beginning of even better relationships and results with your existing and incoming staff.

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