Four Principles of Interpersonal Communication

These principles underlie the workings in real life of interpersonal communication. They are basic to communication. We can't ignore them Interpersonal communication is inescapable We can't not communicate. The very attempt not to communicate communicates something. Through not only words, but through tone of voice and through gesture, posture, facial expression, etc., we constantly communicate to those around us. Through these channels, we constantly receive communication from others. Even when you sleep, you communicate. Remember a basic principle of communication in general: people are not mind readers. Another way to put this is: people judge you by your behavior, not your intent. Interpersonal communication is irreversible You can't really take back something once it has been said. The effect must inevitably remain. Despite the instructions from a judge to a jury to "disregard that last statement the witness made," the lawyer knows that it can't help but make an impression on the jury. A Russian proverb says, "Once a word goes out of your mouth, you can never swallow it again."

Interpersonal communication is complicated No form of communication is simple. Because of the number of variables involved, even simple requests are extremely complex. Theorists note that whenever we communicate there are really at least six "people" involved: 1) who you think you are; 2) who you think the other person is; 30 who you think the other person thinks you are; 4) who the other person thinks /she is; 5) who the other person thinks you are; and 6) who the other person thinks you think s/he is. We don't actually swap ideas, we swap symbols that stand for ideas. This also complicates communication. Words (symbols) do not have inherent meaning; we simply use them in certain ways, and no two people use the same word exactly alike. Osmo Wiio gives us some communication maxims similar to Murphy's law (Osmo Wiio, Wiio's Laws--and Some Others (Espoo, Finland: Welin-Goos, 1978): If communication can fail, it will. If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm. There is always somebody who knows better than you what you meant by your message. The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed. These tongue-in-cheek maxims are not real principles; they simply humorously remind us of the difficulty of accurate communication. (See also A commentary of Wiio's laws by Jukka Korpela.) Interpersonal communication is contextual In other words, communication does not happen in isolation. There is: Psychological context, which is who you are and what you bring to the interaction. Your needs, desires, values, personality, etc., all form the psychological context. ("You" here refers to both participants in the interaction.) Relational context, which concerns your reactions to the other person--the "mix." Situational context deals with the psycho-social "where" you are communicating. An interaction that takes place in a classroom will be very different from one that takes place in a bar. Environmental context deals with the physical "where" you are communicating. Furniture, location, noise level, temperature, season, time of day, all are examples of factors in the environmental context. Cultural context includes all the learned behaviors and rules that affect the interaction.If you come from a culture (foreign or within your own country) where it is considered rude to make long, direct eye contact, you will out of politeness avoid eye contact. If the other person comes from a culture where long, direct eye contact signals trustworthiness, then we have in the cultural context a basis for misunderstanding.

Functions of Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication is important because of the functions it achieves. Whenever we engage in communication with another person, we seek to gain information about them. We also give off information through a wide variety of verbal and nonverbal cues. Read more about the various functions of interpersonal communication and then complete the interactive activity and the quiz at the end of this unit.

Gaining Information	One reason we engage in interpersonal communication is so that we can gain knowledge about another individual. Social Penetration Theory says that we attempt to gain information about others so that we can interact with them more effectively. We can better predict how they will think, feel, and act if we know who they are. We gain this information passively, by observing them; actively, by having others engage them; or interactively, by engaging them ourselves. Self-disclosure is often used to get information from another person.
Building a Context of Understanding	We also engage in interpersonal communication to help us better understand what someone says in a given context. The words we say can mean very different things depending on how they are said or in what context. Content Messages refer to the surface level meaning of a message. Relationship Messages refer to how a message is said. The two are sent simultaneously, but each affects the meaning assigned to the communication. Interpersonal communication helps us understand each other better.
Establishing Identity	Another reason we engage in interpersonal communication is to establish an identity. The roles we play in our relationships help us establish identity. So too does the face, the public self-image we present to others. Both roles and face are constructed based on how we interact with others.
Interpersonal Needs	Finally, we engage in interpersonal communication because we need to express and receive interpersonal needs. William Schutz2 has identified three such needs: inclusion, control, and affection. • Inclusion is the need to establish identity with others. • Control is the need to exercise leadership and prove one's abilities. Groups provide outlets for this need. Some individuals do not want to be a leader. For them, groups provide the necessary control over aspects of their lives. • Affection is the need to develop relationships with people. Groups are an excellent way to make friends and establish relationships.

Behvioural Patterns

There are two basic types of behaviors in relationships: dominance and submissiveness. Dominance is often referred to as one-up, while submissiveness, one-down. In some relationships, the two are complementary--one individual is one-up, the other one-down--and the relationship is rewarding. Other relationships are symmetrical, where both parties are one-up or both are one-down. Problems can result when individuals feel trapped by their role as the dominant or submissive member of the relationship. Flexibility can help both partners enjoy the relationship.

Whenever we communicate with someone else, we open ourselves up for rejection. The other individual can accept what we say or reject what we say. Researcher Evelyn Sieburg19 has identified seven "disconfirming" responses that reject the other individual. Impervious: Failing to acknowledge the other person. Interrupting: Cutting the other's message short. Irrelevant: Giving a response that is unrelated to what the other has said. Tangential: Briefly responding to the other's message. Impersonal: Responding by using formal, jargon-laden language. Incoherent: Responding with a rambling, difficult to understand message. Incongruous: Giving contradictory verbal and nonverbal messages.

A third type of relational pattern is a spiral. "In a spiral, one partner's behavior intensifies that of the other"20. Spirals can be progressive, in which one partner's behavior leads to increasing levels of satisfaction for the other. Spirals can also be regressive, where one partner's communication leads to increasing dissatisfaction. Stopping regressive spirals from getting out of control depends on the open communication between the two individuals.

A final type of relational pattern is dependencies and counter dependencies. In a dependency relationship, one individual sees himself or herself relying on another person for something. Soon, he or she agrees with whatever the other says or does. In a counter dependency, one individual sees himself or herself as not being dependent on the other. Thus, he or she disagrees with the other quite frequently

How to Formulate and Deliver a Career Product: What HR Professionals Can Learn From Marketers

Today's human resources department must attract and retain a talented workforce. Filling the talent gap requires organizations to craft and deliver a career product, that is, a value proposition that is attractive to today's career professional.

This is not an easy task. The demand for talent is far outstripping supply in the United States, China, India, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America. In short, today's reality is: Too many companies chasing too few talented professional, managerial and technical workers.

We believe that the field of marketing offers human resources professionals the required framework for designing, developing, implementing and measuring the success of their talent acquisition programs.

Marketing: The Science of Creating and Keeping Customers

There is much confusion about the term “marketing." What we think of today as “the marketing concept” comes from Peter Drucker, who stated (with typical incisive insight), “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: Create a customer.”

Drucker concluded:

“In the event marketing were done perfectly, selling would become redundant. Indeed, selling and marketing are antithetical rather than synonymous or even complimentary... There will always, one can assume, be a need for selling...

...But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits [the customer] and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available."

What Was Drucker Really Saying?

Selling is communication. Selling is just a component of the marketing proposition. If you’ve got what potential customers want, need, expect, value and are willing to pay for, selling is easy.

A new drug that cures a specific disease needs little selling. The appropriate target audience will instantly respond when told about potential benefits and risks.

Marketing is, therefore, more than delivering the message. Among other things, it's creating the product/service and then communicating to the target audience that the product/service is available.

But what are the most important components of marketing? The most important tasks in marketing have to do with studying the market, segmenting it, targeting the groups you want to service and creating a total customer-getting and customer-keeping proposition.

Advertising and selling are afterthoughts! Remember Drucker’s message: The aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary. Finding needs and filling them in a way that meets and exceeds customers’ expectations is what marketing is all about.

Quick Review of Marketing Fundamentals

A “tangible product” is the physical product or service that is offered to the customer. It is what is immediately recognized as the “thing” being sold. Computers, learning programs, steel reinforcing bars, software and office furniture are all tangible products.

The “augmented product” is a tangible product coupled with a whole cluster of services that people value. For example, the augmented product of IBM for many years was not only the computer, but a whole set of accompanying services, including training, off-the-shelf software programs, contract programs, maintenance and repairs, guarantees and the like.

IBM’s outstanding position in the computer industry was due, in large part, to its early recognition that the customer wants, needs, expects and is willing to pay for these “extras” when purchasing or leasing a computer. The total customer-getting and customer-keeping proposition equates to the augmented product/service concept.

Good marketing calls for asking and systematically answering two Drucker questions: 1) Who is the customer? and 2) What is value to the customer? How a given product or service is augmented is determined by the answers to these questions.

Strategy Precedes Structure in Marketing a Career Product

The Drucker questions enable the selection of a product strategy. An organization must not only have a winning product strategy to pursue, but also a matching structure to facilitate its implementation. So to must human resources departments.

Strategy precedes structure. Much time must be devoted to creating a viable organizational structure to administer the selected augmented product strategy. Time must also be devoted to creating a human resources department structure that can support a career product strategy.

Marketing also requires the development of an organizational infrastructure capable of delivering what the total value proposition promises. Every element of the value proposition must be converted into a key activity.

These key activities become the building blocks of the internal organization. Key activities are assigned to groups and individuals who are responsible for their delivery.

Work assignments, deadlines for performance and budgets must be prepared to enable key activities to be carried out. Without resources for their execution, key activities will remain a good intention.

Augmenting Your Organization's Career Product

How can marketing thinking be applied to developing and implementing a career product? Every human resources organization must ask the two Drucker questions, namely:

• Who is the career customer?
• What does the career customer value?

What is your organization's total value proposition to prospective and existing employees? Take, for example, training and development and continuous learning. Today's career professional demands these two "value-adding" benefits. They should be part of the total career customer getting and career customer keeping process.

But many organizations do not keep their promises to employees with respect to their career product. Why? Because they do not convert career customer-getting benefits into major key activities—and they fail to develop the appropriate organizational structure to deliver the promised career product.

Many surveys indicate that fast-track employees are not satisfied with the training and development and continuous learning activities offered by their organizations. Without doubt, it was part of the "selling proposition" of job recruiters. Eventually, this dissatisfaction will result in a higher turnover rate.

The human resources department of every organization must formulate a career product. And then decide how to effectively deliver what the total career product proposition promises.

A strategic talent acquisition or talent management strategy should provide answers to two basic questions: What to do and how to do it. The first question refers to the design of a career product strategy that attracts first-class job candidates.

A human resources organization must have not only a winning career product strategy to pursue, but also a matching organizational structure to facilitate its implementation.

More Drucker Insights for Human Resources Marketing

More than 20 years ago, Drucker discussed the need for human resources to focus on organizational structure and the design of professional, managerial and technical jobs to satisfy the needs, expectations and aspirations of the emerging "career customer."

It's quite evident that the market for jobs and careers has become a genuine mass-market capable of being segmented in a variety of ways. Every organization, therefore, needs to design a "career product " that will attract and satisfy today's career customer segment by segment.

The career customer, even in this recession, has increasingly become a demanding customer. According to Drucker: "Like the customer, who, in a healthy economy, always wants more and different goods and services for his money, the career customer always want something better and different from the job..."

Only a few short years ago, Drucker noted, a job candidate expected a living but now expects a career and an opportunity to make a contribution. At the same time he or she looks increasingly for a chance to put knowledge to work.

Many other concepts developed for the discipline of marketing have been translated into very specific methodologies. These involve product-positioning strategies, positioning multiple brands, repositioning strategies, market-geographic strategies and more.

Body Language for Successful HR

Even people, like the Prince of Wales, who are trained to deal with difficult situations can display the wrong body language when under pressure and ruin the message they hope to convey. Anna Burges-Lumsden reports on the importance of non-verbal cues.

Prince Charles’ body language said it all at a photo call in Klosters on 31 March 2005. With a forced smile through gritted teeth, a defensive posture and eyes desperate to avoid contact with Fleet Street’s finest, his distaste for the media could not have been clearer.

Prince William, by contrast, appeared relaxed, poised and confident of the image he was presenting. And so in one dramatic photograph the importance of body language was laid bare.

What the Prince of Wales really needs - apart from a lecture on the dangers of speaking near a microphone - is some serious body language coaching. Like thousands of other people in positions of responsibility he would benefit from expert help on non-verbal communication.

Words account for less than 10% of a message’s impact. The rest comes from non-verbal cues.

According to Mike Petrook, public affairs manager of the Chartered Management Institute, 90% of the messages we convey are through body language.

He said: “Half of what we communicate is transmitted through our bodily positions and movements, so understanding physical gestures and ex-pressions can help us work more efficiently at all levels of the workplace.

“Being aware of people’s body language will help you learn more about your colleagues and how to work better with them,” he said.

Mary-Louise Angoujard, CEO and founder of Rapporta, who is specialist in executive communication and body language, believes body language is only part of the whole picture.

“Non-verbal communication not only includes body language, posture, facial ex-pressions and eye contact, but also vocal ex-pression, tone, pitch and pace.” And she said that to communicate successfully you must “ensure congruence with your words in all these areas”.

During negotiations or when you need to maintain authority in a meeting, Angoujard affirmed the importance of being clear of your objectives and the messages you want to communicate.

“Preparation is key,” she said. “And gathering all facts and documentation and pre-empting all possible difficulties or concerns will ensure confidence and a feeling of positive self-control. As so much of body language is unconscious on our part, this will help to ensure your non-verbal communication sends out the right signals.”

Angela Mortimer, who runs her own international recruitment consultancy, believes that maintaining good eye contact is also essential.

“People talk about eye contact and active listening, but staring someone out can be negative,” she said. “You can divert your eyes when you’re thinking and make eye contact again when you’re talking.”

When conducting interviews, Angoujard emphasised the importance of building rapport with the individual and establishing an environment where they feel at ease.

“This is the only way you will be best served in discovering their real strengths and skills and whether they will be a good match for the role and your organisation,” she said.

During difficult situations such as making redundancies, Angoujard recommended greeting the employee in an appropriately pleasant but serious manner.

She said: “Welcome with a pleasant ex-pression, however maintain a demeanour that reflects the serious nature of the discussion and your respect for the situation and the individual.”

Angoujard also stressed the importance of the environment in which the redundancy takes place. She suggested that when possible, conduct the meetings on neutral ground such as a meeting or conference room rather than someone’s office, and that being seated around the corner of a round, oval or square table will be less ‘confrontational’ and more ‘collegiate’.

Petrook warned, however, that body language is hard to fake and even someone who has developed a good understanding of the importance of gestures and gesticulations cannot completely disguise their own thoughts.

“There are some elements of behaviour that will remain controlled by the subconscious and are involuntary,” he said.

Angoujard said that because so much of non-verbal communication is subliminal in nature, the best solution is to understand first your own attitudes, intentions and objectives and then speak accordingly.

This way, the messages you send involuntarily will be congruent with your conscious words, tone and gestures, she said.

“When you believe your own message, the impact is much greater and others are more likely to believe you mean what you say,” Angoujard said.

Body language for tricky situations

In negotiations

Prepare well
Control environment
Offer a warm greeting
Understand your position
Have an upright, confident posture
Open body language (relaxed not stiff)
Build rapport
Maintain good eye contact - no eyeballing
Ask good quality, open questions
Speak in a clear, measured manner
Show empathy
Display controlled energy.
Avoid

Unremitting eyeball to eyeball
Ignoring members of the group
Coldness or harshness in your voice
Closed body language (arms folded, head down, avoiding eye contact).
Making redundancies

Offer a pleasant but serious greeting
Provide a round, oval or square table and sit on the corner not opposite
Use an appropriate voice tone, pitch, pace
Display open, neutral body language
Give reasonable eye contact
Present a respectful attitude
Offer empathy but stay businesslike
Provide meaningful consultations
Use a calm voice at a slow pace
Use a businesslike demeanour
Supply third-party reference facts
Don’t be

Distant or intimate
Superior or inferior
Offensive or defensive
Maternal or paternal
Unfeeling
Maintain unbroken eye contact
Display overtly closed or defensive body language
Display too much joviality or friendliness
Conducting interviews

Use open body language
Present a straight, relaxed, confident posture
Maintain good eye contact so that you look pleasant and engaged
Offer a firm handshake
Show sincerity in voice tone
Speak a suitable pace
Explain expectations
Take charge
Express interest in person & their experience
Ask framed, contextualised questions
Listen attentively and nod occasionally
Don't

Give a flimsy or bone-crushing handshake
Sit across a table
Stand too close on arrival
Invade personal space
Say: “Tell me about yourself”

Body Language at Work

What people say is often very different from what they think. We’ve all learned that honesty is not always the best policy. Keeping your cards close to your chest is seen as the most basic workplace survival strategy. Is body language the chink in all our armour?

What really matters most to your boss – posture or performance? Body language specialists argue that the two are inter-related. If you come across as disorganised or lacking composure, your colleagues will dismiss your ideas and efforts.

Spot the difference
Laurel Herman, author of Managing Your Image In a Week, provides one-to-one body language consulting. She put her belief in body language theories to the test. When planning an important speech on the subject, she decided to give her audience a graphic demonstration. ‘When I was announced I scurried on to the stage and then began speaking in a high-pitched, squeaky, breathless voice, allowing my words to trip over themselves. As I spoke I maintained a hunched shoulder posture and gesticulated wildly. After a few sentences, I abruptly sat down to a horrified silence. The shock was palpable. Then I got up again, and standing quite upright, hands neatly by my side, addressed the audience in a calm, authoritative voice.’ From then on, her relationship with the audience was completely transformed: ‘They listened attentively to every word.’

Expert findings
This is backed by psychologist, Albert Mehrabian. He claims that it’s not what you say, but how you say it that really matters. In the 1960s he conducted extensive communication research and discovered that words account for a tiny seven percent of a message’s impact. The rest comes from non-verbal cues, such as voice tone and facial ex-pression.

But in the real world of work how much does all this really matter? A growing number of workers use technology to communicate. Phone calls, faxes and emails don’t betray whether we're sitting up straight or lounging comfortably at our desks.

People who work from home are even more out of the picture. ‘There's a significant section of the workforce who don't need to consider their body language,’ says Kathryn Bullock, founder E-Womenforum.com. ‘They may still see some people but, on the whole, they can get on with their jobs, and get on with them very well, without ever having to think about how they look.

Many workers do have to deal with clients and colleagues on a face-to-face basis. Here body language plays a ‘massive role’, says Judi James, author of BodyTalk At Work: ‘Knowing how to give the right body language signals and knowing how to read those around you can actually boost your career.’ Judi explains the most common examples of bad body language:

Tightly crossed arms, high on the chest, looks defensive and uninterested
High-pitched, fast-paced voice may sound girly and lack authority
Rolling on your heels looks like you are insecure and childish
Lazing about on a chair appears arrogant and lazy
A shoulder shrug signals that you don’t believe what's been said, even if it was you that said it!
Playing with your hair implies an inner build-up of anxiety
Pulling your ear gives the impression you're struggling to reach a decision
Touching your face is a sign of nervousness or possibly even dishonesty
Stroking your neck can make you seem stressed or flirtatious
Wringing your hands shows concern
Fidgeting suggests worry
Foot tapping impatience
Pen drumming boredom

The sceptics
‘You’ve got to put it into perspective,’ says Gene Crozir from the Institute of Management. Nick Isle, from the Industrial Society agrees. ‘Body language is just one element of communication and communication itself is just one element of the skills required to succeed in today’s workplace.’ Both point out that the importance of body language can be overstated or simply misunderstood. ‘A lot of people don’t understand it and, even if they did, most don’t have time to analyse it properly. They’re too busy getting on with their jobs,’ says Crozir.

Is body language winning?
The Looking Good, Sounding Right: style counselling in the new economy report highlights that certain aspects of body language are becoming increasingly important in the growing service sector. The physical impression given by staff in this sector is becoming inextricably linked with brand awareness and success. The report suggests that looking and sounding the part may count more than one’s experience or ability.

EXIT INTERVIEW- Purpose, Process and Format

EXIT INTERVIEW- Purpose, Process and Format

We always talk/write about relations and respect every relation. Relation between employer and employee is also one such relation. Gone are the days when people use to stick to one job for rest of their life. The trust is lost and the faith is lost as well from both sides. If an employer is having a policy of hire and fire, employees are also free to change their jobs whenever they want. We are only reaping the fruits from the trees sown by us. Anyway, if you are sitting across the table with your employee for an exit interview, probably that is the last opportunity for you to change his mind and to retain him and if you are able to do it, you are not only brilliant but excellent HR Professional.

As we need experts to take hiring interviews…we also need experts to take EXIT Interviews. Not everyone can take exit interview.

Purpose While attrition is a natural process for organizations, replacing employees is expensive. The cost goes beyond merely placing an advertisement for the opening in a newspaper. It includes training a new employee, staff time for selecting a new employee, lost productivity while the position is open and lost productivity until the new employee gets up to speed. Understanding why people voluntarily leave the company can provide an opportunity for the firm to make changes to reduce turnover rates -- and reduce the associated costs.

The exit interview serves a number of important functions. When trends in voluntary separations are tracked, the firm may be provided a valuable heads up concerning discrimination problems. It can be anything : Discrimination between expertise, Discrimination between profiles, Discrimination between Grades or categories or bands likewise . If a trend reveals an inordinate number of women and minorities are resigning, there could be a lack of advancement opportunities. By exploring these issues through exit interviews, the company can learn about the issue and take corrective action.

Valuable feedback concerning training and development can be obtained during the exit interview. If employees feel they are not properly trained to perform the responsibilities of their jobs, they may leave. If employees feel that the assignments are not matching to their core competence which compel them to perform poorly. Or some may leave when they perceive there is a lack of opportunities for future positions. Using the exit interview effectively can also provide the company with valuable feedback concerning benefits and compensation. This can be both negative and positive. It is equally important to know what employees’ value and what they would like to see changed. The organization can provide a more competitive compensation and benefits package if they utilize this feedback.

The public relations aspect of the exit interview is equally important. The interview is an opportunity for the employer to end the employee's time with the company on a positive note. A new relationship with the departing employee may be created. As the employee departs with positive feelings about the organization, this will be communicated to remaining employees, local community / technical fraternity and future employees. The end result may even be ease of recruiting future applicants.

Check List for the Exit Interview: The exit interview is an interview given to a departing employee. This is usually done for employees that voluntarily quit instead of those that are fired or laid off. Exit interviews offer a fleeting opportunity to find out information that otherwise might be more difficult or impossible to obtain.

1. Think carefully about the information you would like to get before the interview. This greatly increases the odds of a successful interview.
2. Save the hardest questions for the latter part of the interview. Work up to the tough stuff.
3. Be prepared for some bombshells. Expect the unexpected – if it ever is to happen it will happen in an exit interview.
4. Carefully select the interviewer. Look for someone that listens well and is open-minded. It serves no purpose for the interviewer to get into an argument with the departing employee.
5. Throughout the interview stay focused on the employee.
6. Look for open-ended questions that allow for plenty of expression. An example of this might be "how did you feel during your employment with us?" or "how do you feel the company is run?"
7. Try to find out if there were things the departing employee would suggest improving conditions, production or morale.
8. Try to get a good feel for how they viewed their compensation and benefits package.
9. Leave room at the end of the interview for general comments.
10. Take notes of the high points. Get the general idea – it is not essential to get exact quotes. It is more important to listen than write.
11. Immediately after the interview determine whether you would rehire the employee. Mention accordingly in your HR database where rehire recommended or not.
12. Make use of the information gathered. If you do not use this new information then why do an exit interview?
The exit interview provides us with a good mechanism to take a hard look at how your company is perceived. Since the employee is leaving, they will often be more open and frank in their discussions about the company.
Those companies that do not conduct exit interviews miss out on a great opportunity.

Conducting the Interview HR managers are a critical part of the separation process. Exit interviews are traditionally conducted by HR staff members with the knowledge and input of the immediate manger of the departing employee. Using HR managers as interviewers, improves the chance employees will open up and provide more valuable feedback. We need to ensure that exit interview should not taken by same department manager or same HR representative of the employee, otherwise employee will not open up or end up with arguments.

There are a number of key issues to keep in mind. The interviewer should always begin the process on a positive note - perhaps by offering a thank you for the employee's service to the organization. And above all, the employee should always be treated with dignity and respect. In some sensitive situations, employees may even be asked how they would like their departure to be handled with peers. It is important for every organization to ensure that all employees leaving the company (especially those leaving for disciplinary reasons or lack of performance) have been provided due process. Every individual must be given the opportunity to have his or her side of the issue heard. It is always important to provide documentation. If the employee has resigned, a letter of resignation should be included with the termination paperwork.

The primary key to an effective exit interview is preparation. The planning becomes an essential component of success in conducting the exit interview. Interviewers should plan out issues to be covered and the questions to be asked. Structured interviews are recommended with the use of questions prepared in advance.

Questions to be asked in Exit Interview
1. What is your primary reason for leaving?
2. Did anything trigger your decision to leave?
3. What was most satisfying about your job?
4. What was least satisfying about your job?
5. What would you change about your job?
6. Did your job duties turn out to be as you expected?
7. Did you receive enough training to do your job effectively?
8. Did you receive adequate support to do your job?
9. Did you receive sufficient feedback about your performance between Performance Management?
10. Were you satisfied with this company's Performance Management process?
11. Did this company help you to fulfill your career goals?
12. What would you improve to make our workplace better?
13. Were you happy with your pay, benefits and other incentives?
14. What could your immediate boss do to improve his or her management style?
15. Based on your experience with us, what do you think it takes to succeed at this company?
16. Did any company policies or procedures (or any other obstacles) make your job more difficult?
17. Would you consider working again for this company in the future?
18. Would you recommend working for this company to your family and friends?
19. How do you generally feel about this company?
20. What did you like most about this company?
21. What did you like least about this company?
22. What does your new company offer that this company doesn't?
23. Can this company do anything to encourage you to stay?
24. Any other issue you like to discuss?

Introspection/ Probing the Reasons Interviewers usually want to determine the real reasons of voluntary separations. This provides an opportunity to make changes - particularly when the separation may also be impacting other people. For example, management is often cited as a common reason people leave the organization. It is good for the company to know the reasons so they can take corrective action.

To me, the interviewer must move beyond the basic information. It is critical to get beyond the "politically correct" reason that the majority of employees provide when leaving a position. The critical portion of the interview should probe the employee for feedback about the working conditions and how they might be improved. Many employees, however, are reluctant to provide this information. This reluctance often stems from the concern over negatively influencing future job references.

The interviewer should be exploring common threads across all employees leaving the company. Of special concern are the new hires that leave the company after a relatively short period of time. This information can signal hiring problems - if employees are mismatched with their skills or if realistic job previews are not used. If an inaccurate picture is painted of the job, employee expectations will not be met and turnover often results.

If the company is willing to rehire the employee, this should be explicitly stated at the conclusion of the interview. Sometimes the grass is not really, greener on the other side of the fence and employees regret leaving their jobs. The door should always be left open for those employees who would be welcome to return to the organization. In some cases, the interviewer might even explore options for part-time or temporary work rather than lose a good employee altogether.

Follow-up interviews are more likely to be conducted by mail or telephone. Some companies are waiting three to six months before conducting their exit interviews. For this reason, some companies have opted to use a six-month follow-up exit interview. The rationale is the more time that passes, the more objective the feedback information that is provided to the company - thereby providing greater insights - and the less hesitation on the part of the employee to share negative feedback.

Conclusion
With the recognition exit interviews can provide an opportunity for valuable feedback, new approaches are being used. Trends in exit interviews today include outsourcing and automated surveys. Some companies have opted to delegate the exit interview to a third party firm that specializes in conducting these interviews. The rationale is departing employees may be more open and honest with an objective third party. These interviewers are often trained in asking probing questions and can elicit more information.

The information solicited from the exit interview is only valuable if it used. It must be disseminated to the appropriate people within the organization and then actually used to make positive changes. Otherwise, the company has missed a valuable opportunity.

Here I have tried to cover the Exit Interview in its totality. I hope that the information provided herein will be of use to you. A proposed Exit Interview Form is also enclosed herewith . From the personal perspective, I feel that the departing interviews must also be as crucial as hiring interviews

Employee Retention

As the economy heats up and there is demand for candidates with requisite skills and knowledge, a number of employees have started to look outside their company for growth. As the CEO’s feel the pressure from managers who use this excuse at every management meeting for their poor performance, the cry goes out “Stop the turnover.”

So what can any one company, or even worse, their poor beleaguered H R Manager do to reduce the turnover? Starting at the basics, “turnover is not the disease; it is the symptom of the disease”. It is like a fever, the underlying cause may be an infection of the stomach, the eye or a wound in the leg. The treatment would differ for each of these reasons and the doctor first finds out the cause before she starts recommending a cure Or starting with a different imagery, “Turnover is like the tip of the iceberg, you only see one-tenth of it, nine-tenths of it is below the water and hidden from the view.”

So here we go on a 6 Step Program to reducing turnover. Note this, for it is important” reduce” not “eliminate”. For neither is it possible to eliminate turnover, nor desirable to do so.

Step I: Measure the turnover: Foolish as it may sound, very often the cry for high level of turnover may be exaggerated, it may be due to a favorite of some powerful manager leaving the organization on being denied a much wanted (though often undeserved) promotion. So have an ongoing program to measure the attrition rate, use simple tools to start with and refine as you go along. This will be very easy if you have a decent HRIS system, if not use payroll data. Do not start with a state-of-the art solution; the problem with modern art is that it is about “15 minutes of fame”.

Step II: Analyze the turnover: Slice and dice the data, compare turnover across departments, across performance levels, across number of years with the company etc. Compare it to last year, to industry trends, to the best of breed if you can. Call up your batch mate who is the Head of HR for “Enemy No. 1” Company. Check with him, most probably he will be happy to share the data with you if you share your findings with him. Bill the lunch expense to your company, if possible invite another friend, after all the more the merrier. If you cannot entertain for only marketing has an entertainment budget, you have found the root cause of the turnover. Any company which does not value its People function definitely deserves to have turnover problems. In fact you should polish up your resume and look for a job yourself.

Step III: Still feel you have a turnover problem? Try to find out the cause of this turnover? The methodology can vary? From the old fashioned one of talking with a wide cross-section of your employees on a regular basis, one-to-one (I found this gave me the most insight when I worked as an HR Manager), to fancy employee surveys (my recommended strategy when I am being paid on an hourly basis as a consultant). The latter has the benefit of the boss believing the highly paid consultant more than some HR jerk who gets a lowly salary and who has scored poorly in interpersonal skills in the peer review. (Told you, do not try to point out the unhappiness in the finance function employees, or that the sales department employees seem to watch all new films first day, first show etc.) On a serious note, it is easier to accept negative news from an outside third party which is perceived to have no political axe to grind.
One point here on surveys, for God’s sake do not attempt one on your own if you do not have the knowledge base for it, at the least read two books and learn about survey design before you attempt it. The best bet is to give this to someone who has done it before and knows about not only the technical requirements but also the process issues. I will not go into the point about “lies, damn lies and statistics”.

Step IV: For each cause draw out a solution:
Once you have started a survey, whether formal or informal you have to do something about the problems you uncover. This is the price of knowledge, if you know the problem you will have to solve it. If you do nothing you after this you will increase the unhappiness and the feeling that no one cares or is bothered.

The causes may vary, bad leadership, lousy salary, lack of training, insufficient skills, bad working conditions, a poor benefits package, employees lack skills and motivation, lack of promotion, long working hours etc. Pick up the top three and throw some managerial time and attention at it. Remember this; managers will be interested only if their performance bonus is tied to solving the problem. Make sure that you have some frontline employees involved, not only the gung-ho, lets get ahead types by sucking up to the boss, but also those who are informal leaders and would normally not touch anything that has the smell of management on it. Making sure that you have a good mix of people here, not only is the quality of the solution important, more critically they should have the political savvy (Okay-okay, a high emotional quotient, hope the word is not copyrighted.) to create a buy-in for their solution.

Step V: Implement the solutions: This part is tricky for some people will definitely be upset with the recommended changes. Change as we all know is tricky, it threatens vested interests, and their pushback has been known to trip the best of leaders. You cannot give up here; remember that if you have ensured proper participation and have been open about the reason why the company needs to change, you can create buy-in for the change process. For after all what is the option, not change, continue in the same merry old way and see all the employees walk away to jobs with your competitors. (I understand I am exaggerating here, but a bit of drama was necessary to catch your attention.)

Step VI: Communication, communication, communication:
Forgive me Conrad Hilton for the paraphrasing, but as any good HR professional knows this is important. While you are trying to solve the turnover problem remember you have to keep the others engaged. You cannot involve everyone, nor hope they will sit quietly and wait patiently for you to come up with a solution. Remember the 5 W’s Who, What, When, Where, Why. Let the employees know what you are trying to do, why you are doing it, who all are doing it, where are the problems and when will they solve them. Use a variety of communication channels, one-to-one meetings, many-one meetings, Notice Boards, Town Hall meetings, the intranet, etc. And remember communication is a two way street, so use mediums that allow for feedback. Go out and search for feedback, if you do not have the pulse of your employees there is no way you will get to know what is happening.

This is the trickiest part, where the rubber meets the road. Boy does it get hot here. First of all, if you have communicated enough, everyone is watching what is going to happen next. God help you if you have not communicated enough, for the locker rooms, I mean the chat rooms are abuzz. The grape-wine is now an Ethernet cable and is on the world-wide web. Or someone may be blogging about the problems in your company. So pray and get the information out on the formal channels, before the informal channels start buzzing and inevitably distort the truth.

So now that you have the answer, stop reading, take a printout and get to it. You can send me the thank you note after you have solved the problem. Remember the crisp 1000 Rupee notes say thank you the loudest.