Employee Engagement Should Not Start With an Exit Interview

Talk about the saying “the horse that is already out of the barn” exit surveys are designed primarily to elicit information as to why people have left an organization. Their attitudes have been tainted, their initiative has been dampened and there is no compelling reason to provide validated information upon which you can rely upon. All of that being said, if information about a manager’s behavior or skills in leading have been captured, this kind of information has merit as a measure of employee engagement.


The Conference Board’s four measures of retention drivers measure 20 reasons why most employees leave organizations – poor manager skills are the number one cause. In employee engagement surveys, always include a strong component to measure managerial skills and make sure that each manager of each department is measured.