Losing team members hurts. Whether you’re losing a valuable player who is taking another opportunity, releasing an employee due to budget cuts, or firing someone who has colored outside the lines, losing team members is always hard.
When the pain hits, most church leaders miss the opportunity to learn from the loss. They simply try to move on without talking to the departing employee again. They don’t realize that performing an exit interview is an invaluable opportunity to learn how their church and staff could develop and grow.
Keeping proper expectations, conducting an exit interview the right way (and yes, there is a right and a wrong way), and asking effective questions are vital if church leaders want to optimize this rare chance to improve their team.
A word on expectations regarding exit interviews.
Expectations are the first key to a successful exit interview. On one hand, this is a chance for an employee to give blunt, even critical, advice to you. Thus,
Expectation #1: This might sting a little (maybe even a lot).
On the other hand, most smart employees won’t over share during the exit interview. Dumping needless criticism isn’t going to change the way they are leaving, and sharing too bluntly might hurt them should they ever want to return to the team. That leads to,
Expectation #2: What you hear probably isn’t the whole story.
Regardless of the mixed feedback that you’ll receive from the exit interview, you will get valuable information if you follow these four cardinal rules:
1. Keep it in the vault.
The only way an employee will open up is if they know that you are keeping the information they share confidential. Remind the interviewee that you are legally bound not to talk about this interview or their performance in a future reference call. Encourage them to be honest and assure them of your confidentiality.
2. Put it in neutral.
A neutral third party should conduct exit interviews. The employee’s immediate supervisor should never do them. In a large organization, the Human Resources Department usually runs these, but chances are your church doesn’t have one of those. If you oversaw the team member who is leaving, consider having someone else on your team do the interview. Trusted board members or volunteer leaders are a good resource if you’re on a very small church team. If the end of this person’s employment is heated or politically charged, consider bringing in an outside third party to conduct the interview. In any event, find an interviewer that will engender trust and calm for the outgoing employee. That will foster a “safe” environment and give you the best chance at getting real, honest, and helpful feedback.
3. Set the table.
When the interview starts, let the employee know that this is not about them, but about you. This is not a look at their work, but a chance for the team to learn how to do a better job. You’re not going to criticize their work or anything they say, but you want to see what working on your church team was like from their perspective.
4. Keep it short.
Exit interviews do not need to be (nor should they be) lengthy. There are a few important and to-the-point questions that need to be asked (keep reading), and the time spent on them shouldn’t be more than an hour. Don’t draw it out.
Now that you have the right expectations and the four rules, here are five questions you can ask during the exit interview to make it as effective as possible.
1. Did you feel recognized?
Every article and study I’ve read on company culture and employee retention consistently lists employee recognition as a key factor of employee satisfaction. Like any personal relationship, when people don’t feel that their work (or presence) is noticed or appreciated, they become dissatisfied and might begin looking for a new job. Ask your outgoing team member if they felt recognized and appreciated for their work, both from their immediate supervisor and the church leaders over them, if applicable.
2. Did you know what to do?
People love having goals. When goals are absent, dissatisfaction sets in. Over and over, I hear candidates who I interview tell me that they didn’t have a clear set of goals and expectations put before them. Ask your departing employee if they felt they had clear, attainable goals and knew what was expected of them.
3. Did the job you interviewed for match the job you found yourself in?
Far too often, recruiting feels like a fraternity rush, only to have the first day on the job feel like the first day as a lowly pledge. There’s a war for talent out there, and that leads many church leaders to try hard to put a good first impression forward in interviewing that they don’t represent the reality of the workplace or its culture. The best employers I know match the interview process with the real work environment.
Also, sometimes employers depict job responsibilities unrealistically. Did the job description say that this employee would have teaching opportunities, only for that employee to find those opportunities were years away and they didn’t have a chance to grow into new roles? Ask your departing team member if the job they interviewed for was what they expected, and if it wasn’t, was it positive (their role grew) or negative?
4. Can you name three cultural values of the company and give an example of each in real time?
If your exiting employees doesn’t know your church’s or ministry’s values, then chances are a lot of the other teammates don’t either. Take this opportunity to see if the culture you’re trying to instill through your team’s values is getting through to your staff and sticking.
5. Did we equip you with the tools you needed to do your job?
Asking people to do a job and not giving them the tools to perform makes for unhappy campers. If the leadership at your church isn’t equipping and empowering your church staff members, this is something you need to know and correct. Ask your outgoing employee for specific examples if they felt they were not empowered or given the tools to do any part of their job.
When you have realistic expectations, conduct exit interviews properly, and ask straightforward and effective questions, you’ll find that exit interviews are invaluable for getting honest feedback on what it’s like to work on your church team, enhancing your church staff culture, and ultimately improving employee satisfaction and staff retention long-term.
