Exit interviews of technical personnel: missed opportunities, lost knowledge

Summary form only given. In times of momentous turmoil and competition, organizations are constantly seeking more and better information to assist in improving their competitive position. An organization would be foolish to ignore the competitive environment. Likewise, an organization would be short sighted to disregard the knowledge possessed by its employees. Unfortunately, too many organizations fail to recognize the wealth of potentially useful information possessed by the employees who are departing the organization; whether a voluntary departure or involuntary termination, employees leaving an organization offer a largely untapped resource for collecting impressions of, experiences with, and knowledge about an organization and its activities. Only rarely is an attempt made to capture this knowledge or assess the underlying message that this knowledge may provide. This paper suggests that the use of exit interviews and/or exit surveys (EIS) would be a fruitful tool for capturing additional information that might be useful to the organization in developing short- and long-term strategic planning goals and as a diagnostic tool in identifying targets of change. An overview of the EIS literature is presented.