The Exchanges

Q Yeah, that would make sense that the statistics would be broken up by that. I was just thinking about content and like, I feel like content writers would probably not leave as long as there's a stable salary. I imagine as long as they're writing content that they enjoy writing. I don't know, maybe you know more about that?

A Yeah, so for content, we find out that there's been three, uh, three types of transitions with our content change, so we go through writers as well. It's one is some writers are super content, as long as they have a consistent stream of content that's coming out, obviously they can expect to pay, but they'll stay super content. Second is that some writers do want to advance in their career, and so what they'll do is they will want an editor position, but if you only have one editor, you can't have multiple, and so they'll seek another editor. So we, for example, lost one of our Incredible writers, because she was given a editor position at a number, a content company, and I was like, wow, that sounds like a great opportunity, where you want to be, so I was like, we're not gonna keep you here, holding up you from your career path. And the third is that some writers, and this happens a lot with some of the big media companies, is that they get assigned constantly a beat or a, a content variable, and there's only so much they want to write there before they want to move on. So for example, if you've always been writing about celebrity news and all of a sudden you're like, all right, I'm tired of celebrity news. I'm gonna write about tech and off the gears, they'll be able to ship. And if the company doesn't offer anything besides celebrity news, there's no reason to stay. So even …

AI assessment note: “we find out that there's been three, uh, three types of transitions”

Q So what kinds of questions should people ask And is there a kind of order to how you ask those questions in order to not create a bias from the person that you're asking these questions for? So you get honesty from them.

A So the way that I always think about the exit interview is you should start with the strategy. What is the goal that you're trying to learn? For example, if you want to test. Hmm. Are people leaving because they don't feel like they're growing within the company, then your questions are going to be more skewed towards the professional development. But if you believe that people are leaving because of a manager or a person in the company, you were skewed towards that or money towards money. And so I would take a step back and actually think about what's your objective for this exit interview. And if it's testing a lot of different things, you want to be able to Finish off the questioning for one trend to another. So for example, one of the common questions that get asked is when people are leaving, you kind of want to know how soon did they think about leaving? Was it like last week or have they been thinking about this for over a year, but they haven't found the opportunity. So one of the questions I found and people have been honest about this is when did you start considering leaving? And from there, when they tell you about the time, you can start following up by asking, well, what, what kept you here? And what keeps them there? You might say, well, they made an opportunity, which means that, okay, so there might be other people in the company that are currently looking for …

AI assessment note: “one of the questions I found and people have been honest about this is”

Q So then how do you train people to do great exit interviews?

A Two things I like to do is one, have all the questions listed out already. All the questions that way you're not going in there and winging it. That's the first thing. And two, whoever the designated person to do the exit interview should do practices themselves. So if you're a founder, for example, an entrepreneur who just has one person who's doing it, you might be the mock person who does it with the person you assigned. So if I hire someone tomorrow and I wanted him to do the. Exit interview, then I would just sit down with them and just do a mock session where they go through the question. But I truly believe having a structured exit interview is better than ringing it. So I never have an exit interview without all the questions already listed out. And of course, when you go in there, you might discover everything if you dig a little bit deeper, but you shouldn't go in there with a blank sheet of paper with no, with no direction of where you're going.

AI assessment note: “I would just sit down with them and just do a mock session”

Q What are some things you can do, or what are some things you, you have heard of, or what are some things you have done? That has improved the culture that you realize later actually kept people around where maybe before they would have left if you hadn't implemented those things or heard of those things being implemented.

A Sometimes we found that we promoted people too early. They thought they would want the role and then they're miserable with the role, but they don't want to take a step back in their role because it seems like an emotion. And so one of the things that we do at our company now that we learn from that is we do what are called trial periods. So before someone actually assumes the role, it takes it on full time. We let them assume the role. It's like, well, look, we're not going to make a formal announcement. Why don't you try it for a few months? We'll check in and it does two things. One, it makes sure that you, as the person promoting them, feel like they have the qualities, all the boxes checked in, but also second for them, they can say, well, I'm actually driving this role. I enjoy this role.

AI assessment note: “one of the things that we do at our company now... is we do what are called trial periods.”

Q What is that like? I'd like to know exactly what it is that makes you want to break up with me.

A So what I would do is that previously where my leash is the ones that lasted a while. And so let's say my cutoff, let's say it's a year plus and What I would do is, for some time break, because if I'm the one broken up with, then I'll answer process at any time, but after the process at any time, I'll sit down and just reach out and say, Hey, love to have an exit date. Basically we'll go to a restaurant or we just do it at a coffee shop, whatever your choice where. And I just want to ask a couple of questions that are removed from the situation. And I just go through and I was like, well, why didn't you think about bringing up with me? Why did it take you so long to pull the trigger? What would you have changed? It's like almost like the same as this aside, but a personal side. So then But then, you can't have someone else do it. At least, I haven't found anyone else to do a third party of it, so I just have to do it, but I have to hold my tongue, like, and this is why I learned the question earlier, Sean, was why not just do it with the person who's most familiar? Well, you're one-on-one in React. For example, one of my exes said, oh, Davis here, one of the things I want to change was, you get really competitive at board games, it's also not fun to play with you, and I was like, okay, but that's the point of the board game, but I think I have to hold back. I was like, well, th…

AI assessment note: “love to have an exit date... And you approach it with humility and just take notes.”

Q How do you see companies preparing for this recession or is, are they already in it? How's that, how does that affect companies and exit interviews and all that?

A Some companies are starting with the hiring, especially in the tech sector. Some companies are laying off because tech had a boom and so forth. You watch interviews every day, depending on the sector and so forth. Every industry will handle it differently. And again, for me, it's kind of like you take the average, but for me, what's more interesting is the segmentals averages out to the parts that make up the average and every sector and every company will handle it differently in terms of where you go. For example, there will be voluntary people who want to transition where the eggs interview makes sense. And then there will be mass layoffs of teams where obviously they're going to, they didn't want to leave, but of course asking the question, so why are you leaving? You just laid me off there. That's gonna be a little bit harder. So I would still use the exit interviews for the voluntary leaving versus the ones that are, you're forcing out. Cause that's, uh, that's a different reason for why they're leaving.

AI assessment note: “I would still use the exit interviews for the voluntary leaving versus the ones that are”