In particular, you should;
- Use summaries to calm down interviewees and to reassure them that you are taking the matter seriously. Summaries also give them the opportunity to correct any errors of fact. ('Let me see if I've got this right. You say that the reason you're not keeping up with your sales figures is that production isn't putting through your orders quickly enough?')
- Direct interviewees away from irrelevances. They may blame others, including yourself, for what has happened to them, or claim that the organization itself is at fault. ('I don't want to get into arguments about this with you - it's not very useful. Let's just say we agree to differ and go on to other matters of more immediate importance.')
- In resignation interviews, probe to find why the leaver is resigning. Is it poor training or bad equipment, for instance? Find out how the leaver thinks things can be improved.
- ('You've hinted that the team you were part of is not working well together. Could you be more specific?') Use restatements to make sure that the facts given to you are correct. If you fail to do this, your company may get a wrong impression of why this particular employee is resigning and this could reduce the interview's effectiveness.
- Be willing to listen, not just to the words spoken, but to the unspoken ones that hide the hurt, anger and pain. Within the time limit, let employees talk freely until they can accept with a certain degree of calm your reasons for the termination. o Pay attention to tone of voice, observe posture and mannerisms for clues to the interviewee's feelings, and adjust your own contribution to the interview accordingly. Remember, even though this may be the last time you interview the leaver, he or she is still entitled to your full attention.
Some practical hints:
- Keep disciplinary and exit interviews short. They should not be allowed to drag on longer than fifteen to twenty minutes. Five minutes ought to be sufficient to go over the details of the offence or the reasons for the resignation, five minutes to hear the interviewee's side of the story, and the remainder to deal with the financial arrangements.
- Make appointments for further interviews, if necessary. In a disciplinary interview, you will probably want to assess how seriously your criticisms and the employee's undertakings to change his or her behavior have been put into effect. You will need a follow-up interview.
- In a resignation interview, if you are trying to persuade the employee to stay in your employment, you may need two or three interviews to break a deadlock. You should not leave the employee in a state of uncertainty but set out a clear agenda of what you intend to do in the immediate future so that the employee knows that the matter is being taken seriously. If, despite your efforts, the employee resigns, your company will have done its best and its reputation as a fair employer will remain intact -something which will reassure the rest of the staff.
- If the problem leading to the interview has arisen from the initial unsuitability of the employee for the job, it does no harm to acknowledge the fact. It may lead to better selection procedures in the future as well as better interviewing practices.
- Think of the disciplinary and exit interviews as a combination of 'good news' and 'bad news'. Your job as a skilful manager is to bring an unsatisfactory situation to a satisfactory conclusion, not to destroy people's self-esteem. You do not want employees to leave with bitterness, if you can avoid it. Obviously, you cannot be responsible for what happens to them in the future, but they should leave your office believing that they have a future.
- Do not lean over backwards to be pleasant to them. They should know how you feel. But, by referring to the requirements of the job rather than their personal failings, you take the edge off the criticism or dismissal.
- Resist the temptation to make terminated employees offers that you cannot carry out just to get them out of your office. Carefully go through the severance arrangements with them, describing payments and benefits, and make it clear that you are not going to negotiate any other deals with them.
- Do not offer advice unless requested and you know what you are talking about. Nothing is more galling to someone who has just been fired than to hear a manager telling them what he or she thinks they should do next.
- Do not suggest looking into any other arrangements on their behalf after the interview is over. As soon as they leave your office, the termination is complete.
- Have names and addresses or agencies and organizations such as a career counselor at hand in case you are asked for specific help, but otherwise do not offer the employee any further assistance.
- As you would with any other interviewee, thank them for their time. Offer them good wishes for their future. Whatever their offence, they are still entitled to be treated with dignity, and you have to keep in mind your own and your company's reputation as decent, fair-minded employers.
- Always write up your notes as soon as possible after the interview is over and keep them in a safe place where you can refer to them later should the interview lead to any legal proceedings (for wrongful dismissal, for example).
- Evaluate the information or suggestions you received from the interviewees in the course of the interview about the way the organization is run, and check the truth of any complaints against individuals. You may find that what you have been told corresponds with your own observation or the observation of others who have recently left the company. If a certain trend has been identified, it must be investigated before it becomes a serious problem.
- If low morale has been identified as one of the trends, check the attitudes of colleagues working in the same team as to their own state of morale.
- The interviewee's unsuitability for the job may have resulted either from a wrong job specification or poor recruitment interviewing. If necessary, revise the job specification, and if you think that interviewing techniques are at fault, arrange for those responsible to have further training.
