Sixty-eighth session
New York, 23 March – 3 April 2009
Item 6 (b)(i) of the provisional agenda[*]
Conditions of service of the Professional and higher categories:
Gender balance
Development of the exit interview questionnaire –
progress report
Note by the secretariat of the International Civil Service Commission
I. Introduction
1. At its sixty-seventh session in July 2008, after considering a report on Review of gender balance in the United Nations common system[1] submitted by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) secretariat, the Commission expressed its disappointment at the insufficient progress made, in particular at the senior level, where women continued to be significantly under-represented. As at 31 December 2006, the overall percentage of women in the Professional and higher categories stood at 38.0 per cent, and at D-1 and above levels women made up only 24.6 per cent in the common system.
2. During its deliberation on the report on gender balance in the United Nations common system, the Commission expressed its concern over the high number of women separating from service before reaching retirement age while the percentage of women recruited further decreased. In this regard, the Commission recognized the need for a more detailed study by the organizations to assess the pattern of separation and to determine the root causes for the increasing trend of separations of female staff from the organizations; in particular to know whether these separations were more policy driven or rather due to personal circumstances. The Commission was of the view that it was important to institute a mandatory exit interview process, as a valuable staff retention tool, to assist in identifying and understanding the reasons for staff separations and, subsequently, to formulate and implement effective retention strategies in the organizations of the common system. Hence, the Commission decided[2] to assume leadership in instituting systematically designed mandatory exit interviews in all organizations and requested its secretariat, in collaboration with the representatives of organizations and staff bodies, to develop a questionnaire for exit interviews to be used across the common system.
3. In accordance with the Commission’s request at its sixty-seventh session, the present report provides an update on the progress towards developing a well structured exit interview questionnaire. The report includes background information on separation trends of women, an analysis of the current status in the United Nations common system with regard to exit interviews as a part of a broader framework of staff retention strategies in the common system and the proposed plan of action for a way forward.
4. As a first step, the ICSC secretariat conducted a questionnaire survey to gather information on the status of implementing exit interviews and details on the process, if any, as well as to provide an opportunity for organizations to voice their views of the feasibility of implementing mandatory exit interviews in all organizations of the United Nations common system. A total of 22[3] out of 23 organizations in the common system responded to the questionnaire survey presenting a response rate of 96 per cent. Thus, the information and analysis presented in this report are based on data and information collected through the questionnaire survey.
II. Separation trends of women in the Professional and higher categories
5. The 2008 ICSC review[4] of gender balance in the United Nations common system[5] showed that, in most organizations in the United Nations common system, the number of
staff who separated[6] for reasons other than retirement is relatively higher than retirements only. Women accounted for 40.5 per cent of all separations (1,807 women and 2,651 men) and this represented a significant increase of 7.1 per cent compared to the period 2003-2004. In comparison with the slight increase which occurred in the share of women from 36.8 per cent in December 2004 to 38 per cent in December 2006, such a high increase in separation of women is noteworthy and requires further attention.
6. The ICSC study also revealed that the share of women in recruitments declined in many organizations and the overall recruitment of women stood at 37.2 per cent during the period 2005-2006 (3,255 women and 5,505 men) with a decrease of 1.7 per cent compared to 38.9 per cent observed during the period 2003 to 2004. The significant increase of 7.1 per cent in separation of women combined with the decline in total recruitments of women during the period of 2005-2006, calls for concerted efforts to address the effectiveness and impact of measures designed to attract and retain women in the United Nations common system.
7. In his report submitted to the General Assembly in response to its resolution 62/137 on improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system[7] that, the Secretary-General also noted that women accounted for 40 per cent of all separations (2,975 out of 7,443) from the 29 United Nations entities[8] that provided data for the three-year period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2007. Further, the Secretary-General’s report indicated that the three major causes for the separation of women were appointment expiration,
resignation, and retirement. With respect to resignations, women represented 43 per cent of those who resigned during the reporting period. This significant proportion of resignations by women calls for detailed analysis of the underlying causes of such resignations to facilitate to improved retention of women within the system.
8. According to the Secretary-General’s report, women had a higher attrition rate[9] than men, showing that more women were leaving the system during the period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2007. As at 31December 2004, there was a total of 22,792 staff,[10] including 14,382 men and 8,410 women. During the period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2007, 4,468 male and 2,975 female Professional staff separated, representing yearly attrition rates of 10.4 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively. Excluding those who retired, 3,511 male and 2,593 female Professional staff left, representing yearly attrition rates of 8.1 per cent and 10.3 per cent, respectively.
III. Staff retention strategy: Exit Interviews in the United Nations common system
9. Exit interviews form an integral part in designing a staff retention strategy within an organization. They are an important human resources management tool for monitoring staff retention and satisfaction. Information collected from exit interviews is useful in fine tuning current measures as well as formulating remedies that are specific, effective and implemented at minimum cost.
10. Conducting exit interviews is not in itself going to solve the problem. The exit interviews are only a rich and useful source of information for organizational improvement when used in concert with staff satisfaction surveys, since it is necessary to monitor the situation before staff members decide to leave in order to effectively address the voluntary attrition[11] problem. Staying connected to staff and providing tools to better monitor staff sentiment in the organization are integral to promoting a culture that values staff retention. However, such a relationship between organization and staff requires frequent, candid exchanges about all the topics normally covered in an exit interview.
11. Having a real-time and continuous practice of monitoring staff sentiment regarding their jobs is crucial for a workplace expected to be more competitive. In some organizations, HR managers use this streaming data as part of a business process for strategic decision making that, in turn, senior management uses to gauge the health of their organization. To be effective, a systematic approach to collecting information from existing staff as well as separating staff is required, including:
· gathering and collating the data in a structured manner;
· aggregating the results for the organization as a whole;
· analyzing the findings to identify consistent trends, patterns and themes; and
· using the results to determine and implement strategies to increase retention and
reduce turnover.
(a) Why Exit Interviews?
12. Understanding the reasons for voluntary attrition is central to increasing the retention of motivated staff. Avoidable losses result from staff job dissatisfaction, poor management practices, staff not feeling valued, lack of advancement opportunity, and sometimes personal harassment or conflict with a co-worker or manager. Exit interviews indirectly help diminish or avoid future litigation by addressing situations triggering grievances, illegal activities and other causes for unhappiness. Employment environments with low levels of staff retention reflect low levels of job satisfaction and carry a significant cost to the organization. Not only is hiring and training of new staff expensive, but poor employment environments negatively and very significantly impact productivity and morale. Effective staff exit interviews, therefore, are an opportunity to diagnose and improve performance within the organization.
13. Most of the organizations of the United Nations common system have not systematically collected data on separation through exit interviews or any other means. Among reporting organization, about 59 per cent (13 out of 22) of the organizations reported that they did not conduct exit interviews while 41 per cent (9 out of 22) organizations (the United Nations, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Universal Postal Union (UPU), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported having a policy to conduct some form of exit interviews. Among these organizations, IAEA and UNOPS had initiated a formal process only in the latter half of the 2008 while UNESCO initiated the practice in April 2008. Meantime, FAO organized interviews between staff member and the Human Resources Officer only when it was requested by the separating staff member.
14. While four common system organizations (FAO, UNESCO, UPU and WIPO) reported exit interviews in the form of debriefing or informal interviews, UNRWA and IAEA conducted formal interviews to collect administrative information[12] on separation. UNICEF’s exit interviews focussed on gathering data to analyze turnover rates and other trends as a part of the separation process, but on a voluntary basis. The initial launch of exit interviews in UNICEF in January 2007 was on a mandatory basis for international professional staff only. Subsequently, however, with changes in UNICEF’s business process and migration to an e-recruitment module in February 2009, the exit interview exercise was made voluntary. The United Nations conducted formal exit interviews to collect administrative information while a voluntary on-line survey approach was used to collect all key human resources information. Only one organization – UNOPS – reported mandatory exit interviews which collected all key human resources information from all separating staff.
15. It is worth noting that a debate exists on whether exit interviews ought to be voluntary or mandatory, formal or informal, and who should conduct them. Some human resources experts believe that exit interviews must be a required and formal part of the out-processing or separation process. This is important because without the organizations expectations of an obligatory exit interview, many staff would not participate. Nevertheless, staff who would still not participate should not be penalized. Meantime, organization should stress the confidentiality of the process to encourage more staff to participate in an exit interview.
(b) How are Exit Interviews conducted?
16. The exit interview may be conducted through a variety of methods. Sometimes, the manager conducts the exit interview, but most often, a Human Resources representative holds the exit interview, in-person or over the telephone. Some organizations use written or online questionnaires to conduct exit interviews. Each of these methods has its pros and cons as shown in Table 1.
17. In traditional in-person exit interviews, “better salary” and “better job opportunity” are often the main reasons cited for leaving the organization. Relying on information gathered in this way, however, can be misleading, since, in in-person interviews, staff members are often reluctant to identify the true underlying causes for their departures. Staff tends to provide more “socially acceptable” reasons for leaving. This is not to suggest that salary has no influence over a decision to leave. Rather, this issue emphasizes the need to be sensitive to both “push” and “pull” factors that may have influenced the staff member’s decision. As an alternative, there are a variety of third party methods available to interview departing employees in a more effective and efficient manner than the organizationally internal in-person interview. Given the increased use of corporate Intranets at present, a Web-based method of data collection can be particularly useful. General observation indicates that online respondents tend to be more frank and better substantiate their experience.
5Table 1 Methods of exit interviewing[13]
Method / Details / Pros / ConsIn-person exit interviews
/ With in-person exit interviews an HR representative meets individually with each terminating staff. / - Can provide information regarding benefits and retrieve organization property during the interview- Gives a personal touch to each staff
- Can probe for more information on each question / - Staff may be afraid to share sensitive or negative information - For larger organizations, it may be too time consuming to interview every staff
- It’s difficult to tabulate or track information received verbally during an interview
- Not necessarily executed consistently
Telephone exit interviews
/ Telephone exit interviews are conducted over the telephone by an HR Representative or an outside third party consultant. / - Can probe for more information on each question- Can enter data into a tracking system while conducting the interview
- Easier to schedule than in-person interviews / - Time consuming if done in-house by an HR Representative
- Expensive if done with an outside consultant
- Staff often reluctant to verbally share sensitive or negative information
Paper-based exit interviews
/ Paper-based exit interviews are usually conducted by a form that is given to the staff on their last day or mailed to the staff’s home. / - Takes less time to provide a form compared with conducting an in person or phone interview- Staff can share information on paper that they may be reluctant to say in person / - Return rates for exit interview forms average just 30-35%
- Difficult and time consuming to compile and track the data from paper and pencil forms
Online exit interviews
/ Online exit interviews are conducted through the Internet, and in most cases, using the organization’s intranet portal. / - Staff self-service easy for HR to administer- Staff comfortable sharing information by computer so more honest responses
- Information automatically compiles and tracked
- Reports available at a click of a button
- Participation rates double that for paper-based exit interviews / - An appropriate integrated IT platform is a requirement
- Essential to have extensive awareness programmes for improved response rate and assurance of confidentiality in the process
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ICSC/68/R.7