Saying Goodbye

You may have secret weapons in your home care company. People who will be totally honest with you. People who will tell you everything no one wants you to know, who will tattle on the people in your organization who may be putting you in danger and who will offer suggestions about how to fix your company's problems.

Who are these people, these sources of knowledge and truth? The answer: the employees who are leaving your company, those who quit and those who are fired.

Every smart home care company should look for ways to get honest feedback about its compliance activities and its internal operations. Feedback that relates to new or growing problems is particularly important, and particularly difficult to obtain.

Your employees are often the best source for this information. Unfortunately, they often are uncomfortable coming forward. Sometimes this is because they don't feel it is their place to talk about a problem. Sometimes it is because the problem is new and they think it might fix itself, or they are unsure if it will grow to be a problem important enough to discuss. Sometimes they wait because a supervisor said, “Let's wait and see,” or whatever.

Personnel who are leaving your organization, however, will not usually let any of these disincentives keep them from talking. An exit interview that seeks this information can provide substantial and varied benefits.

An exit interview means a meeting with a departing employee to discuss transitional issues like work transfers, severance packages and the like, and perhaps more. A formal meeting prior to departure is usually preferred, although impromptu sessions, telephone conferences and post-departure meetings are not uncommon.

Your secret agenda for effective exit interviews is to seek information from departing employees about how they believe they have been treated, whether they are aware of any discrimination or harassment, and whether they are aware of violations of company procedures or reimbursement rules, etc. In addition, in an exit interview, a company can assess the employee's honest perspective on its ethics, attitude, level of regulatory compliance and the dysfunctional parts of its compliance program, etc.

Also, one key benefit of this interview is to identify whether the employee may potentially become a whistleblower or, at the very least, a detractor of the organization. Sometimes by giving the departing employee an opportunity to vent, you can diffuse his or her anger. Regardless, you will learn much you need to know.