Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 28
1 A. This table, I am presuming, refers to exit interviews
2 with employees, 1993?
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Something like that. We have gone over it in great
5 detail.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Its heading, which is cut off, is "Leavers by
8 Termination Code". The manager was responsible for marking
9 on their personal file when they left what the reason or
10 purported reason, if known, was for leaving.
11 A. Yes. My initial comment on seeing this, my initial
12 thought on seeing this table was the enormous difficulty
13 that managers must experience in adequately monitoring the
14 exit reasons of staff, given the pressures on managers to
15 do everything else, given the high labour turnover; and,
16 with those two "givens", I then began to think about the
17 categories, the exit reasons listed here, OK.
18
19 Now, obviously, you have got one in five employees leaving
20 without notice, reason 11; that is 4,462 staff. Another
21 5,300 left for personal reasons. So, approximately --
22 I was going to say another 1,695, that is reason 7, left
23 because it was mutually agreed. So, approximately for half
24 the workforce -----
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment. I would like to write in
27 the percentages. Half the workforce, approximately half
28 the workforce ---
29 A. -- are leaving without notice on a mutually agreed
30 basis, or for personal reasons.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: According to the management?
33 A. According to the survey; and if you add on reason 1 --
34 that is "returning to school/college" -- seven in ten
35 workers appear to be leaving for no known reason, in terms
36 of employment.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why add on "return to school or college" as no
39 known reason?
40 A. Well, if I may say, I am trying to identify the
41 work-related reasons for leaving.
42
43 Q. I understand that, and I thought you were going to go on to
44 say that, among that 49.07 per cent in categories 11, 4 and
45 7, there might be many who left because they just were not
46 happy with the work, whatever reason they have given. But,
47 if that is so -- and maybe I have anticipated wrongly --
48 one would not include "return to school or college"?
49 A. My point is similar to that which you have expressed,
50 but I have put it this way round, in that, if you strip out
51 the unknown reasons in employment terms for departure, you
52 are left with perhaps three out of ten for whom there is a
53 known reason.
54
55 Q. Well, there is a known reason for "return to school or
56 college"?
57 A. But I am trying to turn it into those reasons which
58 give an employer an understanding of where work practices
59 relate to departure.
60
