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

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