Exelon has had a strong focus on recruiting diverse talent but was facing challenges in retaining that talent. Our goal was to try and determine what groups may be most at risk so that we could develop the appropriate retention strategies. 

Using a web based analytics tool, we analyzed our voluntary resignations by a variety of demographic and organizational factors including race, gender, ethnicity, age, tenure, level, and department. By looking at resignation activity from the past, we were able to create a profile of which employees were most likely to leave the organization vs. those who were most likely to stay.

We also determined that waiting for an employee to leave and only relying on the exit interview data gave our leaders no opportunity to retain their talent. So we created a “Stay Interview” process that leaders could use to meet with employees within those vulnerable groups and learn about what motivated their employees to stay with the organization and what may cause them to leave. This allowed them to put measures into place to address issues in a more proactive way.

We’ve conducted over 7,000 stay interviews across the organization. We have begun to see a slight decrease in turnover of women and people of color. We’ve also heard from leaders that they’ve seen the benefit of conducting the stay interviews as it has provided them with an opportunity to identify and address issues quickly.

Janese Murray