How to Develop an Effective Employee Exit Interview

Employee Exit Interview

When an employee decides to separate from your business, it can be tempting just to fill out the paperwork and wish them well. However, that employee may have helpful information about your business practices based on their experience. An employee exit interview is your chance to get that information from your employee before they depart. 

What can your business learn from an outgoing employee? The answer is valuable information that helps you become a better employer and grow more efficiently as a company. 

Even if their period of employment was short, or the relationship went sour, an exit interview can provide crucial insights. However, it’s essential to equip managers with questions for these exit interviews, so you don’t waste this opportunity and you get the most out of this final interaction with your outgoing employee.

This article will explain how to conduct a successful exit interview with a departing employee. As a bonus, you’ll also get a list of the top 20 exit interview questions that give you answers you can use to improve your business.

What Happens During An Exit Interview?

An exit interview is between a departing employee and an employer, typically when the employee has chosen to leave the organisation. An exit interview should be an open discussion between the employee and their employer where the employee can share their thoughts on their experience working at the company.

Exit interviews are a vital part of any human resources strategy. The main goals of an exit interview are to learn where your company can improve and ensure that you and your departing employees end things on a good note.

During an exit interview, an employer may ask the employee questions along the lines of:

  • Why are they leaving
  • Their thoughts on the company
  • Suggestions they have for any improvements. 

While this is an open discussion, ideally, the discussion is based on a structured list of questions to guide you and ensure that you cover everything you want to within the allotted time. A consistent and compliant employee exit interview process ensures you always get the necessary information. 

Not sure which questions to ask during your employee exit interviews? We’ve got you covered. We’ve compiled some of the top questions to provide valuable insights below.

Top 20 Exit Interview Questions That Aren’t A Waste Of Time

Although there are several dos and don’ts of exit interviews, an employee exit interview is only as valuable as the quality of the questions you ask. That’s why it’s crucial to spend time crafting questions that align with the goals of your exit interviews.

To help you, we’ve put together 20 of the top employee exit interview questions to get valuable insights that will help your company improve: 

  1. Why have you decided to leave the company?
  2. Did any specific events cause you to start looking for a new job?
  3. Are there other reasons for your departure that you’d like to add?
  4. Before accepting your new position, did you share your concerns with your supervisor or anyone else?
  5. What ultimately led you to accept your new position?
  6. How did you feel about your position in our company? Was it what you expected?
  7. What aspects of your role here did you enjoy and value the most?
  8. What aspects of your role here did you find the most challenging?
  9. Did you feel your role here was well-defined with clear expectations? If not, what was missing?
  10. Can you describe your relationship with your manager?
  11. Were you satisfied with the way you were managed?
  12. Can you describe your relationships with other members of your department?
  13. Do you have any suggestions or advice to help your team/department work more efficiently in the future?
  14. Did you feel you were adequately equipped to fulfil your role and responsibilities?
  15. Were there any training or other development opportunities you felt were missing to succeed in your role?
  16. Did you receive sufficient constructive feedback on your performance?
  17. What was your experience of the performance review process like?
  18. Did you have clear goals and objectives?
  19. Do you have any feedback on our company procedures or policies? Were they straightforward and easy to follow, or were they confusing and inconsistent?
  20. Do you have any suggestions to help us improve our workplace or policies?

You don’t need to ask all 20 questions during an effective exit interview – chances are you won’t have time to, and you don’t even need to. You can also pick and choose questions based on a particular employee’s job, length at the company, or even reason for leaving. For example, if you had previously discussed with the exiting employee why they are leaving the company, then there’s no need to spend time discussing it again during the exit interview. 

At the end of the interview, thank your employee and express your appreciation for what they accomplished.

Conclusion: Employee Exit Interviews Provide Valuable Insights 

Exit interviews are a chance to learn new intel and get honest feedback based on employee experience that could help improve your business, employee retention, and company culture. It’s vital to conduct exit interviews as part of your offboarding process before an employee walks out the door, and those insights are gone forever.

Use the questions in this article, or download the HRonHand Offboarding Toolkit to guide your employee exit interviews and leave things on a positive note between you and your exiting employee. After all, just because they’re leaving, doesn’t mean the relationship has to end. Exit interview feedback is a great way to gauge employee satisfaction and gather data for future workforce planning. 

Share This

Related Posts