Exit interviews are extremely important to reducing turnover. Interviewing employees who are leaving can help companies to understand where problems within the organization might be driving employees to seek work elsewhere.
Why Conduct Exit Interviews?
Exit interviews can help to reduce turnover. If the company is losing a lot of employees, it’s essential to find out why. Turnover costs a company a lot of money as well as causes lower productivity. If there’s a problem that is driving employees to leave, such as a bad manager or a lack of remote work options, then the company can find out about it through exit interviews and address the issue to prevent further departures.
What Are Exit Interview Best Practices?
To make the most of the exit interview, you should follow these best practices:
- Explain the purpose of the exit interview ahead of time.
- Have more than one person in the meeting with you.
- Send the resigning employee the exit interview questions ahead of time so they can prepare.
- Ask the resigning employee for feedback.
- Make the exit interview as positive an experience as possible.
- Take notes on what the resigning employee says.
- Implement changes based on the feedback.
It may be inconvenient to the company that the employee is resigning, but ensuring that the exit interview is conducted respectfully and positively will help to ensure that you get information that may be helpful to you. It’s also important to implement changes based on what you hear in the exit interview. Conducting the interview is pointless if the company doesn’t learn from the information.
Why Should Exit Interviews All Be the Same?
Exit interviews should be standardized across the company. That doesn’t mean that they can’t change over time as HR discovers new questions that must be asked. However, having a template can help to make sure that everything is asked in a professional manner. There’s a template that can be sent to the resigning employee ahead of time and the HR professional conducting the interview can use that template for reference.
Planning out what needs to be asked during an exit interview is the best way to ensure that the company learns from the interviews. Instead of winging it during the interview itself, time will be taken ahead of time to think about what needs to be asked and the best way to frame the questions.
Template for Exit Interviews
Exit Interview Template
Thank you for helping us to improve and make our company a better place for everyone. Your answers to the following questions will remain confidential.
| Date: | |
| Name: | |
| Job Title: | |
| Department: | |
| Hire Date: | |
| Separation Date: |
- What is your reason for leaving? Was it voluntary or involuntary?
_________________
- When you first started, was the orientation for your job sufficient?
_________________
- Were you trained effectively in how to do your job?
_________________
- Were you provided with clear guidelines, instructions, and expectations for your job in general?
_________________
- Were you provided with clear guidelines, instructions, and expectations for specific projects and assignments?
_________________
- Did you feel comfortable discussing any concerns or problems with your supervisor?
_________________
- What resources could have helped you to perform your job more effectively?
_________________
- Did you feel that other employees were favored and given preferential treatment by anyone at the company?
_________________
- Did you know about or witness any activity that was illegal or unethical take place?
_________________
- How could company management improve?
_________________
- How could the company improve our goods and services?
_________________
- How could the working conditions be improved?
_________________
- Was the compensation for your job sufficient?
_________________
- How could the company improve security?
_________________
- How could the company improve its communication?
_________________
- How could the company improve its customer relations?
_________________
- How could the company improve employee motivation and engagement?
_________________
- Would you consider returning to the company in the future?
_________________
- Are you leaving the company to accept another job offer?
_________________
- What does your new opportunity offer that the company doesn’t?
_________________
Please ensure that you have returned any items that were used for your job that belong to the company, including computers, files, tools, equipment, documents, software, keys, credit cards, etc.
Outgoing Employee:
Signature:______________________________
Date:__________________________________
Interviewer:
Name:_________________________________
Title:___________________________________
Department:_____________________________
