What questions should you ask in an exit interview?
As workers leave the company, employers have a rare chance to gain insight from the impressions and experiences they have made there. Exit interviews serve a crucial role in giving departing employees a chance to share their thoughts and experiences. Employers can learn a great deal about workplace culture and ways to improve procedures for future hires by crafting exit interview questions with care.
But what kind of questions should be asked during exit interviews? Which subjects should you cover? Let’s take a look!
What is the purpose of an exit interview?
A meeting between an employer and a departing employee is known as an exit interview. Its goal is to gather data regarding the workers’ experiences with the organization and the reason or reasons for their departure. Exit interviews can be done in a variety of ways, such as in-person or online meetings, as well as through written or electronic surveys.
The exit interview should ideally be a planned component of the employee offboarding procedure. To guarantee objective input, the interview should be conducted by an impartial third party, such as the HR representative. Having a different person conduct the interview can motivate employees to be more open and truthful with their feedback because they may not have a good relationship with their manager.
The exit interview is critical for how departing workers recall their time at the company. It’s critical that you consider their feedback carefully and implement the required changes in light of it. Make sure your employee’s last day on the job is as memorable as possible because they will remember it.
What makes exit interviews so important?
Exit interviews provide employers with insight into their employees’ opinions, feelings, and experiences while they were with the firm. The organization’s overall business decisions, rules, and workplace culture can all be improved by putting this feedback into practice.
Let’s examine the advantages of posing good questions during an exit interview.
- Getting opinions on the work experience from employees
Exit interviews offer companies a great way to hear from departing workers about their experiences working for the company, specifically:
- Their positions
- Work environment
- Relationship with coworkers and managers
- Work rules
- Office culture
- Career growth opportunities
Positive feedback should be applied to maintain current procedures; negative feedback can be used to end or improve specific procedures.
- Recognizing problems within the life cycle of employees
Organizations may identify, predict, and resolve problems in the employee life cycle by knowing the reasons behind employees’ departures and identifying patterns and trends.
Workers depart from companies for a variety of reasons, such as relocation, dispute with managers or colleagues, low compensation, lack of prospects for advancement, and employment offers from other companies. For example, you may need to reconsider and improve your onboarding process if a high percentage of employees leave your company during the first year of employment.
- Reducing the number of employees who leave
Because it takes both money and time to hire new staff, businesses should try to reduce employee turnover. In addition, they will experience a loss in production from the moment of the employees’ resignation until HR and hiring supervisors find and choose substitutes. When individuals leave the company, it also has an impact on employee morale.
HR could use exit interviews to find patterns in the reasons why workers depart. This makes it possible for you to develop focused initiatives to stop unwelcome turnover.
- Improving the company culture
When it comes to their feelings and experiences, departing employees are more inclined to be honest than those who stay with the company. This kind of candid criticism can offer a new viewpoint on the culture of the company. For instance, staff members may believe that management’s actions and treatment of them do not align with the organization’s ideals.
Through departure interviews, you can obtain valuable information that can help you create an inclusive and productive culture that fosters employee growth and draws in top talent.
- Improving the hiring procedure
Exit interviews can reveal specifics regarding your present recruiting, onboarding, and training procedures. This includes both advantages and disadvantages.
For instance, let’s say there are frequent critiques about the gap between job postings and the real-world demands of the position. In this case, recruiters can work on updating job descriptions to incorporate the actual duties of the position and talk about them more during interviews in order to meet applicants’ expectations.
When trying to fill vacancies, understanding how employees perceive their specific jobs and duties can be quite helpful.
- Expressing gratitude
Organizations can express their gratitude for the job that the departing worker has done by holding exit interviews. Furthermore, wishing your staff well in their future pursuits and expressing gratitude for what they’ve contributed to the organization will help things end on a nice note.
Top exit interview questions to learn important information
HR must pose relevant departure interview questions if it is to benefit from exit interviews. You can ask your departing workers the following kinds of questions during their exit interview:
- The departing staff member and the organization
- The position
- Company culture
- The office environment
- The technology
While some questions might not be applicable to your company, others might simultaneously fit under multiple categories. You won’t be asking questions about the office if, for example, your entire crew works remotely.
Simply put, it’s a pick-and-choose based on the requirements of your company. Just pick the exit interview questions that can help you gain insight on particular subjects that can help your company improve.
Questions about the departing worker and the company
- What made you decide to look for a new job?
There is a wide range of responses to this question. People start seeking for a variety of reasons, after all. They may wish to relocate for family reasons, seek a new career challenge, or cut their commute.
But as time goes on and you collect more information, you will be able to identify recurring themes in the responses and take the lessons learned from the interviews into consideration.
- Why did you choose to leave?
You might feel like this question and the last one are similar. They are not. It’s not always the case that someone’s initial job search leads to their actual departure.
Passive applicants, in especially, aren’t really looking for a new job to begin with. Even so, they might still depart if a recruiter approaches them with a compelling offer. There are many other reasons to consider, such as improved pay and benefits, a compelling project, excellent career prospects, and more.
To put it simply, there are elements outside of an organization’s control. They might not have been able to immediately satisfy every request made by employees, but if funds allow, they will take them into consideration later.
- How did you get along with your manager?
It’s a popular belief that workers quit their supervisors rather than their jobs. While this isn’t always true, you want individuals to feel comfortable speaking up. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have someone else conduct the exit interview rather than their boss.
If it eventually becomes apparent that workers do leave because of (certain) supervisors inside your company, you can deal with the matter directly with those managers. Conversely, if you receive overwhelmingly positive feedback on a particular manager, you may use them as a model of good leadership for the other members of the management team.
- How was your initial onboarding experience when you joined?
Your employee-employer relationship is established during onboarding. If you do it correctly, your staff will be prepared for a successful and long-lasting adventure. If you make a mistake, they are going to leave before their time.
Asking employees about their onboarding experience during an exit interview is a fantastic idea because they are typically more comfortable sharing candid feedback. Even if these workers joined long ago, you can discuss together the improvements you’ve made to your onboarding procedure since then.
- What specific improvements or changes would you like to see in the team or company?
This offers a general summary of the tasks that must be completed from the perspective of the departing employees. It’s critical to come across as supportive when asking this question so that staff members feel at ease enough to offer candid and helpful criticism.
This can give workers a greater ability to express their rationale for departing without explicitly saying the reason, observes Caroline Reidy, Managing Director of HR consultancy The HR Suite. For example, if they state that they would have preferred to work for a different boss, it implies that their management was the source of the issue. It can also serve to draw attention to issues that other team members are facing and provide you with a goal to actively pursue.
To get more in-depth responses, feel free to ask follow-up questions. Why would the worker pick another team or manager?
- What criticisms about the business would you like to offer so we can better serve current and potential employees?
In order to improve the workplace environment and identify areas for development, HR should be on the lookout for feedback.
There are several answers to this question. Employee feedback regarding management may come from departing staff members, who might provide suggestions on how to improve manager-report relationships and foster a positive work atmosphere. Employees can offer suggestions on how to properly acknowledge and reward current and potential employees so they are more inclined to stay, and HR could ask for these suggestions.
- Would you suggest our business to your friends and contacts in the business world? Why (or why not)?
The answer to this question will impact your employer brand. The employment reputation of your company can be shaped by former workers.
Since they have firsthand experience of what it’s like to work for your organization, job searchers view former employees as very credible sources. You need them to be “happy leavers” for this reason. You can tell that something has to change if individuals routinely respond negatively to this question for any number of specific reasons.
- Would you ever think about coming back to work for us?
People don’t always want to depart the company. They may just believe that they do not have any prospects to grow in their careers at this point and therefore leave. That does not imply, however, that they will not wish to return when circumstances have altered.
You can increase retention by asking this question and then, “What conditions would have to change for you to return?”
Exit interview questions regarding the position
- Were you satisfied with the work? If not, what would be the reason?
This is an extremely important question, particularly if your new recruit turnover rate is substantial (i.e., a large percentage of employees leave the organization within the first year). It ought to provide you with fascinating information regarding your hiring procedure.
If workers respond negatively, did the job advertisement accurately describe the duties of the position? Or did the recruiter or hiring manager present an overly positive image of the position? To prevent a disconnect between applicant expectations and the position’s reality, it’s critical to communicate the feedback to the recruitment team.
- Do you think that since you were hired, your job description has changed? If yes, how so?
It’s a good idea to ask departing employees this question to avoid setting prospects up for failure. To prevent disappointing future applicants, the job description needs to be changed right away if there have been significant changes to the role.
Among other things, changes may involve new duties, responsibilities, abilities, and tasks.
- What characteristics should we seek in your replacement?
Once more, knowing the answer to this question can help you streamline the hiring process. You must modify the applicant criteria to account for any changes that were made to the job description from the one that appeared in the job advertisement.
Not only that, but the person who leaves worker is an authority on the necessary skills for the position as it stands, so you need to consult them and update as needed. An alternate version of this question is offered by The Leadership Experts’ founder, Nora Burns: How would you define the ideal worker for this role?
She poses this one question to every single departing employee. From the viewpoint of someone who has completed the task, there is a wealth of knowledge available here, says Burns.
- In comparison to your professional objectives and aspirations, how pleased are you with your workload?
In addition to evaluating whether their workload and its subject matter are in line with their long-term career goals, employees can express how satisfied they are with their current workload.
It could assist HR in determining whether workers feel overburdened or undervalued and whether there are ways to assist workers in coordinating their daily tasks with their professional goals.
- What aspect of your work did you find most enjoyable?
Since each person is unique, there will inevitably be components of their work that they find enjoyable.
But eventually, you’ll see that several answers recur here as well. Using this knowledge, you may highlight and promote these desirable position traits in your job postings.
- Which aspect of your work did you find least enjoyable?
Once more, you will be able to identify new trends as you collect more data.
This helps you portray a more accurate picture of the position during the hiring process, in addition to helping you strive to downplay the “less attractive” aspects of the job.
- In terms of your role with our organization, what might we have done better to keep you?
Although someone can respond to this question in any way they like, the major focus of the question is the work itself. If some of the employee’s work had been automated, would they still be there? Or were they seeking greater challenges or variation in their work?
Consider job enrichment or job expansion if the data indicates that departing employees want a wider range of duties.
- How content were you with the position you held inside the company?
Are you curious about the level of work satisfaction among your staff? Directly inquire about their level of happiness at work.
Work satisfaction can vary depending on whether an individual has a clear grasp of their objectives and whether they are receiving the appropriate support from peers and managers. In the end, job happiness and employee loyalty can significantly aid in lowering employee turnover since contented workers are more likely to be productive and devoted to their employers.
Exit interview Questions concerning the culture of the organization
- What would you say about the culture of our company?
Asking this crucial question can help you gain a thorough grasp of your company’s culture and spot discrepancies in experiences and perspectives. A local store manager and the IT manager at the company’s headquarters, for instance, can have differing perspectives on the culture.
You may better aim your employee engagement and employer branding activities by paying attention to how departing employees respond to this question. Therefore, it’s imperative to collect as much data as you can to guarantee that every employee, regardless of level or location, experiences the same culture.
- What aspect of our corporate culture do you find most enjoyable?
Since each company is different, there can be aspects of your culture that are exclusive to you and that the majority of your staff find enjoyable. For instance, Buffer promotes open communication between managers and employees and shares employee pay on their website as examples of how they appreciate honesty and openness.
Based on common themes, you can use the positive feedback that comes from the responses to better sell your company to job seekers.
- What do you believe needs to be changed or improved about our corporate culture?
No company is flawless. Furthermore, leaders could be blind to certain aspects of the present culture that need to be modified or aren’t working. 20. What actions are we not taking that might improve the culture of our organization?
These questions can also have a range of solutions. In order to improve the corporate culture and provide a better working environment for both present and future workers, you ought to look at and put into practice popular proposals.
Joe Coletta, the founder of 180 Engineering, a recruiting firm for engineers and IT professionals, advises posing an alternate version of this question: What would improve the work environment at this company?
This inquiry gives the worker the opportunity to candidly and non-aggressively explain their reasons for quitting. Coletta says that asking this question can provide you with valuable insights about how you could strengthen your organizational culture, increase employee morale, and decrease turnover, particularly if this is one of your most valuable staff members.
- What would you do differently as CEO to ensure that this workplace is thriving?
“Not the HR Lady” keynote speaker and consultant Tara Furiani says that this jewel of a question uncovers priceless insights, exposing the truth of a company’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Could you give an example of an instance where you felt underappreciated or unsupported in your position? In your opinion, how could this have been handled better?
Everyone wants their efforts to be acknowledged. Engaged employees will benefit from your company’s ability to make them feel important and to give them the credit they deserve. On the other hand, a lack of respect may force someone to leave.
This is yet more justification to include this question to your set of questions for the exit interview. Prioritize employee recognition if you want your staff to stay with the company.
There’s another way to pose the question, says Human Capital Innovations’ Jonathan Westover, an OD/HR/Leadership expert: What more could we have done to help you while you were here?
According to Westover, this question gives departing employees a chance to share their thoughts about their experience and make suggestions about how the business could improve its procedures and culture.
- Did you decide to leave the company because of any particular problems with its culture?
Essentially, the question asks whether the values and views of the company and the employee align or not.
For example, your business works in a competitive, fast-paced setting. In order to fulfill deadlines, workers are asked to put in extra time and work on holidays. It’s only a matter of time until the employee gets burned out and starts to explore other career prospects if they value work-life balance, which means working only during certain hours and expecting weekends to be free.
Exit interview questions regarding the workplace environment
- How would you characterize the atmosphere at work?
Naturally, exit interview questions concerning an individual’s actual workspace are more pragmatic in nature. This has the advantage that problems are comparatively simple to resolve.
By posing this question, you can learn more about the physical surroundings from the viewpoint of the staff. Is it cozy and well-lit, for instance? Or is it awkward and claustrophobic?
You can decide whether you are fostering an environment at work where people can feel content, at ease, and productive based on the responses you received.
- What aspects of your workspace do you find most appealing?
You can use the responses to this question to emphasize the positive aspects of your workplace in your employer branding and recruitment marketing campaigns.
- What aspect of your workspace do you find least appealing?
People work for a significant portion of their lives. Therefore, the design of a work place can significantly affect how happy employees are.
Changes should be considered if, for example, it is discovered that a large number of departing employees find it bothersome that their manager does not sit with them in an open area. Or it’s possible that folks would prefer to interact with their coworkers without having a designated desk. This is another issue that you can handle very quickly.
- What, in your opinion, should be added or changed immediately to enhance your workspace?
Changing your workspace depends on your financial situation. Employee preferences for their work environment have changed over time with the rise of co-working spaces and remote work, and it is critical for firms to take these changes into account.
Although it won’t be the primary deciding factor in a candidate’s decision to join your organization, your work environment may have some bearing on whether or not they accept a job offer.
- How pleased were you with our work-from-home and flextime policies?
People’s work lives now revolve around working from home, and more prospective and current employees will demand hybrid and remote employment opportunities from their employers.
If evidence indicates that your work-from-home or flextime policy could use some improvement, think about what changes you could make.
- Did you make the decision to quit because of any particular problems with the workplace?
A shift in a worker’s personal situation could encourage them to look into chances with different companies.
An employee would have to make a decision, for instance, if the company moved. They will have to find another job, relocate closer to the new office, or put up with a lengthier commute.
Exit interview questions regarding technology
- Did you think you had all the resources and tools you needed to do your work? If not, what was lacking?
The degree to which individuals believe they are adequately prepared for their work directly affects both their experience and performance.
As such, the responses to this question will be of great help to you in maximizing the technology stack that your staff members utilize.
- How simple was it for you to use the different systems and programs when you first began working with us?
You can learn a little bit about users’ experiences by answering this question. People frequently report that their personal experiences are far better than their job experiences.
First impressions are crucial, and the user experience (UX) greatly influences how recently hired staff members feel about their first few weeks on the job. To provide a better user experience, you should address any technical problems that you notice recurring.
- How pleased were you with the remote communication tools you used to interact with clients and/or coworkers? (Chat apps, video calls, shared documents, etc.)
Nothing is more annoying than having to spend the first 10 minutes of a video conference with colleagues to discuss a pressing issue, only to have the conversation derailed by technical difficulties.
The tools your staff use to communicate with one another and with your customers need to function smoothly and effectively, especially as remote work is becoming more and more common.
- Which program or tool should we immediately cease using?
We all have that one tool or system (usually administrative in nature) that we’d prefer not to use at all. If this is something staff only use a few times a year, things can remain as they are.
However, if your employees use this product on a daily basis, it will have an adverse effect on their digital lives and overall work experience, and you should definitely look at other possibilities.
- Were you satisfied with the company’s hardware—the phone, laptop, etc.?
While some businesses provide their staff members with Dell devices, others give all new hires a MacBook. Again, it won’t improve your employees’ overall experience if they have to use the equipment every day and they’re not happy with it.
For example, if data shows that individuals prefer to work with Apple or Dell products, give them a choice. If your organization cannot afford to provide every employee with an Apple computer, be practical and provide a range of devices so that staff members have options.
- How pleased are you with the caliber of IT assistance you received while working from home?
Businesses must make sure that technical help is accessible from anywhere at any time. In this manner, workers, whether based in the office or remotely, can work uninterrupted.
If most employees complain during the interview that they don’t receive enough technical support when working remotely, it’s important to assess your IT policy and staff to ensure that workers have the resources they need to do their jobs well.
Final questions for the exit interview
- As you leave the company, is there anything more you would like to talk about that hasn’t been covered?
This is a question you should ask before concluding your exit interview, advises Kendra Janevski, Managing Director, Human Resources at Vault Consulting. Most offboarding staff members like a tidy exit. Fully communicating any challenges or pearls of wisdom they want to leave behind aids in that process. It also increases the likelihood of them having a positive impression of your company after they go, says Janevski.
- What guidance would you give the owners/founders if you were speaking to them instead of me?
This could be a compliment, a complaint, or a comment or suggestion for improvement, explains Lucas Diegues, HR Business Partner at Revelo, a hiring platform.
An employee’s response to this question typically reveals what matters most to them within the organization and can be very telling. It also provides a safe space for them to express their opinions.
- What suggestions do you have for making the offboarding procedure better?
The Eposnow Chief People Officer, Richard Nolan, says that while the offboarding process might be difficult, it’s also a chance for the company to develop and learn. According to Nolan, this question will offer insight into what parts of the process went well for workers and which parts require improvement.
Best practices for exit interviews
It hurts to watch workers depart.
But, by adhering to a few best practices, you can make it a positive experience by conducting an exit interview that is efficient and satisfying for both HR and employees:
- Include conducting exit interviews in your employee checklist so that you can guarantee you do so for each departing employee.
- Make sure to express the interview’s goal clearly and keep the conversation focused solely on work-related subjects.
- Use open-ended questions to provide staff members the freedom to share their thoughts and offer feedback. Asking provocative questions that could influence an employee’s response in one way or another can compromise your objectivity during the interview.
- To maintain consistency and gather pertinent information, use an exit interview template.
- With the employee’s permission, record and transcript the interview or take notes during the discussion.
- The feedback you receive from employees won’t always be positive, so be ready for the worst. Get honest responses by not being defensive or critical of others.
- Find out the employee’s next destination. “This is helpful for alumni group formation and networking. Make sure the departing employee knows that the door is always open if their departure is a regretted loss, suggests Amira Kohler, Director of Performance and Change at Appraisd, a firm that develops performance management software.
- Express gratitude to the worker for their participation and insights as you wrap up the interview. Tell them how you intend to use their input so they know it was considered and valued.
- Examine the employee comments and compare them with information from other sources (such as stay interviews and staff demographics).
- Act in response to the criticism. Create solutions for areas that need improvement based on the trends that have been revealed by the responses to your exit interview questions. This can include things like your hiring and onboarding procedures, training and development plans, and policies on pay and benefits for staff members.
To sum up
A company’s ability to gather and evaluate relevant information in order to improve the work experience and lower employee turnover depends on having well-crafted exit interview questions.
Use exit interview questions that are relevant to your business to gain insightful knowledge about your employees’ perceptions of it.
