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An exit interview is a structured conversation with somebody who is leaving, recorded so the business can learn from it. Work through our guided form and run every departure the same way.
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An exit interview is a structured conversation held with an employee who is leaving. The written record it produces captures why they are going and what the business could do differently.
Departing staff speak more freely than current ones, since the usual reasons for holding back have gone. Consequently, the answers often reveal problems that surveys never surface.
The form keeps the conversation consistent. Without one, each manager asks different questions, and nothing can be compared across a year.
It looks backward and forward at once. The reason for leaving matters, though so does whatever would have kept the person.
Participation stays voluntary. Somebody who declines should face no consequence, and the record can simply note that they chose not to take part.
Length works against it. Somebody with one foot out of the door gives shorter answers to a longer form.
The exercise is about patterns rather than individuals. One resignation rarely proves anything, whereas six citing the same manager usually do.
Timing shapes the quality of the answers, so plan the conversation rather than squeezing it in.
Departures worth covering:
Hold it near the end, though not on the final afternoon. A day or two before the last shift gives space without losing detail.
Some businesses follow up weeks afterward. People often speak more openly once a new job has started.
Book it early in the notice period. Otherwise the last fortnight fills with handover and the conversation never happens.
Long-serving leavers repay the effort. Consequently, somebody with eight years of context usually sees more than a recent joiner does.
Skip it after a dismissal for conduct. That conversation belongs to an entirely different process.
Ask open questions, then let people talk. So keep the form short, and leave plenty of room to write.
Ask what prompted the decision and when it was made. The timing often matters more than the stated reason.
Explore whether the job matched what was described at hire. A mismatch here points straight at recruitment.
Ask about supervision, feedback, and whether help was available. Keep the question about the experience rather than the person.
Find out whether compensation influenced the decision. Where somebody will say, find out what the new package offers.
Ask about pressure, hours, and whether the workload felt sustainable over time.
Explore what development they wanted and whether it appeared. Stalled progression drives a great many resignations.
Ask that directly. Answers here are the most actionable part of the whole form.
Leave an open box. The most useful comment often arrives once the structured questions finish.
Ask about the new role as well as the old one. What a competitor offered on pay, flexibility, or progression shows exactly where your own package falls short. Most leavers answer that question happily.
The direct manager is usually the wrong choice, since honesty suffers when the listener is part of the reason.
Better options depend on size:
Brief whoever runs it. Listening without defending takes practice, and an interviewer who argues learns nothing.
Use the same person across a year where you can. In addition, one interviewer notices themes that a rota of managers would miss.
Take notes rather than recording, unless the employee agrees to a recording beforehand.
Keep it to a reasonable length. Forty focused minutes beat two hours of drift.
Run it somewhere neutral. A meeting room the person never worked in helps more than you would expect.
Offer a written option as well. Some people write candidly and say very little out loud.
Candor depends entirely on trust, so settle the confidentiality rules before the first question.
Explain at the outset who will read the notes. Vague assurances collapse the moment somebody recognizes a quote.
Aggregate before reporting upward. Themes drawn from six interviews protect individuals in a way single transcripts never do.
Keep the record out of the general personnel file. It serves the business rather than the departing employee’s history.
Handle allegations differently. Anything raising harassment, safety, or legal concerns should leave this process and enter the proper channel immediately.
Store the notes separately from recruitment records. Otherwise a future hiring manager reads something never intended for them.
Where a complaint surfaces, take advice before acting. Take advice from an employment attorney on what the situation actually requires.
An exit interview earns nothing unless somebody reads the answers together.
Review them in batches:
Share the themes with leadership. Consequently, patterns attract budget rather than sympathy.
Tell staff what changed. Nothing kills participation faster than a sense that answers vanish.
Compare the findings against your own assumptions. Managers often predict pay, whereas leavers more often name progression or workload.
Watch the timing of departures too. A cluster after bonus season tells a different story from a steady trickle.
Revisit the questions annually. The right ones shift as a business grows.
Set up your exit interview template now and make every departure teach you something.
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