Exit Interview Questions

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What is an Exit Interview?

An exit interview (also sometimes referred to as an exit survey) is conducted with a terminating employee just before they leave by using an exit interview form and asking the incumbent a series of standardized exit interview questions.

From the company's point of view, it's an important feedback mechanism to understand your company's strengths and weaknesses as an employer.  From the departing employee's perspective, an exit interview is a chance to provide you with constructive feedback and to communicate why they've decided to leave your workplace.  An exit interview meeting is usually seen as a willing activity for most exiting employees since they often feel that they may be making a positive difference for the co-workers they're leaving behind and will usually be open to answering your exit interview questions.  

Exit Interview Questions

This exit interview template provides sample exit interview questions you can use to solicit feedback from employees who are leaving your company. The exit interview questions may be presented to staff using an Exit Interview Template in Word format and used as a ‘traditional’ form, or the exit interview questions could be transferred into an online survey tool.

Once these exit interview questions have been modified for your company, they may be used as follows:

• HR completes the exit interview template during a face-to-face exit interview with the terminating employee
• A third party completes the exit interview form during a face-to-face exit interview with the departing employee 
• If no face-to-face exit interview occurs, the departing employee completes the exit interview questions form or online survey

Why use it

Using a common exit interview template and questions to conduct your exit interviews is highly recommended.

• Since departing employees are more likely to be honest about problems they may have experienced with your company, you can use an exit interview to gather valuable feedback, and act on it moving forward.
• Exit interviews let you gather information about whether your company's compensation package is competitive with others in your area/industry.
• It ensures you are asking all departing employees the same exit interview questions, which allows you to determine patterns and gather useful feedback. For example, this information may help you to improve culture, processes, training and development programs, etc.

What you risk by not using it

If you don't administer exit interview questions:

• You may not understand the real reasons employees are leaving
• You miss the opportunity to identify and address issues that may be contributing to employee turnover
• You'll have no way to create meaningful turnover reports

Example online exit interview

• Save yourself some work by creating your exit interview questions using an online exit interview survey to collect responses.  It will automatically compile the aggregated answers to exit interview questions over time instead of having to do it manually to report results.  Here's an EXAMPLE. 
• It's recommended that all exit interviews be conducted in person. Exit interview questions can be asked and entered directly online during the meeting.  
• However, if your unable to schedule an in-person exit interview meeting, you can always send the link to the departing individual and not lose the opportunity to get their feedback.
• To solicit input or opinions, consider using Survey Monkey, a popular, free, online survey tool.

Exit Interview Tips

• If feasible, it's recommended that exit interviews be conducted by a third party, such as an experienced HR professional who is skilled at putting an employee at ease and gaining trust. This person can collect and summarize responses from multiple individuals over time and make appropriate recommendations based on their findings.
• If you're not using a third party, determine who will ‛own’ the exit interview process. Select someone the employees will trust to collect the responses to exit interview questions and compile the results. It's recommended that all exit interviews are conducted by the same person.
• If you're using an online survey tool to collect exit interview responses, don't just give the employee a link to the survey.  Rather, type answers into the survey during the face-to-face interview.  You'll get more complete responses and the interviewer can ask follow-up questions to clarify responses.