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Streamline your Exit Interview Questionnaire with Online Survey Tool

exit interview questionnaire
Ariane Laird | Aug 1, 2016

This article includes an editable Exit Interview Questionnaire template.    

Don't want to read the entire article?  Fair enough.  We've highlighted the template in yellow so you can find and access it quickly.

What's an Exit Interview?

An exit interview is a standardized process usually conducted by HR to solicit feedback from employees who are leaving your company.  The information is used to:

  • Generate periodic reports on departing employee feedback
  • Data and feedback patterns are used as discussion points with senior management to investigate common themes and make improvements to the workplace. .

Why Conduct an Exit Interview?

  • 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.
  • Your turnover reports will be more meaningful if you can supplement them with reasons for leaving. 
  • You can collate the feedback based on the kind of employees leaving your company.  Are A Players (top performers) leaving? Or are they employees who you would rather see leave anyway? If it's the former, you have a problem that should be addressed right away, or you will end up with a mediocre workforce. Find out: 
    • Why are your top performers leaving? 
    • What is the prevailing pattern?  Is it a single manager? Your culture?  Salary?  Lack of stimulation? Or is poor performance not being managed in your company which is often a deal breaker for A Players.

What's a Exit Interview Questionnaire?

It's a form used to gather answers to standard questions from employees leaving your company during an exit interview. 

  Sample Exit Interview Questionnaire

Take a look at a sample Exit Interview Form.  It can be previewed, downloaded and edited using Microsoft Word.  

Easily create an Online Exit Interview Questionnaire

The challenge with an Exit Interview Questionnaire is collating the information you receive from departing employees. You've completed the form. Now what?

Consider creating an online exit interview questionnaire using a survey tool to collect responses and save yourself a lot of work.  It's a tool I use often for various HR processes.  

Here's why: 

  • It will automatically compile responses over time instead of you having to do it when it's time to report summary data.  
  • No individual paper or digital files to manage. Everything is in one place - in the cloud. 
  • You'll be able to send a link to your management team to review collated responses anytime. (They won't be able to see individual answers or who said what)
  • You can create a field in the survey tool to sort responses by employee performance/contribution or value to your business. You want to understand why employees are leaving in general, but you also want to understand the common themes associated with why your top performers are leaving.  You can then decide where to focus your efforts. 

Example Online Exit Interview Questionnaire

Take a look at an example online exit interview form.

Here's how it works: 

  1. Determine your standard exit interview questions. What do you want to know from departing staff? Use this Exit Interview Form to help you avoid blank page syndrome. 
  2. Choose your free online survey tool.  Example:  Survey Monkey a popular, free, online survey tool.
  3. Create your online exit interview questionnaire by entering your questions. Use the completed example above to get you started. 
  4. Start using it when employees leave. Here's a couple of ways: 
    • Meet with the employee to conduct the exit interview. It's best that you don't just give the employee a link to the online questionnaire.  It's recommended that all exit interviews be conducted in person and that you type the answers directly into the online tool during the face-to-face interview.  You'll get more complete responses and you can ask follow-on questions to clarify responses. 
    •  If you're unable to schedule a face-to-face exit interview, you can send the online exit interview questionnaire link to the departing individual and not lose the opportunity to get their feedback.  You can send it to them anytime and they can complete it even weeks after they've left. 
  5. If the feedback you receive is of a serious nature, investigate it right away. 
  6. Run periodic reports (quarterly) using your survey tool to understand employee feedback patterns.  
  7. Discuss any findings with your senior management team.  

Last Word

Conducting exit interviews is a good business practice.  It's essentially an employee survey, but administered after an employee has decided to part ways with your company which could yield more honest results. Do it! 


Ariane Laird Vancouver

Ariane Laird is CEO & Founder of ConnectsUs HR, a company that provides tools & resources to quickly set up a Human Resources department.  
You can contact her directly from the Inquiry Type drop down menu.