How To Ask For An Exit Interview

Have You Received Proper Training During And Beyond Onboarding

Without a question, onboarding is the most important part of an employees experience.

Onboarding sets expectations. If employees feel as though they werent given the help to succeed from the outset, theres a much higher chance theyll look for a new position in the near future.

If exit interview survey data suggests that your onboarding processes are suboptimal, redirect resources toward onboarding.

Why Are Exit Interviews And Surveys Important

The hiring process can be long and expensive. If at the end of it youre employing people who stay at your company very briefly, then youre not only wasting time and money with recruitment but every time someone leaves, a bit of company knowledge or process goes with them.

By providing departing employees the opportunity to give their honest feedback, you can gather valuable insights to improve the employee experience for future staff.

Finding out why people are leaving and how to prevent it in the future should be something you invest time, energy and care into. It will pay dividends in the long run.

Your Essential List Of Exit Interview Questions

Here are some of the most common and useful questions to ask during exit interviews. Derrick finds that the way you frame a question can have an impact on the type of answer you receive, which is why he likes to ask people questions like what advice theyd offer to the CEO or their department leader. He says, You start to tease out a lot of opinions and perspectives that are really valuable in a productive, constructive way because theyre giving advice rather than feedback.

• What are your reasons for looking elsewhere for a job? How long have you been looking?
• What went well in your role here? What could’ve been better?
• If you could change one thing about your role or the company, what would it be?
• Would you recommend working here to a friend?
• If you could give your CEO or department leader some advice, what would you say?
• What does your new position offer that influenced your decision to leave?
• Did you feel that you were equipped to do your job well?
• How would you describe the culture of our company?
• What do you know now that you wish youd known when you started?

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Would Anything Change Your Mind About Leaving

People can leave for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons can be easily fixed.

Maybe employees want a new role to develop their career. Or maybe theyre looking for higher pay.

When you hold exit interviews early on, employees still have a chance to change their minds. If you can offer what the employee feels has been missing, theres a high possibility that the employee will at least consider sticking around.

Dont Offer Too Little Too Late

An exit interview shouldnt be the first time employees are asked how they feel about working for you. If you want to make the exit interview process count, you should incorporate a constructive feedback culture among your employees from day one. Have frequent formal and informal discussions with your employees. That way, youre more likely to get honest, constructive feedback when employees leave. Relying on exit interviews alone is like only reading the last page of a book it simply doesnt make any sense without the rest of the story.

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Did You Feel Equipped To Do The Job Here

Asking this question gives you direct insight into how to train new employees. It can even help you understand how to retrain your existing employees.

You may receive straight answers that make you feel uncomfortable , but youll also receive actionable information with which you can make immediate changes.

Would You Recommend This Company To A Friend Why Or Why Not

Even though they ultimately decided to leave your company, former employees can be excellent referral sources. In an ideal world, every exiting employee would answer yes to this question but the reality is there may be some who are so unhappy with their experience that they would feel uncomfortable referring their contacts. In this case, identify the issues and make corrections as quickly as possible.

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Create A Comfortable Environment

The exit interview process should be conducted in a familiar atmosphere for the employee rather than an intimidating one. Employee exit interview questions and answers are supposed to be an honest conversation with a free flow of information. A free and familiar atmosphere will ensure that the employee answers each question honestly. This leads to transparent communication which is the essence of any exit interview process.

What To Say In An Exit Interview

Good leaders make things better for others, and the exit interview is a small, but important, way to contribute to this aim. What should you include in your feedback? The author offers six suggestions: 1) Your reason for leaving 2) How well your job was structured and if you had the appropriate tools to succeed 3) If you had opportunities to learn and grow 4) How you feel about your manager and other leaders 5) What you liked most about your job and the company and 6) Your top recommendations for improvement.

Given that most people will hold multiple jobs over the course of their professional lives, you may have the opportunity to participate in an exit interview at one or more points during your career. While not all organizations conduct exit interviews, if you do have the opportunity to participate in one, it is a chance to provide helpful feedback to the organization, so that it can learn and continuously improve for current and future employees.

Whether you are leaving to pursue a new opportunity, escape a toxic leader or environment, seek better work-life balance, make a career change, or all of the above, you dont want to make the exit interview an emotional venting session. Be calm and constructive, sticking to the facts while being both open and direct in your responses. Youll want to include the following information in your feedback.

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Did You Have The Tools To Succeed At Your Job

Why they ask it: An employer should give you the things you need to do your job. This isnt just physical tools, like a computer or phone. Tools include training, professional development, mentoring, and timely feedback. HR is asking if you had what you needed to succeed because if you didnt, it might be something they can provide current and future employees.

How to answer it: This is a case where you can probably be more honest than with other questions, but choose wisely. If your biggest problem was a loud office or a lack of training, bring these things up as they may be easy to fix.

For example, Im not really a fan of open office plans. And the bench-style seating didnt work for me. It was very distracting. Also, I would have liked to receive feedback about my work more often than I did. Im not the kind of person that likes to wait for my annual evaluation to see how Im doing.

Exit Interview Questions You Should Ask Employees Who Are Leaving

While its important to rehire to help maintain production levels and morale, its just as important to understand why the employee is leaving the company

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We know the benefits of having a strong employee onboarding program, but did you know that employee offboarding is equally as important? Determining why the employee is leaving is just as important as planning for their future replacement.

Understanding the employee experience can help HR managers plan for the future and gain feedback to help other employees.

The exit interview is central to gather honest feedback to help improve the organization, but its a meeting very few managers and business owners enjoy. It can be uncomfortable at best, awkward at worst.

Too many put it off or avoid it completely. But failing to conduct as thorough an exit interview as possible is a mistake.

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Make Confidentiality A Priority

Remove any identifying information prior to sharing results with the HR department or executive team to protect the employees reputation. You may want to reconnect with former employees about a job or partnership opportunity, and they might reach out regarding a reference check, so dont tarnish their relationship with your company. Additionally, maintaining the employees anonymity will make them feel more at ease and comfortable sharing their honest opinions.

Why Are You Leaving

Some may see these first two questions as the same, but theyre actually very different. Your employee may have started looking to switch jobs for one reason. But she may have made the final decision for a host of other reasons.

These two questions help you determine everything that prompted her to leavefrom initial dissatisfaction to the final straw that broke the camels back.

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Exit Interview: Useless Or Useful

We know. We have been harping on and about the relevance of exit interview questions for nearly a thousand words. Asking this question right now does not make any sense. Or does it? An exit interview is important, but there is a contrary viewpoint that some Human Resource managers hold. According to the view, these questions and the overall exit interview exercise is a little fruitless and can be done away with. Did we hear right? How can something so important and which gives an insight into the psyche of the employees who are leaving be unimportant? Hear out the argument against it.

As per , an exit interview is like a breakup. It starts off with good intentions but ends up being just as cliched and adds no value to the relationship and the two people who are parting. Sounds brutal. Costolo chose Fortunes Great Place to Work Conference to make this quirky yet relatable analogy.

A Guide To Giving Feedback Without Burning Bridges

An exit interview probably isnt the first thing on your mind when you decide to quit your job nor should it be but at some point, the issue is probably going to surface. After all, at many companies, an exit interview is a standard part of the offboarding process, right along with notifying your team of your departure or returning your computer to the IT department.

While exit interviews provide you with a great opportunity to make your voice heard, they can also provoke anxiety: what if your soon-to-be-former employer doesnt like what you have to say? When handled correctly, though, exit interviews are no cause for worry. In fact, they can provide you with closure, put you at ease and help you move onto your next great opportunity.

In this guide, well share how to prepare for an exit interview so that you provide your employer with the feedback they need while avoiding bad blood and burnt bridges.

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Why Should An Organization Use Exit Interview Questions

1. The first and foremost reason for conducting such an interview is to understand why an employee is leaving their position in a certain organization.

Some may feel they are not given enough responsibilities at work. For some, they might feel their work isnt recognized or rewarded, or there may be some external issues that the organization may not be aware of.

2. Secondly, most of the employees usually are afraid of honest feedback to the management. Employees who have decided to quit the organization have nothing to lose or fear. These are the employees who will give honest feedback once they are ready to walk out of the organization.

Conducting an exit interview will help management to collect the right information of any dysfunctionality within the organization that they would usually not come to know through an existing employee.

3. Another very important reason why an organization needs to consider such interviews with sincerity is it helps to retain employees.

Employee retention is a plight! If organizations act promptly on the data gathered while conducting the exit interview, then they would know what not to do at the workplace to make sure the attrition rate drops down and the employees are happy working for the organization.

As mentioned earlier, exit interviews should be a communicative process. Therefore while planning these interviews, right exit interview questions are the key to obtaining the right feedback or data.

Why Conduct Exit Interviews

There are many reasons why it is a good idea to conduct an exit interview. These benefits extend to not just the company, but also the employee who may want to get things off their chest and seek closure before they proceed to the next phase of their career.

Keep in mind that exit interviews are completely voluntary. If a departing employee does not feel comfortable with the idea, there should be no repercussions if they decide to refuse.

Below are some of the most common reasons to conduct an employee exit interview:

• Find out why the employee is leaving
• Learn what the company is doing well, and where it needs to improve
• Update the job title and description if they no longer match the role itself
• Give the employee a chance to express their dissatisfaction with certain areas of the business, or alert employers to illegal activity in the business
• Make improvements to existing workplace policies and procedures

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How To Conduct The Exit Interview

Whether you decide to ask all or only some of these questions, its vital to approach exit interviews with the right mentality and a defined plan of action. According to Harvard Business Review, exit interviews depend upon two elements to be effective:

1) The employees honesty & forthrightness

2) The organizations willingness to change

Lets discuss honesty first. Employees who leave your organization may not express their true thoughts for a variety of reasons. If employees leave on negative terms, they may be unwilling to offer their feedback because they have a good riddance attitude. Others may be worried about burning bridges with former managers. In that same HBR article, an HR professional at a European mining company explained, Are they really going to tell you theyre leaving because they dont like their boss? Probably not, because they want references.

One of the upper managers here at BambooHR shared with me some of his best tips for conducting such interviews:

Once youve set the right tone and encouraged honest employee feedback, its up to you and your organization to do something about it. HBRs research revealed that, when asked for examples of a specific action taken as the result of an exit interview, fewer than one-third of executives could identify one. That means about two-thirds of existing programs appear to be mostly talk with little productive follow-up.

Did You Feel That You Were Equipped To Do Your Job Well

If you want a direct way to better retain the employee who fills this position next, ask this question. It’s one of the best exit interview questions that will help you generate an immediate proactive response. Be prepared for tales of technology woes, inadequate training and more, but also be prepared to gain valuable knowledge of what you can do better next time.

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How To Conduct Exit Interviews

Exit interviews can be conducted in a variety of formats:

• Face-to-face
• Via video chat
• Through email

Before an exit interview, create a template of questions to ask and use it to guide the conversation. Feel free to give a copy to the exiting employee at the beginning of the interview so that they can follow along with you.

Its best to schedule an exit interview with the departing employee and a single HR representative. If the outgoing employees manager or supervisor is there, the staff member who is leaving may not feel comfortable answering certain questions truthfully.

Most often, exit interviews take place on an outgoing employees last day and are optional, meaning if the departing employee doesnt want to participate, they dont have to.

Common Exit Interview Questions

Many employers conduct exit interviews at the end of an employees tenure at their organization to gain context around why an employee is leaving their position. This meeting is an opportunity for you to provide feedback and offer suggestions for the company to help them improve. In this article, we will review some common questions interviewers ask during an exit interview and how you can prepare thoughtful answers.

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Dont Make It Personal

We all have small office issues. Mike stole your stapler and Karen left her gross anchovies in the fridge all week. Marty constantly squeaks his chair and Claudia doesnt wear deodorant. Dont even get me started on Fred. This is neither the time nor the place to take about Fred.

Theses are not the kinds of issues that interest Human Resources. Complaining about personal problems during an exit interview will make you appear petty and unprofessional.

What Led You To Start Looking For A New Job

Learn why an employee began looking for a new role. Sometimes, an industry rival may poach employees from your team. In this case, a worker can receive a job offer, despite the fact that he or she did not apply for a job. When this occurs, find out why the worker ultimately chose to move forward with the role.

Comparatively, there can be instances in which an employee actively pursues jobs elsewhere. In these instances, it helps to know what led this employee to do so. Then, you can discover ways to ensure your employees are consistently satisfied with their work.

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