About Saying No To Exit Interview
As I mentioned earlier, you can decline. Personally, Id go through with it and do my best to keep my answers short and positive. Leaves a better taste in their mouths, I would think. And, you can always steer it toward your future, which is what you are focused on anyway.
But, if you were fired, or there are a lot of hard feelings, maybe a polite no is the wisest choice. So much can come out that you might not intend. Especially when still raw emotions are tweaked. And especially if the person wants to pump you for more juicy details.
Here Are Some Important Questions To Ask:
1. Why are you leaving?
2. What is the company doing right? Moderately right? Poorly? Very Poorly?
3. How could conditions be improved?
4. What would you do to improve the situation that is causing you to leave?
5. How do other employees feel about the situation? The company in general?
6. What isnt the company currently doing, that if it started to do, would improve things?
7. Please describe your general feelings about working here. If possible, please tell us why you are leaving.
8. What were three things you enjoyed most about working here?
9. If you could change three things, what would they be?
10. Are there ideas that you have that you wish you could have implemented while you were here?
11. Please describe the three best things about working with your supervisor.
12. What would you change about our new employee orientation program? In other words, are there things that you wish you had known before or during the beginning part of your employment with our company?
13. Who are the three people who have made the most positive impact on you and your career here at the company?
14. What advice do you have for the next person in your position?
Ask Questions And Pay Close Attention In An Exit Interview
You will want to listen carefully to what you are told in an exit interview and make sure that you ask a lot of questions. This will help ensure that you are hearing what the employee is saying and what he or she is not saying, which are both important. It is easy to make a leap of faith and assume that you understand what the employee is describing, but the employee’s words may not accurately convey the employee’s true feelings.
During an exit interview, being attuned to the employee’s subtle differences in meaning is crucial to the usefulness of the information you receive. It’s also best to write down what the employee says because you don’t want to trust your memory. When you write down the responses that your exiting employee provides, the person receives the message that you care about the information that he or she is providing. This, in turn, may allow you to collect more information and feedback than you otherwise may have received.
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Exit Interview Question Samples
When conducting an exit interview, its important to keep the exit survey limited to a set number of questions to ensure that your former employees complete them.
This is a great opportunity to not just learn about whats causing employees to leave, but to also cultivate some ideas for how former employees think the company can be improved.
Below youll find an example of exit interview questions that you can use today.
- What prompted you to seek other employment?
- Prior to making your decision to leave, did you look into options that would make it possible for you to stay here?
- How would you describe management at our company? Do you feel they adequately recognize employee contributions?
- Were there any company policies you found difficult to understand?
- Did you feel like your job description or responsibilities have changed since your initial hire? If so, in which ways? Were they welcome or unwelcome changes?
- Were you given the tools, resources and work environment to be successful here? If not, what could have been improved to make it better?
- What was your favorite part of working here?
- What do you think our company could improve on?
- Do you think making any specific workplace changes would improve employee morale?
- Are there any concerns or issues around working at this company youd like to share?
- Is there anything else youd like to add?
Did You Receive Feedback To Help You Improve
No one wants to feel like theyre stuck in a rut, especially at work. So if an employee feels stagnant, its vital that you know about it sooner rather than later.
When youve identified a floundering employee, the best way to inspire them to greatness again is by providing constructive feedback to help them improve. Maybe they need to focus on a different aspect of the job or go back to basics to perfect their skills.
Whatever the solution, managers should be ready and willing to provide guidance to help employees get better at their jobs. If an outgoing employee didnt receive that guidance, you have some changes to make.
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Gives Room To Tackle Emergency Issues Immediately
Sometimes, there might be severe issues among your team members that need immediate attention. Note that you cannot simply ignore such matters. If you do, you are likely to lose your employees, thus affecting the normal operations within the business environment.
There may be critical issues going on that you are missing. Things like harassment and unsafe working environments can often be ignored or overlooked, and exit interviews can bring those to light, giving you a chance to react.
It is vital to be highly keen on tackling matters within the company. Data analysis of exit survey results is most likely to reveal issues that require immediate attention to safeguard your brands reputation. Employees might be leaving due to an emergency within the work environment.
This means that the other team members who remain wont stay for long due to the same problem. You need to attend to the issue immediately to secure your team members and make them feel valued.
Did You Have Someone In The Company To Talk To Before You Leave
You can use this question to examine your company culture and see if your employees can feel safe enough to talk to someone else in the company. If theyre afraid to raise their voices, there might be something going on that you dont know.
And if they talk, chances are other employees have similar concerns. To avoid other people leaving, youll need to adjust your retention strategies.
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A Guide To Giving Feedback Without Burning Bridges
An exit interview probably isnât the first thing on your mind when you decide to quit your job â nor should it be â 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 doesnât 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, weâll 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.
The Benefits Of Conducting Exit Interviews
Its worth putting the effort in to develop your processthere are some impressive rewards that come from asking the right questions. Such as:
- Cost effectiveness: You can receive direct feedback from staff about issues in your business. Normally youd have to hold assessments or perform a business audit, which can cost a lot of time and money. Exit interviews are a quick and easy way to find issues in your infrastructure.
- Understanding employee turnover: Gain insights into the mood of your workforce, which can ultimately affect your business staff retention rates. In time, that can ensure you save on having to recruit more employees.
- Increase retention rates: Again, your leaving interview will help to identify ways in which your business can improve working life for staff. For example, making improvements to your work-life balance. Every improvement you make can increase staff happiness and encourage them to stay with you.
- Idea resource: From the information you gain from departing employees, you can get an understanding into initiatives and opportunities to provide across your business.
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Reasons Why Exit Interviews Are Important
Weve compiled a list of 10 reasons highlighting the importance of exit interviews to help your organization get the data and insights needed to create a more positive work environment and to protect your organization from risk.
No matter the size of your company, exit interviews provide an opportunity for an employee to discuss the workplace environment, concerns about misconduct, or issues within management.
Learn how employees feel about how management teams handle issues in the workplace and what bearing that has on whether they stay or leave the organization.
An Overview Of Exit Interviews
Most HR experts agree that employees who quit usually have the same motivational reasons: a new career, an unexpected job offer, or an unresolved grievance. Other reasons include poor pay, benefits, job fit, flexibility, and job security. There is also a common HR saying: employees dont quit their jobs, they quit their supervisors. Research by the Society of Human Resource Management shows that it usually costs over $4,100 to replace an employee. These costs include job ads, interviews, screening, and training. The costs for replacing an administrator or mid-career employee are two to three times higher.
Companies that experience high turnover rates without ever investigating or resolving issues will suffer financial losses, interrupted operations, and poor staff morale. So, when an employee suddenly resigns for voluntary reasons, its a surprise that needs to be scrutinized. If there is a legitimate reason, such as moving or having a baby, the exit interview offers healthy closure that is respectful and meaningful. This is a chance to praise and thank employees, which is very useful for providing positive word-of-mouth marketing.
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What Are Some Ways You Feel The Company Can Improve
When an employer asks this question, they want your honest opinion and are looking for suggestions. Stay positive, but share your ideas about how they can improve productivity, job satisfaction, and other key elements of their operations or your role. Your suggestions may range from compensation and worker benefits, a leader’s management style, or the resources you had access to.
Providing constructive criticism helps your former employer understand what’s important to their employees and develop ways to improve workplace morale. Your answer to this question can benefit your former colleagues and the person replacing you in your role.
Example: In my eight years working here, I can honestly say I’ve had a pleasant experience. However, I think the company should consider extending parental leave to allow new parents more time to be with their children. I also think the company culture could benefit from hosting more team-building activities. Diversity and inclusion initiatives would go a long way to making everyone feel welcome and valued.
Exit Interview From Employer Side
As far as employers go, the real reasons for conducting these interviews may cross over into looking for dirt territory. Although for the most part it could simply be gathering information that goes into files and never gets looked at again. Or does get looked at, and maybe even provides some helpful insights but maybe not.
Or, it might be that someone long ago, when creating the Employee Handbook and related policies, decided to include exit interviews. And so they conduct them. With different people using them in different ways, depending on whos in charge at the time.
But some employers do dig for that dirt. And then they wind up using your words to justify certain decisions. So again, my suggestion would be to tread lightly.
You might think that its a good time to stick it to someone who treated you badly. But office politics are weird. And info in official files can be leaked and shared in a way that hurts other people. And down the road, might come back to bite you.
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Encourage The Employee To Stay
In some cases, a company might use the exit interview to offer you a new position or new responsibilities under different circumstances. This doesnât happen often, but it is a possibility. As an employee, you should consider this before your exit interview. Are you willing to stay? If so, under what circumstances?
S For Conducting Exit Interviews
There are various methods of conducting exit interviews, each with their benefits and disadvantages.
- Face to Face interviews
Historically, this has been the primary method for conducting Exit Interviews , although this is changing rapidly. These face to face meetings are usually conducted internally by a human resources professional or manager, or in rare cases, by an external consultant.
Benefits: The main benefit of this method is that completion rates tend to be high, as long as the interview is conducted by a relevant and suitably skilled professional . In addition, departing employees have a personal experience which may cause them to speak more positively about the company after they leave. Also, if Interviewers are well trained, the content can be well structured and checked in real time to ensure accuracy of data, especially concerning reasons for leaving. This method also allows high quality data to be collected from people whose literacy skills are not good.
Telephone interviews
Exit Interviews conducted by telephone are becoming more common and are the most effective method of Exit Interviews.
Disadvantages: This method is that it is more expensive than online and paper surveys. Some Human Resources professionals enjoy conducting the interviews, so outsourcing the interviews removes this task.
- Paper surveys
- Online surveys
As at 2010, 38% of organisations used this method for Exit Interviews.
- Interactive voice response surveys
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Do You Think The Company Supported Your Career Goals
When answering this question, let your employer know how they supported you in your career path. Support might include providing training or education. Provide feedback on how or why you felt supported and when you did not.
Example:âWhen I came to work here, I was excited about the opportunities to continue to advance my position or increase my knowledge and experience. While the company has given me opportunities to learn skills I have aimed for in my career, I believe that I have gathered sufficient knowledge working with this firm. It is the right time for me to expand my skills at another company.â
It’s Your Chance To Make Things Better For Your Colleagues
According to King, you should approach an exit interview especially if you had a negative experience at the company from the perspective of: “I’m leaving, I found another opportunity, but here’s what could be changed for the betterment of others.”
Hearing this made me feel good about how I handled one of my more recent exit interviews: I compiled a list of all the topics I wanted to discuss with both my manager and HR, then ran it by some colleagues to ask if there was anything else they wanted me to bring up, given that I could do so without repercussions.
Like many people, I’ve made some of my closest friends and valued colleagues through my jobs. So when you leave a position, it’s nice to do whatever you can to improve the work environment for them.
Elizabeth Yuko is a bioethicist and writer, as well as an adjunct professor of ethics at Fordham University. She has written for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone and Salon.
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Why Is Conducting Exit Interviews And Surveys Important
The hiring process is expensive and can take a long time. If at the end of it you employ people who stay with your company only briefly:
- You waste time and money on recruitment
- Every time someone leaves, a bit of company knowledge or process goes with them
- Leavers may also be detractors, affecting your company reputation
By providing departing employees with the opportunity to give honest feedback, you can gather valuable insights to improve the employee experience for both current and future employees.
Typically, only about a third of employees leaving an organization complete an exit interview. Given the potential richness of exit information, all employers would benefit from encouraging every leaver to respond to exit surveys.
An exit survey is a means to an end. The goal is not to prevent the employee from leaving. Instead, it is to learn and use it to gain insights to help retain talent, prevent bad hires, improve management practices, and ultimately drive better organizational performance.
It really does pay dividends in the long run to invest time, energy, and care into finding out why people are leaving, in order to minimize future attrition.
