Exit interviews and exit interview questions have become common since employees are quitting jobs more than ever. Thanks to the rise of remote and hybrid work, as well as the gig economy, employees are leaving their organizations for better opportunities. However, it is detrimental to the organization when employees keep leaving as it is not only expensive but also a loss in terms of the time and effort put into the employee when they leave the company.
As an employer, there are multiple options that you can use to improve the employee retention rate in your organization, and questions in an exit interview are some of the best ones. Hence, we will be helping you understand the relevance of exit interviews, while also sharing some of the best practices for conducting it and 20 effective questions to ask in an exit interview.
What is an Exit Interview?
An exit interview is an interview undertaken with an employee leaving the organization. It is used to understand the employee’s reason for leaving the company, and their experience within the organization, as well as gathering feedback about the company.
Hence, the best exit interview questions are open-ended and help the leaving employee share their genuine feedback about their company. Exit interviews can be conducted either face-to-face or virtually, either using oral or written surveys using your employee onboarding software.
Based on the feedback received from the leaving employees, organizations can improve their employee experience and work culture to improve their retention rate. It also helps them understand which practices are working, and optimize them to cement their brand reputation as an employer.
20 Best Exit Interview Questions
The best exit interview questions for an organization help them understand the reasons employees are leaving the company and provide insights into developing strategies for retaining them in future. If you require exact answers, you should ask your employees relevant questions about their decision to leave the company.
Hence, we are sharing some of the best exit interview questions categorized into their focal area:
About Company Culture
It’s important to have a healthy work culture. Employees want to avoid toxicity and office politics as it can be very discouraging and bring down performance. Hence, the management needs to keep a check on the work environment. It is also crucial to ask the leaving employee about the company culture to understand the current scenario.
Hence, here are a few exit interview questions to ask employees:
1. Do you think the work culture at our company is supportive?
2. Did you feel valued as a part of the organization?
3. Can our company culture be improved? If yes, please share any suggestions that you have.
4. Did you like working here provided your job responsibilities?
5. Were you happy with your job location?
About the Manager
The direct supervisor or the manager has a significant impact on an employee’s experience with their organization. How supportive or overbearing the managers are can have a direct impact, not only on productivity but also on decisions regarding employees’ tenure with the company. It is observed that a single bad manager can bring the employee turnover rate to an astonishingly high rate. Hence, getting information on such disasters beforehand can be a blessing for the company.
Hence, here are a few sample questions to understand different aspects of your management:
6. Do you feel your productivity would have been different with a different manager?
7. Did you ever feel your manager micromanaging you?
8. As your company, what would we have done to help you be better at your job?
9. Did you feel you do not have autonomy at work?
About Coming Back
Losing good employees is not a pleasant experience for any organization. Hence, you can use your exit interview to check if an employee is willing to come back in future in case you eventually develop the opportunities that they are looking for.
Here are some questions to find out the same:
10. Would you consider joining our company again in the future?
11. What could we have done to make your stay with the company?
About Suggestions
Open-ended exit interview questions are as important as focused questions as they can give you crucial information regarding the employee’s aspirations with your organization. Hence, provide your leaving employees the opportunity to freely share something they think you should know about.
Some of the questions that you can ask for getting constructive feedback are:
12. Do you have any suggestions for our company for improvement in the future?
13. What would you change about the company if you were given a chance?
About Employee Experience
Since employee experience includes all types of interactions that employee has with the company, it is crucial for both employees and the organization. Right from the first day of their employment with their organization, your employees would experience your work culture and environment, making it an essential part of their employment experience in your organization.
Hence, here are some sample interview questions to find out about the employee experience:
14. How would you describe your work experience in our organization?
15. Do you feel accepted as a part of our company?
16. Would you describe the job experience?
17. What activities can we do for a better employee experience at the company?
About Challenges
Employees also face multiple challenges in their day-to-day work responsibilities. However, if these issues keep on repeating or piling up, it can result in frustration. Exit interview questions can help you identify these challenges which burden your employees regularly.
Hence, we are sharing some questions which will help you uncover these challenges:
18. What challenges did you face while working here?
19. Would you describe that challenge further?
20. What would you suggest is the right way to handle the challenges you faced here?
What is the Relevance of Exit Interview?
The relevance of the exit interview lies in the fact that it helps the company understand the leaving employee’s impression of their organization. It offers the management deep insights into their employee experience and job satisfaction, which enables them to take corrective measures to improve them.
The following are the major reasons that make employee exit interviews relevant for organizations:
➔ Gather Feedback
The questions in an exit interview enable the organization to gather insights into the following aspects of the employee experience:
- Job satisfaction
- Working conditions
- Work relationships
- Work policies
- Company culture
- Growth opportunities
- Upskilling options
While these experiences can be either positive or negative for the employee, the organization can understand their perspective through the exit interviews and make necessary changes.
➔ Identify Issues
Similarly, since the employees are bound to be more candid in their exit interviews, you can uncover underlying issues in the employee experience within your organization through these interviews. Upon conducting multiple exit interviews, companies can also identify any inherent issues with their employee experience and life-cycle within their organization, which could have remained unnoticed in the absence of such interviews.
➔ Reduce Employee Turnover
Companies try to prevent employee attrition since it results in huge losses in time, effort, and money when an employee leaves the organization. Hence, exit interviews prove useful in this scenario, as they uncover hidden issues in the employee experience. As a result, exit interviews enable them to take corrective measures to avoid employee experience issues and increase their employee retention rate.
➔ Improve Organizational Culture
Once you start acting on the feedback received during exit interviews, you will be able to observe a change in your organization. Since you are acting on improving the employee experience, you will experience restored faith in your company culture, which will be exemplified by a more productive and engaged workforce.
➔ Enhance Recruitment
Finally, exit interviews help you understand the shortcomings in your hiring process, as some employees would be leaving since they never felt that your organization was the right one where they could see themselves working for longer. Hence, these interviews help you identify whether there is a difference between the expectations set during the interview and their actual daily responsibilities, and the changes can be incorporated into the recruitment software.
What are good kinds of Exit Interview Questions?
Now that we have understood the relevance of exit interview questions, let us identify the best kinds of interview questions. Since exit interviews are conducted near the end of the employee life cycle with the organization, they can be used to gather all suggestions they have for the company, as well as understand what is working and what needs to be changed.
Hence, here are some of the good kinds of questions to ask your employees during the exit interview:
1. Precise
Since it is the last time you will be able to gather their insights and feedback, it is essential to ensure that the questions are precise and to the point. These queries are extremely specific to the employee and their experience with the organization, and hence, you will have precise answers which will help you uncover issues with the employee experience in your organization.
2. Relevant
Similarly, the queries should be relevant to the employee leaving. Hence, a fixed template of queries would not be the ideal solution when conducting exit interviews. Various factors influence the employee experience in a company and the questions should reflect the same. Hence, the exit interview questions should be relevant for the leaving employee.
3. Open-ended
The exit interview questions should also be open-ended in nature to ensure that your employees provide an accurate description of their issues, as well as provide feedback. Such questions encourage the employees to provide detailed answers along with specific examples illustrating their point, which will help the management to target specific issues and prioritize resolving the ones which are reported by multiple employees.
4. Non-judgmental
The exit interview questions should also be non-judgmental since the employee will be discouraged from providing candid answers if they feel they are being judged for their answers. Hence, it will beat the purpose of the exit interview, resulting in the loss of time and effort. By keeping the queries non-judgmental, you can encourage the staff member to provide in-depth answers while ensuring privacy and making them feel comfortable.
Best Practices for Smooth Exit Interviews
To increase the usefulness of the exit interviews, you should follow the practices which we are sharing below. These best practices help your employees feel comfortable stating their minds, which is what you want from this interview. By following these practices, you will be able to provide them with a safe space, where they can speak their mind without worrying about the consequences, increasing their chances of being transparent with you.
Hence, some of the best practices for effective exit interviews are:
➔ Explain the Reason
You should let your employee know the importance of the exit interview to the company. It will help them appreciate the efforts that you are putting towards gathering constructive feedback and enriching the work culture. They will be more receptive towards the interview too once they understand the reason for conducting the exit interview.
➔ Schedule Correctly
Timing is extremely important if you are planning to make the exit interview effective. Once an employee has put down their papers, it is not a good idea to sit with them for their exit interview. You should wait for at least a week before enquiring with them for an exit interview, which will help them prepare themselves for answering your questions candidly.
➔ Choose the Ideal Person
It is observed that individuals often quit a job due to bad management and leadership. Hence, it would be problematic if the same manager or supervisor is asked to conduct their exit interview. It would be better if an HR personnel conducts the interview since the employee would be more receptive towards them and provide genuine answers to the questions put forward.
➔ Listen Actively
Similarly, it is also essential to listen carefully to what your employees have to say. You should avoid jumping to conclusions; instead, you need to listen actively and understand the factors that lead to the employee deciding to quit your organization. You can even ask follow-up queries if you listen actively, which will also help the employee understand that you are genuinely interested in making the necessary changes.
➔ Ask Relevant Questions
In an exit interview, asking the right questions will ultimately help you pinpoint the exact reason for the employee leaving your organization. By asking the right questions, you can uncover further insights into your employee experience and where it is lacking. It will help you make further changes to your work culture to improve your employee retention and engagement rates.
Conclusion
Exit interviews are extremely crucial for companies looking to improve their work culture and the employee experience. Hence, we have explained what it is, and what is its relevance, as well as explained what are some of the good kinds of exit interview questions. We have also shared some of the best practices for smooth interview questions. Finally, we have shared 20 of the most effective exit interview questions that will provide you with in-depth insights into your employee experience. Using these strategies effectively will help you gather a robust idea of the current status of your work culture, which will help you develop strategies to improve what’s working and change what is not.
