Conducting an Exit Interview
Employee exit interviews provide a useful opportunity for employers to gather
information on employee perspectives, reasons for their leaving the company and the
benefits of working at the company as well as areas that the departing employee feels
could be improved. This valuable information can reinforce positive practices, identify
issues that could affect recruitment and retention success, as well as provide insight into
pay practices in the market.
Upon receiving notice of an employee leaving the company, an exit interview should be
arranged as soon as possible. Set aside an appropriate amount of time in your schedule
to meet with the employee – you do not want the meeting to be rushed or interrupted.
Ensure that you have a private area available to meet in where conversations will not be
overheard by other employees (ex. meeting room, office, etc) – privacy and
confidentiality are extremely important.
It is important to remain professional, calm and unemotional during this meeting. Do
not raise your voice, yell or swear at the employee. While you may be unhappy that
they are leaving, this is not a personal issue between you and the employee; they
have simply made a professional decision to pursue employment with another
organization. Even if the employee gets excited, you need to remain calm.
The exit interview will have three broad sections:
1. Introduction and basics – reasons for joining and leaving the Company
2. Specifics – the position, the supervisor/manager, co-workers, work
environment, compensation and benefits, the department, etc.
3. Conclusion
Introduction
When the employee arrives to their exit interview, make them feel as comfortable as
possible – shake their hand, smile, thank them for meeting with you, have them sit
down, etc. You want them to feel comfortable so that they will offer as much
information as possible without fear of reprisal.
Introduce the reasons for this meeting by stating:
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“Employee Name, the reason I wanted to speak with you today is to get some
information on the reasons behind your decision to leave the company. You
have been a great employee and we appreciate your time with the company.
Of course, one of our goals is to retain our valuable employees, so by speaking
to you today, I hope to get an idea of what things about working here you liked
and any areas that could use improvement. If you don’t mind, I’ll be jotting
down some information throughout the interview. Keep in mind that all
information that you give will be strictly confidential, so please be candid and
specific with your responses. So let’s start off by understanding what attracted
you to this position.
o Why did you apply here?
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What are the main factors that attract employees to apply to
<Company Name>?
Do you think employees in different departments are attracted to the
Company for different reasons, for example, pay, opportunity, etc.?
Was the job what you expected it to be?
What advice would you give to the employee taking on your role?
What did you like most about working for <Company Name>?
What did you least like about working for <Company Name>?
How long have you been considering leaving the Company?
Do you have another job?
If yes:
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What kinds of things were you looking for or what attracted you to
your new job?
What Company is your new position with? Job Title? Pay?
Can you tell me a little about what you will be doing in your new
position?
Is there anything we could have done that would have kept you
here?
What do you suggest we do/improve for the future to help retain
employees?
The Specifics
This section of the exit interview allows the employee to comment on specific attributes
of the job. This area could be tailored to different positions to focus on the most
important areas of that specific job. For example, engineers could be asked more
questions around degrees of technical difficulty and equipment while administration
staff could be asked more questions on the office environment. However, all
employees should be asked to comment on:
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Management
Motivation
Position requirements
Difficulty of the position
Compensation and benefits
Work environment/morale
Co-workers
Sample Questions:
o How would you describe the level of support you received from your
manager and co-workers?
o Did you receive enough feedback on your job performance?
o Did you feel appreciated?
o How do you think we could improve on the way we treat our
employees?
o What sort of occasion were you given to discuss career development
opportunities?
o What is your view of the training opportunities that we provide?
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How fair was your workload?
What are your views on your compensation and benefits? <i.e. your
base salary, bonuses, insurance, benefits, reimbursement, holiday
and sick pay>
How could we do better in the area of compensation and benefits?
How did you feel about the working conditions here? <i.e. your office
accommodation, equipment, computer systems, parking, location,
health and safety, security, sports and social facilities, cafeteria, lunch
and break rooms, washrooms, etc.>
Do you have suggestions for improvement of working conditions?
How would you describe the morale of employees in this
organization?
How do you think we could improve employee morale?
Would you consider working for us again in the future?
Did your co-workers have any impact on you joining or leaving our
Company?
Did you enjoy working with your co-workers?
Did you disagree with the way any issues were handled with you or
your co-workers?
Would you recommend this organization to other people, as a place to
work?
The Conclusion
In this last section, any additional questions or comments should be included. You want
to finish the interview on a good note so that the employee is left with a positive and
professional impression of the Company.
Use the following guidelines to conclude the interview:
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Ask the employee if they have any additional comments or questions.
End by thanking them for their valuable input. Re-state that this information
will remain confidential, but will be used to help the Company improve.
Shake their hand and thank them again for their service with you.
Wish the employee good luck with their future endeavours.
It is important to remember that the last thing that a departing employee will remember
about the company is how they were treated on their way out. It is critical to maintain a
high level of professionalism, regardless of how upset you are that the employee is
leaving. Regardless of their decision to leave, they may still have very positive things to
say to others about working there, which won’t be said if all they remember is how poorly
they were treated on their way out.