The Best Exit Interview Questions To Ask Departing Employees

Although it can be hard to depart with an employee, taking the time to ask them exit interview questions can provide insight into why they are leaving and may help you make changes that will reduce future employee turnover and ultimately create a more positive and productive working environment.

What Are The Benefits of Asking Exit Interview Questions?

Staff members who are leaving often feel as though they can speak honestly about their experiences. With an exit interview, you can gain valuable insights through unfiltered information about the experiences this employee had in his or her position.

You might realize you need to update the job description for the position that was held, change the working environment or workplace culture, or make some changes regarding management.

What Are Some Best Practices When Asking Departing Employees Exit Interview Questions?

Before conducting your exit interview, you need to determine how you want to ask your exit interview questions. You could build a survey, have a paper form, or conduct a face-to-face interview. A face-to-face interview will give you the most honest answers because they are thought up on the spot, whereas a survey will give more thoughtful answers.

Make sure the employee knows that they are not required to answer all of the questions, and don’t ask questions about specific incidents, issues, or people. Focus on gaining helpful, constructive feedback that will help improve the company.

What made you start looking for a different opportunity?

Asking this can tell you what benefits you should be offering to retain your employees, or it can highlight a recurring issue that needs to be addressed.

What did you like best and least about your job?

This can shed some light on the highlights of the job to focus on when looking for a replacement, and what potentially negative aspects of the job a replacement candidate should be comfortable with.

Would you recommend our company to a friend? Why or why not?

Ideally you want every employee to leave on great terms, but occasionally this will not be the case. This question is very important in determining what needs to be improved, quickly.

Did you voice any of your issues or concerns to anyone here before leaving?

Employees should feel comfortable sharing their concerns with superiors and coworkers. If they did not, you will need to work on creating an environment where employees are encouraged to discuss their issues without feeling uncomfortable.

Do you feel that you were equipped with adequate training, resources, and equipment to do your job well?

This question will let you know how you can better prepare employees to do their job. A more in-depth training program or updated technology might improve employee retention.

It can be hard to have an employee leave your company, but when you are armed with exit interview questions, you can work to improve employee retention and the work environment so that employees want to continue working at your company.