- Exit interviews are a valuable tool for companies looking to improve their workplaces.
- Human resources departments should ask departing employees for specific feedback about the company and the job they are leaving.
- HR professionals should avoid asking questions that elicit general and vague answers.
- This article is part of “.talent insider” is a series of expert advice to help business owners tackle a variety of hiring challenges.
Exit interviews are an effective tool for companies that want to improve their workplace. Done correctly, it can help companies glean valuable insights and recognize areas for improvement that can potentially reduce turnover.
By combining constructive exit interviews with post-interview analysis and organizational adjustments, organizations can increase employee retention rates and also avoid the financial burden of recruiting, hiring, and training new employees.
We asked four HR leaders and executives about their best and worst exit interview questions and how they use appraisals to improve their companies.
Guidelines for effective exit interviews
A good exit interview should be conducted in a collaborative environment with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the company.
“Exit interviews are perceived as unpleasant, time-consuming, and downright inconvenient,” executive leadership coach Peter James told Business Insider. “But organizations have a huge opportunity to leverage the knowledge and input of departing employees to strengthen their internal culture.”
James said the best exit interviews should focus on “big picture” ideas and help leaders develop policies to reduce turnover and retain employees.
“Questions about culture, career path, and motivation are the most helpful in shaping the organization of the future,” said Burgett White, vice president of human resources for Adecco Group North America.
“Companies should treat exit interviews as an opportunity to gather insights from existing employees in a way that allows them to feel valued and have a positive experience in the offboarding process,” White says. he added.
Conducting exit interviews is not enough. HR leaders need to review and analyze data from departing employees to implement change, James says.
“After the exit interviews, we create a database and analyze the exit interview responses to identify patterns,” he said. “Once patterns are identified, we create cause-and-effect diagrams that benefit the organization's bottom line.”
Top 5 exit interview questions
1. How do you feel about the company culture overall and do you feel like you were part of an inclusive environment?
Employees may leave their jobs not because they don't enjoy their job, but because they don't fit in with the company's culture.
“It's always essential to consider employee suggestions and concerns,” said Desmond Atmore, co-founder of the advertising agency. Six Degrees.
“While it’s important to take the time to conduct exit interviews and surveys to get real answers, not making changes or ignoring feedback can be detrimental to companies receiving this information directly from the source. would be a big mistake, and it would just be a wasted effort, at which point it would become performative.”
2. What advice or suggestions would you give to leaders in shaping the culture of their organizations?
White said this question is used to gain insight into day-to-day interactions between employees that company leaders may not be aware of.
“This question helps you understand company culture and how it is experienced at the microteam level,” she said. “Employees are typically very positive about this question and may consider culture as part of their decision to leave an organization. It helped me understand where the challenges were.”
3. What situations did the senior leader handle well or poorly?
“Our leadership team has processes and systems in place to keep the company on track when change is needed internally,” said Brian Wright, co-founder of Six Degrees. “However, as part of this, it is always essential to consider employee suggestions and concerns.Staff are in charge of the workload on a day-to-day basis and they have a voice within the organization, especially when: If you need to update certain processes or if there are conflicts that affect large companies. ”
4. What part of your job or role did you enjoy most?
Exit interviews can also be an opportunity to find out what the departing employee enjoyed and where the company excels.
“This question provides insight into employee motivation and the factors that lead to high performance and engagement,” White said. “We also provide support on what to continue and/or enhance in the employee experience related to the job.”
5. What aspects of the company/department do you think are working effectively and should be maintained?
“Exit questions don't have to be complex, but ideally they should address what we know, what we think we know, and what we should know,” James said. said. “And as a business leader, I've had the most success with simple questions that reveal things I don't know.”
“In every organization, there are patterns within the culture, both good and bad, that leaders are not 100% aware of,” James added.
5 worst exit interview questions
1. Did you enjoy your experience here?
“This overly broad question is likely to elicit general responses without providing any actionable feedback,” said consulting firm founder Devika Brij. Bridge the Gap Consulting. Instead, ask questions like, “What are the top three things that made your tenure here enjoyable or empowering?”
2. How can I improve?
Blige said this was another vague question. “Be specific about what areas you want feedback on,” he advised Brij. “If you want to know specifically about improving your onboarding process, you can instead ask, 'What suggestions do you have to improve the onboarding process for new employees?'”
3. How was your relationship with your manager?
Atmore said open-ended questions about interpersonal relationships can be tricky, and it's often better to refer to the department rather than a specific person.
“Sometimes people don't feel comfortable speaking up about how they feel, so just mentioning senior management rather than specific names in the question makes it easier for people to speak more broadly.” he said. “If they want to be specific, they can.”
4. Why are you leaving the organization?
“Employees are not being completely direct and honest with this question because there is still concern that exit interview information will be shared with their former boss or future employer,” White said. There is a possibility.” “Questions like this provide less direct and specific feedback to avoid bridges.”
5. Is there anything I can do to make your stay easier?
“Exit interviews are not the time to try to lure a departing employee back,” James said. “By the time an employee gets to their exit interview, they have already submitted their resignation letter or email, have probably had a brief discussion with their manager or HR representative, and are probably thinking about this decision. So creating a negative environment during this conversation will only make things more difficult for everyone involved. ”