Employee Exit Survey – Exit Interview Questions
Contents
There are a variety of different reasons why employees leave organisations, and at times as an employer you may be able to see it is coming. Other times you are caught off guard.
A few simple exit interview questions will help you make sense of what has happened.
An exit interview form when your employee does exit the business is the best possible time for you to gain some key insights into what has actually been going on in the workplace that you may not necessarily know about. This can increase the performance of your business and understand the types of people that are best suited to work in your organisation.
There are times where you cannot have any influence over why your employee has left, but more often than not there are things that the organisation can have an effect on.
Losing an employee is incredibly costly in terms of losing their experience, skills and knowledge, the time it has taken to get them to the level they were at and the relationship they may have built with clients and external providers. There is also the time and cost involved in the recruitment and training of the new employee until they are up to speed and fully inducted and competent in their role.
Typically from an exit interview an employer will gain in insight into why the employee is leaving but also what you could have done within the business to perhaps prevent this from happening if it was a negative situation.
When an employee leaves your organisation, an exit interview is a helpful tool to:
- Identify what your organisation is doing well
- Pinpoint areas where you can improve in your organisation
- Confirm the skill sets, experience, and attributes needed for the job
- Capture useful knowledge and tips, etc. from the exiting employee
- Understand why the employee is leaving
- Part on good terms
Always ensure you explain the purpose of the exit interview and to gain the most honest and detailed information it is best to let the employee fill out the questionnaire as opposed to be asked face to face. Let them know that no matter what they say on the questionnaire it will not prejudice their reference and for them to be as honest and open as possible because it is used for business insight and improvements.
We would typically recommend for this type of an interview to be conducted once the employee has left the business and it can be completed by posting the physical interview, emailing it as an attachment or using an external source if need be. Once your feedback is provided it is useful to look at any trends between exiting employees and analyse feedback from the exit interview questions. From there areas of improvement can be worked on and changes identified.