If you want to retain top talent, you need to implement exit interviews. In an exit interview, you can collect valuable data about why workers are leaving your company. Then, you can use this information to improve your company’s retention rates, productivity, and employee morale. By finding the right questions to ask during exit interviews, you can support your company’s long-term growth and productivity.
What Is an Exit Interview?
An exit interview is a candid conversation between your small business and someone who is about to leave your business. Typically, this conversation occurs with someone in your HR department. During this discussion, the HR staff member will have a standardized list of questions to ask. Later, they can compile answers and look for commonalities from different exit interviews.
Why Are Exit Interviews Important?
Recently, Mary Simmons, Asure’s vice president of HR compliance, spoke in the Mission to Grow episode on “HR Roadmap for Growth Series – Getting Serious About Compliance” (WATCH PODCAST) about the importance of collecting and using data at organizations for major HR functions. ”We utilize a tool so that we can collate that data, go back to the employer, and say, ‘Look, everybody’s leaving because they don’t like XYZ manager. We need to do management training or executive coaching with that manager.’”
Employees may leave because they want a higher salary, dislike the company culture, or struggle to work with a particular manager. Exit interviews allow you to spot patterns in why employees leave. By asking consistent exit interview questions, you can get high-quality data about your employee turnover and improve your organization.
The Best Questions To Ask During Exit Interviews
With the best exit interview questions, you can gain a better understanding of why employees are leaving your small business. When you reach 50 to 100 employees, you can’t work one-on-one with each employee all the time. Because of this, you need solid HR procedures in place.
Additionally, it’s important to make sure you ask each exiting employee the same questions. For your exit data to be useful, it must be consistent. Asking the same questions allows you to make an apples-to-apples comparison and easily track your company’s progress over time.
1. What Was Your Main Reason for Leaving Our Company?
This is one of the most important exit interview questions that you can ask. If you notice that many workers are leaving for similar reasons, it’s time to make changes in your organization.
2. Do You Think Your Job Duties Reflect Your Day-to-Day Responsibilities?
Sometimes, workers leave because the job description they applied for doesn’t line up with what they actually do each day, it can drive them away. If this is the case, you need to update your job descriptions to make sure you’re attracting the right candidates.
3. Are There Any Circumstances Where You Would Consider Returning to the Organization?
In a tight job market, boomerang employees are an effective hiring option. They already understand your organization and require minimal training. More importantly, you already know exactly the quality of employee you will get with a returning worker.
4. What Was the Best Part of Your Job Here?
This question sets a good atmosphere for the entire conversation. It can also give you insights into your organization’s strengths.
5. Do You Feel Like Your Contributions Were Recognized by Management?
Only one out of three employees in the United States reports that they were praised or recognized for doing a good job in the last week. This is unfortunate because workers who don’t feel recognized have double the chances of saying they will quit during the next year. By asking this question, you can learn if your managers need more training on how to show their appreciation to workers.
6. What Caused You To Search for a New Job Opportunity?
Each person has a different experience, so their reasons for leaving your company will likely vary. However, this question will help you spot commonalities. For example, workers may be leaving for better health insurance or higher salaries.
7. How Has Your Role Changed Since You Were Hired?
Based on this answer, you may need to adjust the job description so that you are accurately describing the individual’s job title. If the role has taken on many new responsibilities over time, you may also need to adjust the position’s salary.
8. Did You Get Along With Your Direct Manager and Peers?
When you ask why someone leaves, they may give you a basic response. However, specific questions can help you drill down on contributing factors.
9. Did Your Manager Provide Frequent, Constructive Feedback?
This exit interview question is a great way to spot gaps in management training. If employees aren’t receiving consistent feedback, your small business may need to revamp how it trains its managers.
10. Were There Any Company Policies You Struggled To Understand?
While this question might not directly reduce your turnover rates, it will give you important feedback about your existing policies.
11. Did You Feel Comfortable Communicating With Your Co-Workers and Manager?
During the exit interview, you can learn about what your organization’s communication and support is like. Then, you can take steps to deal with a toxic communication culture so that future employees have a better experience.
12. Did You Feel Like You Had a Good Work-Life Balance?
Again, this is another question that helps you understand how workers feel about your company’s culture and their day-to-day experience at work. You may want to ask follow-up questions about your remote-friendly policies, overtime hours, or schedule flexibility.
13. Do You Have Any Recommendations for Changes We Can Make To Improve Employee Morale?
Open-ended questions like this one are a good way to get an employee’s honest feedback about how to improve. While some people won’t speak badly about a current or former employer, they may feel more comfortable offering suggestions for future programs or policies.
14. Did You Feel Like You Had the Tools, Training, and Resources You Needed To Be Successful in Your Role?
Sometimes, workers leave because they don’t receive adequate support in their position. For example, trying to meet production deadlines with constantly broken machines can be incredibly stressful and demoralizing. It may even cause incentive bonuses and other rewards to backfire. Because workers know they will never reach the goal with the tools and resources they are given, they’ll only become increasingly demoralized.
15. Would You Recommend This Company to a Friend?
An exit interview is a chance to create a positive last impression with the employee. Hopefully, the worker would be happy to recommend your company to a friend. If not, ask them to explain why not in more detail.
16. Did You Share Any of Your Concerns With the Company Before Quitting?
If the employee shared their concerns before quitting, you should follow up to see what actions were taken. Managers should be acting on the concerns and complaints they receive. If employees are encountering problems and not receiving any support, it can cause them to look for a job somewhere else.
17. What Was the Company Culture Like for You? Did It Align With Your Values?
This question helps you understand if your company’s mission and values are actually coming to life in your day-to-day operations. If your ideal culture and actual culture aren’t in alignment, it’s time to make changes.
18. Did You Feel Like There Was Room for Growth at the Company?
Top performers want to have new challenges and goals. If there aren’t enough opportunities in your organization, they will go elsewhere to achieve their career ambitions.
19. Were You Given Clear Performance Expectations?
When workers don’t have clear performance expectations, it can be demoralizing and lead to weak performance. Employees need clear performance expectations and adequate tools in order to carry out their job duties.
20. Do You Have Any Concerns You Would Like To Add?
While a closed-ended question is ideal for data collection, you should also include a few open-ended questions as well. At the end of the exit interview, ask the worker if they have any other concerns or feedback they would like to provide. This is a good opportunity to get feedback about topics that weren’t directly discussed but are relevant to your company.
Tips for Effective Exit Interviews
Exit interviews can be a powerful tool for your organization, but you need to get the employee’s buy-in. Often, workers are suspicious about how effective another HR process will be. By explaining why the interview is necessary, listening carefully, and getting the right person to handle the interview, you can increase the quality of the answers and the interview’s overall effectiveness.