Employees come and go, it’s just the way of things. Lately, a lot of employees are changing careers in what has been called the “great resignation” of the post-2020-pandemic workforce.

When employees leave, it’s important to touch base with them – sometimes called “outboarding” – to understand why they are leaving and what kind of experience they had working at your company or on your team.

These are important conversations that might not always be positive. Some employees leaving your organization will have eye-opening perspectives or experiences to share about their tenure, and that is precisely why these exit interviews are so important; exit interviews give context around employee turnover.

To get the most out of exit interviews, we’ve compiled a few questions to consider asking exiting employees, plus a few tips on how to make the interview experience itself as comfortable and honest as possible.

Set up a “safe space”

Even if an employee is leaving, they won’t want to share any criticisms or negative experiences in an environment that feels threatening or accusatory. It’s up to you, as the interviewer, to make sure the interview is a genuinely safe place to express what could be negative or damaging experiences.

Listen more than you speak

This is not the time for you to explain or address past situations or conflicts. It’s important you follow the adage of “listen twice as much as you speak”. Frankly, the time for resolving those issues is long gone, now you simply need to listen and acknowledge that they happened and may have been handled improperly in the past.

Take diligent notes

You’d be missing out on the entire point of the exit interview if you didn’t walk away with new information. Make sure you take notes on the employee’s experience and try to keep them as unbiased as possible. It’s important to take note of both negative and positive feedback, so you can address what is not working, while encouraging positive progress.

You’ll want to look back on these notes to find patterns of behavior, so make sure they are detailed without casting blame one way or another. Instead of “Dan feels micromanaged by Steve,” consider rewording as “Dan provided feedback that Steve’s management style may be too hands-on”.

Put the feedback into action

Learning all this information and taking notes on it to visualize patterns is useless if you don’t act on it. Keep exit interview notes organized and on file with other HR materials like write-ups and job descriptions so they are easily referenced when needed.

When do you need to reference them? Whenever you sense a pattern emerging – whether it be high turnover, complaints against a particular employee, or even praise for a manager or coworker.

Now that we have covered how to properly set up and execute an exit interview, let’s go over some questions you could consider asking during the interview itself.

Was there a particular incident or reason that made you decide to leave [the company]?

The answer might be uncomfortable, but you need to know it to grow and improve as a team and organization. This could also bring light to serious issues like sexism, racism, ableism, or other discrimination that were not originally addressed appropriately. You need to direct these through the appropriate channels and rectify the situation immediately.

Did your role match up with your expectations?

Too often we are hired for one position and end up doing three others. If you hired an employee for a specific position and they were soon inundated with duties from across the department, it’s no wonder they decided to leave.

Employees are often okay with accepting one or two projects that fall outside the scope of their particular position, but no one wants to do a job (or two) they weren’t hired for. It just leads to burnout and resentment.

What advice do you have for the company (or manager, CEO, etc.)?

You can learn a lot of actionable information with this one question. It’s direct and it’s useful.

What was the defining factor that led to you accepting the new position?

If you notice a pattern of turnover related to salary and benefits, for example, you’ll know that you are not offering compensation in line with market expectations. If your employees are often leaving because of greater flexibility elsewhere, you may need to revisit certain policies around remote work or flex-hours.

If one person leaves because of salary, it is probably not cause for alarm. But if four employees leave within a few months and all cite the same reason, you need to reevaluate.

Exit interviews are an often-underutilized tool for improving your organization and discovering where there may be weaknesses in your culture, policies, or leadership. Remember to take them seriously, take diligent, unbiased notes, and most importantly, implement changes to issues that are uncovered from the patterns found in the data.

If your human resources department is struggling with any of these steps, you don’t have to battle them alone! We have a team of experienced HR consultants ready to walk you through your HR challenges. Contact us today to learn more.