Exit interviews are one of the best ways to learn why employees leave and how you can make your workplace better. When done correctly, exit interviews provide valuable insights that help improve team dynamics, reduce turnover, and build a stronger work environment.

But without a structured approach, it’s easy to miss out on the most useful feedback. That’s why we’ve created this blog post to walk you through the essential questions you should ask in every exit interview and offer you a free downloadable exit interview template to make the process easier.

Prefer to survey your departing employees? Check out our exit survey template to learn what questions to ask, and how.

As a manager, it’s important to take a proactive approach to learning from employees who are leaving. When you know the right questions to ask, you can gather the information you need to address potential issues, boost employee retention, and improve your team’s overall performance.

And here’s the bonus: feedback from exit interviews can give you critical insights into your team’s behaviors and norms, helping you refine how your team works together. With the help of tools like TeamDynamics, you can use this feedback to evolve your team’s ways of working, leading to better collaboration and more successful outcomes.

Why Conduct an Exit Interview?

Exit interviews are more than just a formality. They offer a unique opportunity to gather honest feedback from departing employees. Since these individuals are leaving, they’re often more open to sharing their true thoughts about the company, their role, and the team. This insight is incredibly valuable for improving your work environment and preventing future turnover.

Here are some key reasons why you should prioritize exit interviews:

1.  Understanding Why Employees Leave:

Getting a clear picture of why people leave helps you identify patterns, whether it’s issues with management, company culture, workload, or personal reasons. This allows you to address those issues before they lead to more turnover.

2. Improving Employee Retention:

By learning about the challenges faced by departing employees, you can make targeted changes that will benefit your current team. This could mean adjusting workloads, providing more resources, or addressing team dynamics to create a more positive work environment.

3. Spotting Areas for Growth:

Departing employees often have great insights into areas where the company can improve. Whether it’s operational processes, communication, or leadership, their feedback can help guide necessary changes.

4. Gaining Insights on Team Dynamics:

Exit interviews can reveal underlying issues within a team. For example, if several employees mention poor communication, it may be time to reassess how your team works together. Feedback about team dynamics can also help you fine-tune your team norms.

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5. Building a Stronger Team Culture:

When you take action based on feedback from exit interviews, it shows your team that you care about their experience. This builds trust and improves overall morale, leading to a healthier work environment.

Remember, the goal is not just to understand why someone is leaving but to use that information to make your company better for those who stay.

Who Should Conduct an Exit Interview?

Choosing the right person to conduct an exit interview is crucial to ensuring you get honest, insightful feedback. The interviewer’s role is to create a comfortable, neutral environment where the employee feels safe sharing their thoughts. Here’s a breakdown of who should (and shouldn’t) conduct the exit interview:

1. Human Resources (HR)

In most cases, an HR representative is the best person to conduct the exit interview. HR professionals are trained to handle sensitive conversations and can approach the interview with a neutral perspective. Since they are not directly involved in the employee’s day-to-day work, employees are often more open with HR, as they feel their feedback will be handled objectively and confidentially.

2. A Neutral Third Party

If your company doesn’t have a dedicated HR team or if you want to ensure complete neutrality, consider having an outside consultant or a third-party service conduct the exit interview. This method works well for gathering unbiased feedback, especially in cases where the employee may have concerns about company leadership or management practices. It can also make the employee feel more comfortable, knowing their feedback isn’t going directly to their former bosses.

3. Direct Supervisor or Manager (Not Recommended)

While it might seem logical for an employee’s direct supervisor to conduct the exit interview, this can lead to incomplete or skewed feedback. Employees are less likely to be honest with their manager if the issues they’ve experienced are related to that supervisor or the team dynamics they were part of. For this reason, it’s usually best to avoid having the direct supervisor conduct the exit interview.

4. Senior Leadership (Sometimes Appropriate)

In smaller companies, senior leadership may conduct exit interviews, especially if there is no HR department. In these cases, it’s important for the leader to approach the interview with an open mind and a willingness to listen without judgment. However, like with direct supervisors, employees may hesitate to be fully transparent with senior leadership, especially if they feel their feedback might not be well-received.

Regardless of who conducts the interview, ensure the interviewer is someone the employee feels comfortable with. The goal is to create a space where the employee can speak openly, and the right interviewer makes all the difference.

Key Exit Interview Questions to Ask

Asking the right questions in an exit interview is crucial to gathering valuable feedback. A well-structured interview not only helps you understand why the employee is leaving but also gives insights into what’s working (and what’s not) within your organization. Here’s a list of essential questions you should include in every exit interview.

1. Why are you leaving?

This is the most obvious, yet important, question to ask. It allows the employee to explain their reasons for leaving, whether it’s career growth, company culture, work-life balance, or personal reasons. The answers will help you spot trends if similar issues come up across multiple interviews.

2. What did you like most about your job?

This question focuses on the positive aspects of the employee’s experience. By learning what worked well, you can ensure these strengths are maintained and leveraged in the future.

3. What did you like least about your job?

Understanding what didn’t work for an employee is just as important as knowing what did. This question helps you pinpoint any issues with the role, team, or organization that may need attention.

4. How would you describe our company culture?

Culture plays a big role in employee satisfaction and retention. Hearing how an exiting employee describes the culture can give you an honest perspective and help you assess whether your company’s culture aligns with its goals and values.

5. Were your goals and expectations met?

This question helps you determine if there was a gap between what the employee expected when they joined and their actual experience. It’s an important insight into whether the job role and company promises matched the reality.

6. How would you rate the support and communication you received from management?

Feedback on leadership and management can reveal blind spots. If multiple employees mention issues with communication or support from management, this could signal a need for leadership training or process changes.

7. Were there any roadblocks to your productivity?

This question digs into potential obstacles that may have hindered the employee’s ability to perform their job efficiently. Identifying these roadblocks can help you remove them for future employees, leading to a more productive work environment.

8. What suggestions do you have for improving the company?

Departing employees often have valuable suggestions for improving the company. Since they no longer have a stake in staying, they may feel more comfortable offering constructive feedback.

9. Would you consider returning to this company in the future?

It’s important to understand whether an employee is leaving on good terms or not. If they would consider coming back in the future, it indicates a positive experience overall, despite their decision to leave.

10. Is there anything we could have done to prevent your departure?

This final question helps you understand if there were missed opportunities to retain the employee. It’s a way to reflect on what could have been done differently and, in some cases, gives you insights for future retention strategies.

By asking these questions, you can gather actionable insights that can lead to real improvements in your workplace.

Best Practices for Conducting an Exit Interview

To get the most out of an exit interview, it’s important to approach it with the right mindset and structure. Here are some best practices to follow when conducting exit interviews to ensure you gather honest, actionable feedback that can help improve your organization:

1. Schedule the Interview at the Right Time

Timing is key. It’s best to schedule the exit interview toward the end of the employee’s notice period. By then, they’ll likely feel more comfortable giving honest feedback and won’t be worried about immediate repercussions. This also gives them time to reflect on their overall experience.

2. Keep the Conversation Professional and Respectful

Even if the employee is leaving due to negative experiences, the interview should be conducted in a professional and respectful manner. Your goal is to listen and learn, not to defend the company or push back on their opinions. Keep the tone neutral, and make it clear that their feedback is valuable and will be used to improve the company.

3. Ensure Confidentiality

Make sure the employee knows that their responses will remain confidential. This can encourage them to be more open and honest. You can also let them know who will have access to their feedback (usually HR or upper management) and how it will be used.

4. Create a Comfortable Environment

Exit interviews work best when employees feel relaxed and comfortable. Choose a private setting, whether in-person or virtual, where the employee can speak freely without worrying about being overheard. If possible, offer to conduct the interview via an unbiased party, such as an HR representative, rather than the employee’s direct supervisor.

5. Listen More, Talk Less

The goal of an exit interview is to listen and gather insights, not to provide feedback to the employee. Focus on listening carefully to what the employee is saying. Let them talk freely, and avoid interrupting them unless clarification is needed. Your role is to guide the conversation with your questions, not dominate it.

6. Take Detailed Notes

It’s important to take clear, detailed notes during the exit interview. This helps ensure that the feedback is accurately captured and can be reviewed later. If you prefer, you can ask the employee for permission to record the interview (if appropriate and legal in your region), but make sure they’re comfortable with it.

7. Ask Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions allow the employee to provide more detailed and meaningful feedback. Instead of asking “Did you like working here?” (which can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”), ask, “What did you enjoy most about working here?” or “What could we have done better?” This encourages more in-depth responses.

8. Follow Up on Key Points

If an employee brings up a significant issue or concern, ask follow-up questions to get more details. For example, if they mention a problem with communication within the team, ask them to elaborate on what they think caused the issue and how it could be improved. The more specific the feedback, the more actionable it will be.

9. Use the Feedback for Positive Change

Exit interviews are only effective if the feedback is used to make improvements. After the interview, review the employee’s responses and look for common themes or issues that can be addressed. Share the insights with leadership and use them to inform future decisions about management, team dynamics, or company policies.

10. Thank the Employee for Their Time

End the interview on a positive note by thanking the employee for their time and contributions to the company. This shows that you value their input, even though they are leaving, and leaves the door open for a positive future relationship.

By following these best practices, you’ll be able to conduct more effective exit interviews that not only gather valuable feedback but also foster an open, respectful dialogue with departing employees.

How Exit Interviews Can Inform Team Building

Exit interviews provide more than just a look at why employees leave. They offer valuable insights into your team’s overall dynamics, revealing patterns that can help improve how your team works together. The feedback you gather can be a key part of refining team norms and enhancing communication.

Here’s how you can use exit interview feedback to inform team building:

1. Identifying Communication Gaps

If multiple departing employees mention issues with communication—whether it’s between team members or across departments—that’s a clear signal that this is an area needing attention. Team-building activities that focus on improving communication skills and ensuring clear channels for sharing information can help resolve these issues.

2. Revealing Cultural Misalignment

If employees describe the company culture as one thing while leadership sees it differently, there may be a gap in how team norms are defined or enforced. Feedback from exit interviews can highlight these discrepancies, giving you the chance to reshape your team’s culture to align better with your company’s values.

3. Highlighting Opportunities for Better Collaboration

Exit interviews can uncover pain points in how teams collaborate. Maybe there’s a lack of trust or shared decision-making, which is causing frustration. Using this feedback, you can implement team-building exercises that strengthen collaboration, trust, and teamwork, leading to a more cohesive team.

4. Evolving Team Norms with TeamDynamics

This is where TeamDynamics comes into play. TeamDynamics helps you and your team better understand your team's behaviors and how each individual’s preferences align with those behaviors, like communication and decision-making. Using the feedback from exit interviews, TeamDynamics can help you refine your team’s working norms to reduce friction, boost collaboration, and increase productivity.

For example:

• If several employees mention a lack of clarity in decision-making processes, TeamDynamics can help you pinpoint how decisions are being made (or not made) and assist in evolving those processes to better suit the team’s needs.
• If feedback shows that some employees felt left out of discussions, you can use TeamDynamics to help individuals understand how their communication styles fit into the team and adjust accordingly.

In short, the insights you gather from exit interviews, combined with a tool like TeamDynamics, give you the opportunity to create a work environment where everyone understands how their individual preferences fit into the larger team. This leads to better communication, fewer conflicts, and a stronger, more efficient team.

Download Your Free Exit Interview Template

Exit interviews are a powerful tool for gathering honest feedback and improving your workplace. By asking the right questions, following best practices, and carefully analyzing the feedback, you can uncover valuable insights that lead to better employee retention and a more positive work environment.

To help you streamline your exit interview process, we’ve created a free Exit Interview Template that covers all the essential questions discussed in this post. This template is designed to help you gather meaningful feedback that can drive improvements in your organization.

What’s included in the template:

• A comprehensive list of key questions to ask during an exit interview
• Space to take notes and record specific feedback
• Areas to document follow-up actions based on the employee’s responses

Using this template ensures that every exit interview is structured, consistent, and focused on gathering actionable insights. Whether you’re conducting the interview yourself or having HR handle it, this template will serve as a useful guide.

How to use the template:

1. Download the template. Simply click the link below to access the template and print it out or use it digitally.
2. Prepare for the interview. Before the interview, review the questions and customize them if needed to suit your company’s specific goals or issues.
3. Conduct the interview. Follow the template to ensure you cover all the key topics, allowing the employee to expand on their thoughts in a comfortable, open environment.
4. Analyze the feedback.

After the interview, review the employee’s responses and identify trends or areas for improvement. Use these insights to drive positive changes within your team and company.

Download your free Exit Interview Template here.

But don’t stop there. Use the information from exit interviews to inform team-building efforts and refine your team’s working norms. Tools like TeamDynamics can help you take these insights and turn them into action, creating a stronger, more cohesive team that communicates better and collaborates more effectively.