Prioritizing employee surveys and exit interviews
When an employee hands in their notice, it’s natural to immediately focus on the next steps of finding a replacement and developing a smooth transition plan. However, there’s a vital step you shouldn’t overlook: an exit interview.
Exit interviews are valuable for businesses aiming to boost both employee retention and attraction. These discussions encourage open dialogue with departing employees, allowing you to get honest employee feedback.
Recent surveys have found that up to half of Canadians are looking for a new job in 2025. When turnover occurs, it can be challenging to part ways with a team member, but exit interviews offer a chance at valuable insights for your business on its operations. Conducting an exit interview gives you an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and continually improve your organization.
What are exit interviews, and what should we consider when planning them?
Let’s start by understanding what an exit interview entails. At their core, exit interviews are structured conversations held with employees who are leaving an organization. They provide a formal opportunity to gather valuable employee feedback about their overall experience, the reasons why they’re leaving, and suggestions for improvement. Think of them as a final opportunity to gain insights that can benefit your remaining employees and future hires.
When planning your exit interview process, take steps to maximize the value of these conversations.
- First, decide who will conduct the interviews. Often, this falls to HR professionals or a manager who isn’t the direct supervisor of the departing employee, as this can encourage more open and honest employee feedback.
- Consistency is also crucial. Developing a standardized set of questions, perhaps using an employee feedback template as a foundation, lets you compare responses over time and identify recurring themes.
- Consider the interview timing and format. Ideally, it should take place relatively close to the employee’s departure date, when their experience is still fresh in their mind. Make the departing employee feel comfortable and safe to share their honest opinions. Explain to them that their feedback or interview responses will be used constructively to improve the workplace for others.
- Finally, record their responses. An exit interview is a waste of time if you don’t act on the feedback that you get.
What are the benefits of doing exit interviews?
Before we get into why exit interviews are so valuable, it’s important to remember that they aren’t just a box to tick off. They’re a worthwhile opportunity to get honest feedback straight from the source. This provides a unique perspective on what works and what doesn’t at your company.
Feedback is a great source for making positive changes, improving your workplace culture, and keeping your current employees happy while attracting top talent. With that clear, let’s explore some of the many benefits of exit interviews.
Gather valuable information about why employees are leaving
There are many reasons why someone might leave a company: lack of advancement opportunities, stress and burnout, simply finding an opportunity that aligns more with their career goals. An exit interview helps you uncover your employee’s reason for leaving.
By speaking with a departing employee openly and honestly, you can ask for a candid assessment of your organization and work culture. You may discover some organizational shortcomings. These exit interviews provide a wealth of data. By collecting employee feedback, you can begin to identify significant trends and patterns.
Exit interviews often illuminate issues that escaped your notice. For example, two in five Canadians surveyed said they have quit their job because of a bad boss. Yet management issues can be hard to spot. Team members may have different experiences with the same manager, or some may hesitate to bring up issues for fear of reprisal. Exit interviews offer an ideal setting to ask direct questions and gain honest insights into underlying organizational challenges.
Consider incorporating questions like these into your exit interview process or employee feedback survey:
- What prompted you to begin searching for a new opportunity?
- Did you feel comfortable communicating openly with your manager?
- In what areas could our organization improve?
By actively seeking and analysing this employee feedback, you can take meaningful steps to address the root causes of turnover and create a more positive and engaging environment for your current and future employees.
Provide closure and create advocates for your organization
A well-conducted exit interview can pave the way for a positive and respectful goodbye. While the interview is an opportunity to gather important feedback, it’s also a good time to express gratitude for the employee’s work and time with your company.
By ending a professional relationship respectfully and courteously, you increase the likelihood that former employees will remain positive towards your organization. They might refer potential business, recommend job candidates, or even consider returning to your company themselves one day.
Giving departing employees a chance to share feedback also shows that you value their perspective and truly want to improve your organization. Exit interviews offer a chance for employees to voice any frustrations or suggestions, and this sense of closure can be incredibly meaningful. It shows that their opinions matter, even as they move on.
Consider incorporating questions like these to gauge their overall experience and potential for future advocacy:
- Would you recommend our company to a friend looking for a job?
- Would you consider working for our company again in the future?
- If you had the opportunity to change one thing about your role or the company, what would it be?
By prioritizing respectful and thoughtful exit interviews and actively listening to the employee feedback you receive, you can transform departing employees into potential allies and strengthen your organization’s reputation.
Research competing organizations
In a survey by LifeWorks, 74% of Canadians said they would leave a job that they’re happy with for an increase in salary. Financial wellness is at the top of people’s minds and, for some, higher pay is enough to sway them towards another organization. Exit interviews can help you keep an eye on your competitors.
You might also discover that factors like salary, flexible work arrangements or employee development programs are significant draws for your departing employees. These incentives can be highly attractive to job seekers, making it essential to understand how your company’s offerings compare to industry standards.
Consider asking questions like these to gain competitive insights:
- What does your new position offer that influenced your decision to leave?
- What are you most looking forward to in your new job?
- Were you satisfied with the employee benefits we offered?
By strategically using exit interviews to gather employee feedback on competitor offerings, you can identify areas where you could improve your own compensation and benefits strategies, ultimately helping you retain current employees and attract top talent.
Improve your employee engagement strategy
It’s important to ask for feedback throughout an employee’s time with your company. Exit interviews can be a great way to assess how engaged your employee felt throughout their employment and how you can improve workplace culture.
While exit interviews are one means of engagement, they should be part of a broader and continuing engagement program. To truly understand and improve employee engagement, you should implement continual feedback methods. These methods include regular pulse surveys, recurring one-on-one meetings between managers and their employees, and other proactive methods for getting employee feedback.
Stay interviews, in particular, are growing in popularity. These interviews are similar to exit interviews except with employees who are staying with the organization rather than leaving it. The goal of stay interviews is to understand what keeps employees motivated and identify potential factors that could lead them to consider leaving.
Consider asking questions like these in your exit interviews to specifically address engagement and culture:
- Did you feel like a valuable part of the company?
- How would you describe our company culture?
- What do you think about the feedback culture of our company?
How to implement an exit interview process
To make the most of your exit interviews, let’s cover how you can set things up get the best insights. Remember, you want to create a smooth and comfortable experience for the person leaving so that they feel good about sharing honest employee feedback.
Here’s a simple outline on how to get your exit interview process started:
1. Your go-to questions:
Instead of operating without a structure, having a set of core questions means you’re asking everyone the same things. Consider using an exit interview template as a starting point.
Asking consistent questions makes it easier to spot patterns in the employee feedback you get. You can always add a few personal questions, but having that solid base helps.
2. Get a friendly interviewer:
Pick someone who’s good at listening and won’t get defensive. Most commonly, this would be someone from HR or a manager who wasn’t the employee’s direct boss. The goal is to make the departing employee feel safe enough to give you honest feedback.
3. Warn the employee:
Let the employee know what the exit interview is all about beforehand. Explain that it’s a chance for them to share their thoughts and that their feedback will help make things better for others.
4. Respect their comfort zone:
Offer a few ways to do the interview, like a face-to-face chat if they’re still around, a phone call if they’ve already left, or even a written feedback survey if that feels easier for them. Giving them options shows you care.
Keep it confidential:
Make it clear how you’ll handle their employee feedback. Reassure them that while you might share general themes, their individual comments will be kept private. If you’re using employee feedback software, explain how that keeps things confidential, too.
6. Time it right:
Try to have the chat fairly close to their last day, while their experience is still fresh in their mind.
7. Turn feedback into action:
Don’t collect the employee surveys just to let them gather dust. Have a system to look at what everyone’s saying. Spot the trends, figure out what needs fixing, and then actually do something about it.
8. Tell people what you change and why:
If you make changes based on the employee feedback you received, let your current team know. It shows you’re listening and that their opinions, and even the opinions of those who’ve moved on, matter.
Ready to make the most of exit interviews?
Exit interviews are an excellent opportunity to learn important information that can help you improve your business. By collecting exit interview data, you gain invaluable insights into your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for crucial improvement. This commitment to understanding and acting on employee feedback, whether gathered through direct interviews or sophisticated employee feedback software, directly contributes to better retention, stronger employer branding, and a more engaged workforce.
Looking for tools to help you gather valuable feedback? Have a look at our surveys and forms software to see how we support your exit interview process and other HR needs. Make exit interviews a priority; the insights you’ll gain are well worth the effort.