Job History and Overall Evaluation

 What factors led you to accept a job with our company?

 How has your perception of those factors changed during the time you’ve been here?
 What is your primary reason for leaving?
 What triggered your decision to leave?
 Did your job duties turn out to be as you expected?
 What was most satisfying about your job?
 What was least satisfying about your job?
 What would you change about your job?

Job Feedback, Training, Reviews, Support, and Career Goals

 Was the training you received sufficient to enable you to meet our performance expectations?
 What additional training should have been provided to you?
 Did you receive adequate support to do your job?
 Did you receive sufficient feedback about your performance between evaluation reviews?
 Were you satisfied with this company’s merit review process?
 Did this company help you to fulfill your career goals?

Job Improvements, Feedback, and Suggestions

 How do you feel about the way our company is run?
 How would you rate the morale in your department? Why?
 Were you happy with your pay, benefits, and other incentives?
 What part did pay or benefits play in your decision to leave?
 How did you view your chances for advancement?
 What would you improve to make your workplace better?
 How would you evaluate the quality of the supervision you received?
 What could your immediate supervisor do to improve his or her management style?
 Based on your experience with us, what do you think it takes to succeed at this company?
 Did any company policies or procedures (or any other obstacles) make your job more difficult?
 Would you consider working for this company again at some time in the future?
 Would you recommend working for this company to your family and friends?
 How do you generally feel about this company? Very Satisfied — Dissatisfied
 What did you like most about this company?
 What did you like least about this company?
 If you could change anything about how our company operates, what would it be?

Employee Retention, Comments, and Suggestions

 How is your new job/company different from this one?
 What motivated you to begin looking for another job?
 What made you consider an offer from another company?
 Before deciding to leave, did you investigate a transfer within the company?
 Could this company have done anything to encourage you to stay?
 What does your new company offer that this company doesn’t? (If leaving for another job)
 Did anyone in this company discriminate against you, harass you, or cause hostile working conditions?
 What other comments of information would you like to share?
 Do you have any suggestions of who we might hire or where we might find your replacement?

Other Employee Exit Interview Questions

 Special demands of the job
 Skills required by the job
 Experience gained or needed in the job
 Educational opportunities on the job
 Travel requirements
 Hours required
 Working environment issues
  Special problems or challenges in job completion
 Duties that you were not able to complete
 Long term objectives associated with the job
 Management style appropriate to the job or employee environment
 Budget or resources for job completion
 Compensation and advancement associated with the job
 Common challenges faced by other employees in similar jobs
 Tips to provide to future employees in this job position
 Other reasons or areas where you either had trouble performing or had a poor performance
 Company measures of successful performance
 Company or supervisor acknowledgment of excellent performance
 Recognition and communication of department or job goals
 Employee training
 Impact of poor performance on the company
 Significant changes on the horizon
 Education policy
 Work-life balance
 Service policy

Potential exit interview questions

Reason for leaving
 Why have you decided to leave the organization?
 Did anything trigger your decision to leave?
 Was a single event responsible for your decision to leave?
 Have you shared your concerns with anyone in the company prior to deciding to leave?
 Did anyone in this organization discriminate against you, harass you, or cause hostile working
conditions? (important to follow up if they say yes)

Job satisfaction
 What was most satisfying about your job? What was least satisfying about your job?
 What would you change about your job?
 What did you like most about this organization? What did you like least about this organization?
 What would you improve to make our workplace better?
 Did your job duties turn out to be as you expected?
 Were your job responsibilities characterized correctly during the interview process and orientation?
 Did this organization help you to fulfill your career goals?
 Were you happy with your pay, benefits and other incentives?
 Did any organization policies or procedures (or any other obstacles) make your job more difficult?

Supervision and support

 Do you feel you had the resources and support necessary to accomplish your job? If not, what was
missing?
 The quality of supervision is important to most people at work. How was your relationship with your
manager? What could your supervisor do to improve his or her management style and skill?
 Did you have clear goals and know what was expected of you in your job?
 Did you receive enough training to do your job effectively?
 Did you receive adequate support to do your job?
  Did you receive adequate feedback about your performance day-to-day and in the performance
development planning process?

Other
 Do you have any tips to help us find your replacement?
 Based on your experience with us, what do you think it takes to succeed at this organization?
 Would you consider working again for this organization in the future?
 Would you recommend working for this organization to your family and friends?
 What is your experience of employee morale and motivation in the company?
 What does your new company offer that encouraged you to accept their offer and leave this
company?
 Can this organization do anything to encourage you to stay?
 Any other comments?

SAMPLE EXIT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

 Tell me about how you've come to decide to leave?
 What is your main reason for leaving?
 What are the other reasons for your leaving?
 Why is this important, or so significant for you?
 Within the (particular reason to leave) what was it that concerned you particularly?
 What could have been done early on to prevent the situation developing/provide a basis for you to
stay with us?
 How would you have preferred the situation(s) to have been handled?
 What opportunities can you see might have existed for the situation/problems to have been
averted/dealt with satisfactorily?
 What can you say about the processes and procedures or systems that have contributed to the
problem(s)/your decision to leave?
 What specific suggestions would you have for how the organization could manage this situation/these
issues better in future?
 How do you feel about the organization?
 What has been good/enjoyable/satisfying for you in your time with us?
 What has been frustrating/difficult/upsetting to you in your time with us?
 What could you have done better or more for us had we given you the opportunity?
 What extra responsibility would you have welcomed that you were not given?
 How could the organization have enabled you to make fuller use of your capabilities and potential?
 What training would you have liked or needed that you did not get, and what effect would this have
had?
 How well do think your training and development needs were assessed and met?
 What training and development that you had did you find most helpful and enjoyable?
 What can you say about communications within the organization/your department?
 What improvements do you think can be made to customer service and relations?
 How would you describe the culture or 'feel' of the organization?
 What could you say about communications and relations between departments, and how these could
be improved?
 Were you developed/inducted adequately for your role(s)?
 What improvement could be made to the way that you were inducted/prepared for your role(s)?
  (For recent recruits of less than a year or so:) What did you think about the way we recruited you?
How did the reality alter from your expectations when you first joined us? How could we have
improved your own recruitment? How could your induction training have been improved?
 How could you have been helped to better know/understand/work with other departments
necessary for the organization to perform more effectively?
 What can you say about the way your performance was measured, and the feedback to you of your
performance results?
 How well do you think the appraisal system worked for you?
 What would you say about how you were motivated, and how that could have been improved?
 What suggestion would you make to improve working conditions, hours, shifts, amenities, etc?
 What would you say about equipment and machinery that needs replacing or upgrading, or which
isn't fully/properly used for any reason?
 What can you say about the way you were managed?... On a day to day basis?....... And on a month to
month basis?
 How would you have changed the expectations/objectives/aims (or absence of) that were placed on
you? ...... And why?
 What, if any, ridiculous examples of policy, rules, instructions, can you highlight?
 What examples of ridiculous waste (material or effort), pointless reports, meetings, bureaucracy, etc.,
could you point to?
 How could the organization reduce stress levels among employees where stress is an issue?
 How could the organization enabled you to have made better use of your time?
 What things did the organization or management do to make your job more difficult/frustrating/non-
productive?
 How can the organization gather and make better use of the views and experience of its people?
 Aside from the reason(s) you are leaving, how strongly were you attracted to committing to a long
and developing career with us?
 What can the organization do to retain its best people (and not lose any more like you)?
 Have you anything to say about your treatment from a discrimination or harassment perspective?
 Would you consider working again for us if the situation were right?
 Are you happy to say where you are going (if you have decided)?
 What particularly is it about them that makes you want to join them?
 What, importantly, are they offering that we are not?
 (If appropriate:) Could you be persuaded to renegotiate/stay/discuss the possibility of staying?
 Can we be of any particular help to you in this move/deciding what to do next (we can't promise
anything obviously)?

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER QUESTION

 How might we benefit from your knowledge, experience, introductions to your contacts, etc., prior to
your departure?
 Would you be happy to take part in a briefing meeting with
managers/replacements/successor/colleagues so that we can benefit from your knowledge and
experience, prior to your leaving?
 What can we do to enable you to pass on as much of your knowledge and experience as possible to
your replacement/successor prior to your departure?
 How and when would you prefer to pass on your knowledge to your successor?
 I realise that you'll not be happy with the situation surrounding your departure, however we would
really appreciate it if you could help us to understand some of the important things you've been
working on - how might we agree for this knowledge to be transferred?
 We'd be grateful for you to introduce (name of successor) to your key contacts before you go - are
you happy to help with this?
To make the most of these interviews, utilize these seven sample exit interview questions:
1. Why did you begin looking for a new job?
Asking this question opens up the opportunity for a variety of answers. You may see that an employee simply
needed a job closer to home, or it may point to a specific instance or situation that sparked the search.
2. What ultimately led you to accept the new position?
This question will allow you to contrast your company’s position with a different organization’s. The key to this
answer is actually in what you don’t see. For instance, if an employee indicates that they are leaving for higher
pay, this could mean that your compensation package isn’t competitive enough.
3. Did you feel that you were equipped to do your job well?
If you want a direct way to better retain the employee who fills this position next, ask this question. Be
prepared for tales of technology woes, inadequate training and more, but also be prepared to gain valuable
knowledge of what you can do better next time.
4. How would you describe the culture of our company?
This question isn’t probing for specific examples, but instead will help you identify trends. As you keep track of
employee exit interview, watch for trends throughout to help your identify real concerns. Identifying trends
can also help you separate legitimate concerns from personal opinion of employees who are emotional or feel
negatively about the company.
5. Can you provide more information, such as specific examples?
Your natural reaction may be to shy away from asking for specific examples, but this follow-up question, which
is beneficial throughout your survey, may reveal personnel problems or other things that are easily fixed,
preventing the loss of another employee.
6. What could have been done for you to remain employed here?
There is no question more direct than this one. Often, a frank question will give employees an opportunity to
open up where they were afraid to before. Obviously this question isn’t aimed at fulfilling their request in
order to keep them employed there, but it will help in the future.
7. If you could change anything about your job or the company, what would you change?
Though you’ll likely gain a lot of insight throughout the exit interview, this question will help the employee to
focus in on the biggest or most important reason they’re leaving your company. This is also a non-
confrontational way to encourage them to reveal the real reason they’re leaving, as it isn’t asking what they
didn’t like, but what they would change. It shifts their answer from a complaint to a suggestion, which many
people feel more comfortable providing. Often, just the way we ask a question can make all the difference.