How to conduct an exit interview

Exit interviews are a useful way of gaining meaningful feedback from employees before they leave your company. Often, employees can become quite elusive or coy when leaving a job. They may say that they have found a better opportunity, or that they just fancied a change. But there’s likely to be more constructive feedback sitting just beneath the surface.

Some of the most common reasons staff leave are for a pay rise, a promotion, more training, or perhaps the commute is closer. Whatever the reason, it’s good practice to have an open and honest conversation about their experience to help you retain your staff in future.

Benefits of exit interviews

Exit interviews provide several benefits for employees and employers alike.

Benefits of exit interviews for employers

• Greater understanding of employee sentiments
• Facilitates reporting to compare employee feedback across teams
• Helps to assess their manager’s performance and capability
• Identifies both the positive aspects and recurring problems within the business
• Helps to part on good terms (if there was any negative sentiment)
• Assists with reducing staff turnover in the long term

Benefits of exit interviews for employees

• Gives employees an opportunity to share their views
• Provides a more positive end to their experience (if there has been negatives)
• Makes them feel valued as an employee

Disadvantages of exit interviews

• Employees might not be completely transparent (due to fear of burning bridges)
• Exit interviews aren’t beneficial unless followed up correctly
• If the reasons behind them moving on are unfavourable, the exit interview could be a tense experience
• Employees may feel frustrated if they weren’t given the opportunity to provide feedback before resigning

Ideal exit interview process

There are a variety of ways to conduct an exit interview. The employer should provide a few different options to find a method that suits the employee. In an ideal scenario, the employee will initially complete a survey that produces quantitative results. This will be followed by a short face-to-face meeting where the employee is able to expand on certain points in a qualitative way.

Exit interview process checklist

• Ask the employee if they’d be willing to participate (even if exit interviews are part of your company policy, they’re entirely voluntary)
• Offer the employee a variety of ways to feed back: in writing / a phone call / face-to-face
• Schedule the meeting in the diary (no longer than 1 hour)
• Ask the employee to complete an exit survey beforehand
• Produce a structured list of questions for the face-to-face meeting
• Give the employee the opportunity to view / complete the questions prior to the exit interview so they’re not caught off-guard
• Conduct the exit interview in a private room
• Store and record the feedback confidentially
• Share the feedback with appropriate members of staff
• Use the feedback to determine action points for the business

Who should conduct an exit interview?

Employers should be mindful of choosing the right person to conduct an exit interview. Typically, this should be someone who comes from a neutral position in relation to the employee. For example, the employee’s direct manager wouldn’t be a neutral choice. It may result in the employee not being fully transparent, particularly if their reason for leaving is linked to their manager.

HR representatives can be a more neutral option in most cases so long as they’re not interviewing somebody from their own team. If you don’t have a HR department, a manager from a separate department is also a good choice. The employee needs to feel free to express themselves in confidence. They also need to trust that the interviewers will relay their feedback in an accurate and constructive manner.

How to respect confidentiality in an exit interview

Keeping exit interview feedback confidential can be tricky, but it must remain a priority for employers if they want candid feedback. The employee’s identity should be kept anonymous when delivering feedback. This may be more difficult in smaller organisations where it’s obvious who would have given the feedback. As a workaround for smaller businesses, exit interview feedback could be delivered in ‘aggregate form’ i.e. in conjunction with other feedback such as 360 degree surveys.

When should exit interview feedback not be kept confidential?

There are certain circumstances where the feedback may not remain confidential. These reasons should be made clear to the employee before the exit interview, while some employers may choose to launch an internal investigation or legal proceedings, with the consent of the employee who shared the information.

• With reports of harassment
• With allegations of embezzlement
• With discrimination
• With any accounts that indicate a violation of company policy or law
• In cases where an investigation or disciplinary is required

Exit interview do’s and don’ts

• Do stay neutral
• Do ask open-ended questions
• Do express confidentiality
• Do keep the conversation relaxed
• Don’t engage in unconstructive feedback
• Don’t dwell on the specifics of an event
• Don’t give your own opinions
• Don’t force questions employees aren’t comfortable answering
• Don’t use exit interviews as a method for retaining a specific member of staff

How to summarise exit interview results Summarising the feedback is one of the most crucial parts of the exit interview process. It allows you to implement the feedback into actionable steps and improve the business. The summary notes should be digitally recorded and categorised for ease of use.

Ways to categorise exit interview feedback

Once the interview’s complete, the qualitative feedback should be recorded and categorised in an organised way. If recorded correctly, you can accumulate a valuable amount of qualitative and quantitative data over time which you’ll then use to spot trends. Many HR professionals review and analyse this information on a quarterly basis to identify any potential business improvements.

Qualitative employee data

• Any negative / positive experiences mentioned
• Any suggestions for improvement
• Employee manager
• Employee department
• Employee level (junior / senior / management)

Quantitative employee data

• Number of years at the company
• Length of time employed
• Date of notice
• Any scoring from exit surveys e.g. 7/10 likely to recommend the employer to a friend
• Employee performance against target e.g. 60% of target

Trends you may encounter when analysing exit interview feedback

Trends will vary from company to company, but here are some trends that you may typically encounter off the back of exit interviews:

• A certain manager has low staff retention
• Particular members of staff frequently receive negative feedback
• People tend to leave when they join a particular department/team
• Changes in company policies have triggered people to leave
• Consistent dissatisfaction with aspects of how the company is ran
• Employees tend to leave within a certain number of years of employment
• Employees frequently leave to join one company competitor in particular

How to share exit interview results with the business

Any feedback from the exit interview should be put to good use and shared with the wider business. What you want to achieve from the feedback will determine who you share it with. Remember, feedback should always be delivered anonymously or in aggregate form, and the employee should be made aware of this ahead of the exit interview.

Sharing with HR

Exit interview information should be shared with HR in all its entirety since it’s HR’s responsibility to notice trends and spot any areas of concern that need escalating. Having access to all the information allows HR to create an organised and visual representation of the feedback that can be easily accessed at any time by authorised personnel.

Sharing with management

Certain aspects of the interview feedback will need to be shared with the management team. Employers should avoid openly discussing any feedback that relates to another member of the management team – this should be done privately. Any points shared with the wider management team should aim to collaboratively correct any cultural, structural or procedural problems.

Sharing with individuals

It may be appropriate to share feedback with specific individuals if they’re mentioned in the exit interview. Any feedback that relates to one person specifically can be relayed on a 1:1 basis in a private setting, rather than in a group setting. Feedback should be constructive, whilst also giving the member of staff an opportunity to share their perspective. Employers should use their discretion and may feel that it’s not necessary to share the feedback with the individual concerned.

Sharing with the wider business

It’s good practice for companies to share regular updates with their staff about improvements from feedback. This could be done on a quarterly basis via an email or a quarterly meeting. This update shouldn’t detail where the feedback has come from specifically or relate to any particular events. Instead, it should explain that the company is always gathering feedback for improvements via surveys, exit interviews, meetings and 1:1s. This will have the benefit of showing employees that you’re proactive in taking feedback seriously. In turn, this will encourage employees to feed back in their own ways.

Potential action points from exit interview feedback

The action points you create from the feedback will vary significantly from organisation to organisation. Here are some examples of action points you might create:

• Further training for staff members
• Restructuring
• Improving company benefits
• Introducing remote working options
• Increasing staff wages
• Improving company culture
• Developing a clearer progression structure
• Disciplinary action
• Investigation into misconduct

Employers and employees can find more advice about exit interviews and a businesses’ duty of care at ACAS.