One of your employees leaving the business?
As we’ve mentioned before, exit interviews are extremely worthwhile.
- They’re free
- They give you invaluable feedback
- They enable you to discover any missing gaps in your business
- They allow you to find a common reason as to why employees are leaving your company
However, they’re a lot different from regular interviews.
Exit interview questions are what give you the ability to improve and assess your current position as an employer.
Perhaps there are hidden issues that you can't see, or have somehow overlooked.
Regardless, you need to make sure you remain positive, professional and respectful.
This isn’t an interrogation.
An exit interview is an opportunity to develop and learn as a business.
To give you a flavour of what exit interview questions you should be asking, here are eight of the very best…
Under what circumstances would you consider returning to the business?
This exit interview question is ideal if you’re secretly hoping the departing employee will return in the near future.
They’ll probably find this one quite challenging to answer.
Some will be brutally honest, while others might give you an idea you can implement.
Do they want more benefits?
Better pay?
More opportunities to expand?
All of these are fixable problems.
However, if they simply want a new challenge or a senior role which isn’t available, you’ll have to accept that you won’t be seeing this employee return again.
What did you enjoy most about working for us?
This is one of the more positive and simple exit interview questions.
The process doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom, use it as an opportunity to learn what elements are spot on within the business.
If it’s the employees, then you’re hiring the right blend of people.
Or if it’s the social element, then you have a top work benefit scheme in place.
Do you think your job description was the same as it was originally advertised? If not, how has it changed?
Jobs evolve and change in time.
Unfortunately, sometimes we can ask employees to cover too many areas or not enough.
Employees need to be challenged, but not overworked.
This is amongst the exit interview questions that will help you determine which one applies to your business.
It will also give you a good indication of whether you need to tweak the job description and title for the open vacancy.
Do you have any suggestions for improving employee satisfaction?
It’s straight, direct and will give you a real insight into the plus and negatives of how your team treats its staff.
Were there any frictions within a certain department that you were unaware of?
Did the employee single out certain managers?
Is it all work and no play?
Don’t be afraid to ask the departing employee to give specific examples.
Reiterate that they will still get a reference and you appreciate their valuable feedback.
Did you feel equipped to do the job here?
This exit interview question focuses on your resources.
Do your employees have the software, training, technology and support to do the very best job?
If they didn’t, you can make wholesale changes to your onboarding process before you bring a new employee in.
What qualities do you think we should look for in your replacement?
This is quite a strange one for departing employees to answer.
Nonetheless, nobody knows the job better than the person who’s just spent x amount of months or years doing it!
Are there certain skills required to get good results?
If they work with clients on a daily basis, do you need particular soft skills to deal with them effectively?
Would you recommend our company to another jobseeker?
Ideally, you want the answer to this exit interview question to be “yes”.
It indicates that your company is generally a positive and credible place to work.
There might be small elements the departing employee is dissatisfied with, but you want them to speak highly of your company.
If they don’t feel like they would recommend your company to another jobseeker, find out why and fix it immediately.
After all, you don’t want them to tarnish your company’s reputation on Glassdoor.
Do you think you were well rewarded and recognised by management in your position?
You’ll be surprised by how many people hand in their notices because they didn’t get a simple bit of recognition from time to time.
The most frustrating part is, a lot of businesses who demand the most, often forget to address this integral point.
It’s all about telling your employees that they’re valued, appreciated and loved.
When was the last time you took them out for lunch?
Sent a “well done” email around the business?
Awarded an employee of the month with a bottle of bubbly?
If you can't remember, that's definitely a red light...
Enjoyed reading this?
Hopefully you're feeling a bit more courageous in your ability to handle exit interviews and knowing which exit interview questions you should be asking.
If you find that your staff turnover is starting to creep up though then you should consider what you can do to retain your employees.
Hopefully things start looking up for you, after adapting these tips.
