Are you conducting effective exit interviews? A guide for employers on how to conduct and benefit from exit interviews with a departing employee

Employees and employers part ways for myriad reasons. Exit interviews are a valuable step in the offboarding process and help employers learn about staff satisfaction, identify latent legal issues, understand the reasons for the departure, improve employee retention, ensure the return of property, and identify any systemic problems.

How can employers properly prepare for exit interviews, cover the right topics, and avoid risky mistakes that could lead to potential legal issues?  What steps should they take to make the most of this process? This guide helps you with these questions.

What is an exit interview? 

An exit interview is a conversation with a departing employee facilitated by a human resources (HR) manager or third party. They are held in person and can involve the use of a survey or questionnaire, and often take place during an employee’s last few days or last day of work.  

While hiring interviews are typically formal and formulaic, those for offboarding are informal and conversational. These meetings allow the departing employee to express what went right — or wrong — during their time with your company. They are a critical element of an effective offboarding process.

Exit interviews are not meant for terminated employees; you must follow different legal procedures in those instances. 

The benefits 

The exit interview is a good time to ask employees about their work experience and the corporate culture, gather honest feedback about supervisors, discover any workplace problems, assess litigation risk, and manage exit expectations. People may be hesitant to spill any workplace beans while employed but are often more amenable to sharing this information following resignation.

The information you receive helps:

• Improve employee satisfaction and productivity
• Reveal underlying issues
• Help shore up the company’s processes for recruiting, hiring, and employee training
• Enhance the corporate culture

These interviews benefit employers, exiting employees, and future employees. Affording the departing employee a safe forum to air grievances can establish goodwill and provide constructive feedback.

Conducting an effective exit interview 

Exit interviews should be face-to-face meetings conducted by a neutral third party, such as an HR representative or an exit interview vendor. Preparing employees for this conversation helps put them at ease and encourages honest discussions. If a departing employee’s direct supervisor conducts the interview, that employee may be less candid. 

Determine which topics to cover and what questions to ask. To encourage honest feedback, remind the departing employee the interview’s content is confidential. When the employee provides interview feedback, identifying information should be kept private when possible. 

How to prepare for it

When preparing for an exit interview, the interviewer should determine their goals and tailor their questions accordingly. Are there specific problems that need solving? Does management want to identify areas of corporate improvement? Is the company looking for ways to improve employee retention? Walking into these meetings with a plan helps the interviewer leverage the employee’s input and present tangible feedback to management.

Never spring these meetings on a departing employee. Instead, give them plenty of time to prepare for this conversation — you may even want to outline some of the topics you plan to address. Let the individual know that although their attendance is not mandatory, you would greatly appreciate it. Your goal is to elicit thoughtful responses, not short, defensive retorts.

How to conduct an exit interview 

Like all steps in your onboarding and offboarding process, the company needs an exit interview policy. Templates allow the interviewer to easily modify their questions based on whom they are interviewing and the circumstances surrounding the resignation. These templates also highlight trends and common responses.

The former employee should understand how you will report the information they share and to whom you’ll provide their answers. Transparency builds trust; people who trust the offboarding process provide helpful, honest responses. While negative feedback may be difficult to hear, it contains valuable insights that will help the company grow and improve. An effective exit interview is one conducted by a good listener.

Topics to cover 

While exit interviews are an opportune time to collect employee feedback, they are also the proper time to disseminate information, reiterate confidentiality obligations, and tie up loose ends.

• Employee benefits. Inform the employee when their health coverage will end and whether they’re entitled to any other continuing benefits. If applicable, this is also a good time to discuss the life insurance benefits. Ensure you provide any notice required by the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) to the exiting employee. 
• Continuing obligations. Remind the individual of commitments related to confidential information or trade secrets and any contractual obligations regarding the solicitation of clients or employees.
• Debt and loans. Determine if the employee has any debts or outstanding loans to the employer. Consider requesting payment for any amounts owed, like advance payroll or agreeing to a voluntary repayment schedule. 

Corporate policy should dictate the types of questions asked and responses provided during these interviews. Make sure the interviewer is prepared to use their discretion when deciding which topics are applicable.

Sample exit interview questions 

The interview questions will vary based on the employee’s job responsibilities and reason for resignation. The discussion can begin with a written questionnaire, or the interviewer can ask all questions aloud. 

Many employers rely on interview templates to keep the conversation focused and productive while ensuring the inclusion of all relevant topics. Templates should contain questions about why the employee is departing and how they felt about their supervisor, position, compensation, and employer. 

The advanced provision of these questions may ease any pre-interview jitters. The exit interview template from Practical Law covers these questions and also provides important explanations and drafting tips. Sample questions include:

1. What prompted you to seek alternative employment? Provide answers to choose from, such as type of work, work conditions, company culture, quality of supervision, lack of recognition, career advancement, compensation, family circumstances, business product or direction, and others.
2. Before deciding to leave, did you investigate other options enabling you to stay? If the employee answers yes, dig deeper into their response and ask why they ultimately chose to leave. 
3. How would you rate your supervisors? Did they always or sometimes demonstrate fair and equal treatment, provide job recognition, listen, resolve complaints, and follow policies?
4. How would you rate these aspects of your job? Provide a scale of excellent, good, or fair to help the employee rate cooperation and communication within their department and others, company-wide communication, communication between the employee and their manager, morale, training, and growth potential.
5. How did you feel about your salary or benefits? Ask specific questions about salary, medical plan, dental plan, 401(k), life insurance and disability, paid time, vacation, and bonus structure.
6. What did you like most about your job? What did you like least? Remind the employee that these comments are confidential, which may prompt a more honest response.
7. Would you recommend the company to a friend as a place to work? If the employee says no or maybe, ask for the reasons behind their response. 

As with any business meeting, you must always adhere to decorum and professionalism.

Tips to avoid exit interview mistakes

Exit interviews provide a golden opportunity to improve your business practices, so the last thing you want to do is squander it. These guidelines should help avoid any pitfalls:

1. Arrange a date and time for the meeting. Sit down with the departing employee at a scheduled time rather than chatting here and there about why they are leaving. This process doesn’t have to feel formal, but the interviewer must have a plan and a way to record the interviewee’s responses. It’s easy to forget comments made in passing.
2. Bring the right people to the conversation. The employee’s managers should be nowhere near this meeting. These interviews are best led and attended by third-party individuals. The crucial word is “neutral.” Neutral parties, neutral setting, and neutral interviewer responses.
3. Create a good conversation. Come prepared with open-ended questions that will allow employees to share their own opinions. Be impartial and listen actively, without judgment. You do not want to influence the departing employee’s responses.
4. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. This interview is a departing employee’s final corporate impression. The interviewer should never promise severance or other benefits the individual will not receive or guarantee a good reference their manager doesn’t plan to provide. These statements can result in costly legal claims. Remember, ex-employees talk, especially disgruntled ones, and this type of talk can tank your company’s reputation.
5. Acknowledge and address potential legal claims. The departing employee may not come right out and say they were the subject of sexual harassment, age discrimination, or a hostile work environment. The interviewer must interpret their responses, let them know they were heard, take appropriate action, and provide necessary follow-up. Ignoring this type of feedback means serious workforce issues remain unaddressed and could potentially lead to lawsuits filed by the departing employee.
6. Preserve confidentiality. This is a terrible time to break the former employee’s trust. Tell them with whom you will share their responses and recognize that certain responses must remain confidential.
7. Maintain decorum. The interviewer should go into the meeting prepared to hear negative — potentially offensive — comments about the employee’s team members and supervisors. Only provide constructive feedback and never engage in a verbal tit-for-tat. You must always maintain professionalism.

The information collected during the offboarding interview must be recorded, evaluated, and passed along to the appropriate parties while adhering to confidentiality rules.

After an exit interview

Once the interview is completed, employers should maintain all notes and records, including copies of any employment-related agreements. Consider following up with any legal issues presented by the employee’s new job, particularly if there is a risk the departing employee may misappropriate any trade secrets or confidential information.

Consult with legal counsel about any legal issues or concerns that arise from the interview. Report any workplace or employee satisfaction issues to appropriate management personnel.

Final thoughts

Exit interviews provide valuable insight into a departing employee’s mindset. Honest feedback can help improve company culture, morale, and employee retention. A respectful, thorough interview may even result in the boomerang employee effect.

These final interviews also help protect your organization from unwanted legal claims lodged by departing employees. Use the Practical Law Departing Employee Checklist, which contains insights about exit interviews, severance considerations, and protection of trade secrets addressed by federal law, to protect your company. If you don’t have it already, you can try Practical Law for free today.