Why Conduct An Exit Interview?
Retention. Not also not really, or at least not exclusively. Retention is more difficult today than it was - even during the post-COVID Great Resignation and interestingly less talked about. Retaining your team is, of course, important and exit interviews are an absolute essential part of your off-boarding to understand what might be increasing or decreasing your retention rate.
An exit interview however, is also a key opportunity to learn more about your company from a team member who’s likely to be the most honest. You can learn about your team’s true lived experience, how you’re changing, what your team’s being tasked with, how you’re supporting your team and what your managers are actually like, among others.
Conduct exit interviews as part of your off-boarding to learn. Not to defend, not to bolster your brand, not to retain them. You include exit interviews in off-boarding to learn about your company, that’s truly the crux of it.
Essential Exit Interview Questions
Why Are You Leaving?
You probably don’t need this article to tell you you should ask this but it’s not an essential list without it either. You might also not want this to be the longest explanation because it probably seems obvious. So, let’s really talk about how to ask this and what to consider. These are the common reasons people are leaving their jobs, use it as a guideline to see if you’re falling into common traps.
Understand that they may feel like they’re running for their life to get away from your business and shouting for the others to run too. Hopefully, though they’re leaving saluting to their time with you in sincere appreciation. Regardless of their perspective, this change in their work life is likely a stressful event. In the Holmes and Rahe stress scale, three of the 42 events directly relate to changes in someone’s work life.
Be gentle and understanding and accept that they might not be the same - and that’s a good thing. While they’re off-boarding they have nothing to lose and they can speak freely. This can be harsh for you to hear, don’t be defensive. It’s your chance to hear the reality of their experience. They might also not want to speak freely, or really speak at all. Consider what might concern you about employee experience and retention rates, and ask about that. Some people might be leaving because of these exact reasons, but need probing and direct questions to speak up. But honestly, some people might just be completely checked out and have no more interest in even talking about it, accept that too. This isn’t the time to make it about the company, even though that’s your reason for conducting the exit interview and not just the practical off-boarding duties.
Please don’t make their manager do this exit interview, let someone in your people team do it. They’re a lot more likely to open up to someone “neutral” and, hopefully, someone in the people team is likely to be less defensive and open to honest feedback.
How Has The Company Changed Since You Joined?
Companies change in more way than one over time but does it leave your employees feeling like this:
They joined your company for a reason, and they’re leaving now. It’s important to understand what may have changed about the company and how that related to their reasons. Remember that the company changing isn’t a bad thing and someone off-boarding because of change, isn’t a bad thing either.
We see this a lot in start-ups and scale-ups. Change is essential but a common trap is that companies can lose, or dilute, their culture when they grow too fast. New people, quick onboarding, less hands-on leadership and overburdened or even completely new people teams can all contribute to this. Younger, smaller companies tend to have unity and an intentional culture, especially if you’re losing your original team. It’s natural for this to dilute somewhat, but make sure you’re not completely losing it.
Did The Company Meet The Expectations You Had?
Job descriptions, expected deliverables, company culture, compensation and growth opportunities are all things that people quote as misrepresented in their recruitment process. If an expectation was created and not met, your new hires aren’t likely to stay long, especially if you’re hiring Gen Z. Use this question to understand how aligned the expectations you create when hiring are to the lived experience of your team, and get it back into alignment when necessary.
How Did The Company Support Your Growth?
For years now, growth opportunities have been a key reason people join and leave companies. There’s a reason “growth mindset” is a buzzword and found in almost all requirement sections of job descriptions. Find out if you’re providing that, especially if it’s in your Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Companies have it in their benefits and written up neatly in their handbooks but it’s complicated and difficult for employees to practically access.
Growth also means different things to different people. For some it’s formal training, for others it’s mentorship and for some, it can be as simple as getting constructive feedback. Find out what it means to the team members who are leaving and whether you met that need.
How Would You Describe The Company Culture?
This is a very telling question. Firstly, you can learn whether this is the reason or a contributing reason they’re leaving. Secondly, you can learn how aligned the culture you intend to create is to what your team’s lived experience is. Thirdly, you’ll learn what they’re going to walk out telling people about your company and what public perception about your culture will be swaying towards. Word of mouth is probably the most trusted perspective for potential new hires and investors.
What Was Your Favorite And Least Favorite Thing About Working Here?
Nobody’s experience is going to be all good or all bad. You’re definitely not doing everything well or everything terribly. While you’re in the thick of it and they’re off-boarding, you might find it more difficult to distinguish between the two. Allowing someone to pinpoint one key contributor to their positive and negative experiences, encourages them to truly identify the top and bottom. And allows you to know what to prioritize maintaining and what to prioritize fixing.
Additional Questions Worth Asking:
- How would you describe the company’s management and leadership style?
- Did you get the quality and consistency of feedback you wanted?
- Did you have a healthy workload?
- What’s one thing you would change about your experience here?
- Would you consider rejoining the company in the future?
Action Based on Trends and Not Isolated Experiences
Every exit interview will highlight the positives and negatives about your company and the effect they’re having on retention. But the effect might be on this specific retention. You might want to make a to-do list from every exit interview, and to some degree, you should but it shouldn’t be one that jumps to company-wide changes and manager addresses.
One person’s experience can be an isolated one. It’s your job to figure out whether it is. What comes up in exit interviews are data points. It’s necessary to understand whether you’re seeing a recurring point in your exit interviews and whether it’s a shared view throughout the remaining team. A recurring reason people are leaving is not necessarily a negative. A zero percent staff turnover could be as detrimental as a very low retention rate. Change is good - to an extent. Analyze your data: are you okay with the reasons people are leaving, are you losing your best performers or are you losing your poor performers? Retention for the sake of retention, isn’t worth it and it’s not healthy. Yes, hiring is expensive but having the wrong team is way more expensive.
