When valuable employees leave the company, it hampers the organization’s structure in more ways than just the burden of replacing the employee with an equally good candidate.

If your company is experiencing frequent resignations from employees and your attrition rate is going up, it’s time to dig deeper.

One of the best ways to understand why employees leave the organization is by conducting exit interviews.

Asking good employee exit interview questions can help your company get insight into the structural issues of your workforce, uncover problem areas that need immediate attention, and aid employee retention.

However, only 1% of employers are conducting exit interviews correctly as organizations fail to make employees feel confident that their honest answers won’t affect their reference letters or have other repercussions.

Read on to learn more about exit interview questions and get clarity on related questions like the following:

• What are exit interviews?
• Why exit interviews are important?
• What are some of the best exit interview questions to ask employees?
• What are some good exit interview questions for interns?

Exit Interviews Definition

Exit interviews are interviews conducted by companies with employees who have handed in their resignation letters.

The purpose of exit interviews is not to prevent an employee from leaving the organization, but to figure out the reasons that prompted their decision.

If done correctly, conducting exit interviews will offer employees a chance to talk about their honest experience working for the company and help employers identify ways to improve their work environment and structure.

Most of the exit interview questions for employees are related to their role, management style, training methods, work culture, company policies, etc.

Oftentimes, when exit interviews are conducted in-house by the organization, employees are interviewed by HR representatives rather than direct supervisors to offer a more safe and confidential environment and harbor honest responses.

However, only 1% out of 75% of all companies make the best out of these interviews by hiring third-party professionals to handle exit interviews.

Other ways through which exit interviews are conducted are via phone calls, written surveys, and online questionnaires.

Also Read: What are stay interviews?

Importance of Asking Good Exit Interview Questions

So what does asking a bunch of exit interview questions to employees who are leaving the company do any good?

The primary purpose of asking good exit interview questions is to help companies identify the problem areas that cause a high turnover rate.

Hiring is a resource-consuming process and every time a valued employee leaves the organization, it affects the workplace dynamics and with them, leaves a bit of company knowledge.

Besides, studies show that the average cost to hire an employee is $4,129, with around 42 days to fill a position.

Having a high attrition and turnover rate also affects the company’s employer brand, making it increasingly difficult to attract good talent because nobody wants to work in a place with an awful work culture where employees are disregarded.

Therefore, identifying causes that prompt good employees to leave your company and improving working conditions for present and future employees, conducting and asking good exit interview questions is crucial.

And since not all employees agree to do exit interviews, the feedback you gather from a select few becomes pivotal to driving necessary organizational changes.

Also Read: How to tell when it is time to leave a job?

Best Exit Interview Questions To Ask Employees

If your company decides to conduct exit interviews in-house, the following are some of the best questions to ask in an exit interview:

What Prompted You To Look for a New Job?

Although the answers to this exit interview question will differ for different employees, the idea is to identify common themes within their answers.

For instance, if multiple employees state a lack of growth opportunities as their reason for leaving, it’s time to revise your appraisal procedures.

Do You Think that the Company Recognized Your Contributions? If Not, How Do You Think We Can Improve?

When employers fail to adequately give credit to their employees for their hard work, it leads to resentment, loss of productivity, and engagement rate.

Thus, with this question, you can tell how competent your company’s employee recognition programs are.

Do You Think Your Job Description Changed Since You Were Hired? If So, in What Ways?

While job descriptions might evolve slightly over time, there might be instances where the employee felt minor but salient discrepancies in their everyday work.

Identifying such instances can help your company update the job description before making a new hire and attract candidates who are skilled to meet the requirements.

Accordingly, you can update the compensation front for the additional duties the role calls for.

What According To You Could the Management Do Better?

Seeking feedback about the company’s management can give you insight into how it can improve in areas that multiple candidates complain about.

Ask employees to specify experiences where they felt the management could do better. You can also ask how they felt about the chain of command within the company, their compensation packages, and the company’s inclusivity efforts.

What Did You Like the Most About Working With Our Company?

As important as it is to figure out the problem areas within your organization, it is equally important to identify the positive aspects of your company so that you can continue to offer the same experience to present and future employees.

You can also highlight these insights across your company websites and job postings because these factors make your company a good place to work.

Also Read: What is attrition rate and why does it matter in 2022?

Intern Exit Interview Questions

Exit interviews can be conducted not only for long-time employees but also for interns as they can shed light on areas of improvement that your company might have overlooked.

Listed below are some great questions to ask interns during exit interviews:

• How would you define our company culture?
• Would you recommend this internship to others? Why so?
• Did the management provide adequate support throughout the internship? If not, where did we lack?
• What would you change about the internship program and why?
• Do you think that the training given to you was adequate?
• What did you like the most about your internship?
• Do you see a future at this company? Why so?
• Was there any company policy/policies that you had a difficult time understanding?
• Do you think you were given the necessary tools, resources, and working conditions to succeed in this role?

Also Read: How to tell if your company has a toxic work environment?

Key Points from the Blog

• Asking good employee exit interview questions can help your company get insight into the structural issues of your workforce, uncover problem areas that need immediate attention, and aid employee retention.
• Exit interviews are interviews conducted by companies with employees who have handed in their resignation letters.
• The purpose of exit interviews is not to prevent an employee from leaving the organization but to figure out the reasons that prompted their decision.
• Majority of the exit interview questions for employees are related to their role, management style, training methods, work culture, company policies, etc.
• “How would you define our company culture?” and “Would you recommend this internship to others? Why so?” are some of the top exit interview questions.

Visit Hiration’s Career Activator Platform with 24x7 chat support to get expert guidance on exit interview questions. You can also reach us at support@hiration.com.