It often seems easier to wrap things up quickly and let an employee leave quietly without stirring up too much trouble, but skipping an exit interview might be a poor choice. If you’re wondering what an exit interview is, it is essentially the opposite of a hiring interview—instead of asking an applicant why they want to join your company, you now explore why they want to leave. If you’re still wondering why companies do exit interviews, then the primary reason is to gather insight from the exiting employee and feed it back into the company’s policies and practices to ensure no other employees leave for the same reason.
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What Is an Exit Interview?
An exit interview is a formal discussion between a manager or HR personnel of a company and an employee leaving the company. The interview is expected to be conducted with all employees who are set to leave, whether they are exiting voluntarily or involuntarily. Involuntary exit interviews are harder to conduct as the employee isn’t willingly choosing to leave the company, possibly leaving on bad terms in that case. As a result, an exit interview requires a touch of delicacy and some distance to be able to have an objective conversation.
The content of an exit interview can begin with basic confirmation of things like the handover process and competition of formalities, but it can also include more complex conversations like feedback about various angles of the company members and policies. It is, most often, an elaborate, detailed interview. InCruiter reports that 80 percent of companies that conduct exit interviews see improvements in employee retention, workplace culture, and HR policies. This should give you sufficient cause to consider how you can conduct exit interviews at your company.
Why Do HR Managers Conduct Exit Interviews?
The purpose of an exit interview can vary depending on what the company is trying to understand through the conversation. If the company wants to ensure that all employees leave on good terms, an exit interview can serve that purpose. An exit interview can help smoothen things over in that case and this is also the reason why HR managers conduct exit interviews as they might be best equipped to accomplish this. HR managers may even be able to renegotiate a deal and retain top talent as well, ensuring better employee turnover numbers.
Why do companies do exit interviews when they can just leave things as they are? Because exit interviews are also unmined troves of useful information. Any employee of an organization must have required a significant investment of resources, from onboarding to training to regular feedback processes. They also likely accumulated a range of opinions and experiences about how things were done at the organization. Their insight can help companies rework problematic policies, review toxic work culture, retrain ineffective managers, and overall create a better work environment for the next employee who steps into the company.
Companies likely invest in annual reviews and assessments and using insights from this data source is just as essential as the rest. Untethered by trying to impress their seniors now, exiting employees are likely to reply with honesty which might be hard to achieve with existing employees.
How to Conduct Exit Interview: Breaking It Down
If you now have answers to your preliminary questions of “What is an exit interview?” or “Why do HR managers conduct exit interviews?” then you’re likely convinced by the benefits of investing in an exit interview. Let’s explore how to conduct an exit interview so you can develop your own exit interview best practices and improve employee retention at your company.
Exit Interview Prerequisites: Determining Internal Policy
Before actually contacting exiting employees, a company needs to determine its overall attitude toward exit interviews. Standard policies are crucial no matter what the area of concern and having a systematic approach to exit interviews can make it easier to conduct.
- Discuss with top management to establish company-wide policies on exit interviews
- Determine if they are to be voluntary or involuntary—to avoid pressurizing employees, voluntary exit interview procedures can give them a choice to participate
- Identify who will conduct the exit interviews—it could be the employee’s direct manager, their mentor, or specific members of the HR team. In small companies, the head of the company can lead it, while larger companies might hire third-party resources
- Provide training and refresher courses for those in charge of conducting the exiting interview
- Provide training for conflict resolution and de-escalation as exit interviews have the potential to get heated
- Have a predetermined checklist or list of questions to ask the employee but also employee exploratory questions to understand responses better
- Prioritize employee privacy and ensure their feedback does not directly reach concerned coworkers as it can open them up to negative treatment
- Discuss when the exit interview will be conducted—when the resignation letter is handed in or on the last day of work
- Encourage a positive perception of the process so employees are more likely to volunteer for it
Communicate the Desire for an Exit Interview With the Employee
The exit interview should not catch employees off guard as it can either lead to irritation or inaccurate data. Inform employees of the process well in advance so they can collect their thoughts and determine what they want to communicate during the exit interview. If the employee can volunteer to participate in the interview, communicate that to them and use language that does not goad them into saying yes.
- Carefully bring up the topic and explain the purpose for the exit interview if necessary
- Work with the employee to schedule the exit interview at a time when they will be available
- Allow sufficient time for the employee to prepare for the interview
- The agenda of the exit interview and a few basic questions can also be shared before the interview
- With half the work happening online, consider providing them the option of an online exit interview
- Allow the employee to make any requests regarding the exit interview—ensuring their manager is not in attendance, choosing the location, selecting the time, adding to the agenda, etc.
- Ask third-party resources for more details on how to conduct an exit interview or get them involved in the process
How to Conduct an Exit Interview
The date of the exit interview has arrived and you’re now all set to conduct the interview. It should now be a good time to check in with the employee and confirm their availability and the location of the exit interview.
- If the manager is to conduct the exit interview with an HR team member sitting in, ensure everyone is aware of any last-minute changes to the time, location, or any other detail of the exit interview
- Begin the interview with a more conversational approach to ensure you do not make the employee feel like this is just a rote task
- Express gratitude for the employee’s contribution to the company and acknowledge their achievements
- Ensure you have resources they can avail of immediately after the interview in case they need any assistance for their well-being
- Express a genuine desire to understand their perspective and listen with an open, non-judgemental mind
- Emphasis that confidentiality will be maintained and that their feedback will not be used against them (follow through with this as well)
- Begin with the prepared guidelines for the questions you need to ask, but allow room to explore their responses in-depth
- “Why/why not” questions are useful to explore statements they make to receive greater insight
- Ask them about both desirable and undesirable elements of the organization
- Explore their decision to leave the company in detail
- If there are new or prominent policies that have been introduced at the company, obtain feedback regarding the same
- Examine what aspects might have convinced them to stay with the organization
- If the employee appears determined to move to the next opportunity, do not pressure them to rethink their decision, especially if you cannot provide them with the benefits they are set to receive at their new job
- To adhere to exit interview best practices, avoid accusatory language or criticism—the exit interview is meant to facilitate exploratory discussion
- Do not bring up office rumors, gossip, or details regarding the exiting employee’s personal life as these matters will only be counterproductive
- Ensure they have everything they need to complete the notice period at the company and complete any employee offboarding processes
- Explain a positive hope for their future and their careers and encourage employees to keep in touch
With an exit interview complete and an assortment of data on record, it is also important to take that information into consideration. Soocial reports that only about 28 percent of HR managers act on data collected from exit interviews, making it a redundant process in that case. It is essential to feed this information back into a system and facilitate changes in policy and work environment to improve the working conditions at an organization.