An exit interview is a method to gather valuable information from employees who are leaving the company.
Benefits
During an exit interview, the employee is usually ready to talk more openly about negative sides of his work. This can be a valuable source for collecting information about areas that need improvement in the company.
Data
The following data needs to be available about the employee who is taking the exit interview:
- Name
- Position
- Date of joining
- Date of leaving
- Duration of employment
Questions
Some of the questions you can ask during an exit interview:
- What is the thing you liked most about work here?
- What is the worst thing you did not like about work here?
- What do you think needs to be improved in the company?
- Why are you leaving the company?
- Do you think you have received adequate training in the company?
- Do you have any suggestions for improving training in the company?
- To where will you be going after leaving the company?
In order to condition an employee at the start of an exit interview and make him more willing to talk you can open the interview with the question: "Would you like us to be a reference for you when moving to a new employer?" This question can motivate the employee to cooperate better during the exit interview because he knows that though he is leaving the company, he still can benefit from it be it being a reference for him.
The information gathered from exit interviews should be collected and carefully analyzed in order to come up with common patterns that appear through the exit interviews with different employees. This information can point to areas of weakness in the company as well as areas of strengths. The information can then be used to make modifications where appropriate in the system of the company in order to enhance overall performance and avoid the reoccurrence of negative issues.