How to conduct an exit interview

Exit interviews aim to gather feedback from a departing employee about your organisation. Here are some practical tips on how to organise and conduct one.

Understand what your organisation is doing well, and what could be improved, from an employee who is leaving your business. Done well, the exit interview can deliver valuable business and operational insights to help increase employee satisfaction and engagement.

1. When to conduct the interview

Avoid conducting the exit interview on an employee’s final day. This is a common mistake many businesses make, and can mean you’re putting added pressure on your employee, when it may already be an emotional and chaotic time for them.

However, a formal interview too early, when the employee still has to spend a few weeks working with their manager and colleagues, is also not ideal.

Conducting the exit interview too early may result in the employee giving safe, evasive or inaccurate reasons for leaving for fear of possible repercussions while still employed. This reduces the chances of the employer identifying the real reason the employee is leaving.

Best practice is to conduct the interview close to, but not actually on, the employee’s final day of work.

Exit interviews may be criticised as an “after-the-horse-has-bolted” exercise. Finding the right time to conduct the interview is significant as it may give you the opportunity to take swift remedial action on issues identified by a departing employee before further damage occurs. The timing of the interview may also give you time to change an employee’s mind and prevent a resignation.

Although harder to organise, there may be advantages in conducting interviews at a time after the employee has left. By that time, the consequences (good and bad) of leaving the job are evident to the employee, there is less perceived threat from providing criticism, and the information obtained is likely to be more accurate.

2. Who should conduct the interview?

It is important to select a suitable interviewer and ensure they clearly understand their role.

They should be someone perceived as “neutral” by the employee and removed from their day-to-day work situation. The interviewer’s status within the business should also reflect positively on the departing employee.

An HR manager or senior HR practitioner will usually meet these criteria, provided they have a high level of credibility within the organisation. If not, alternatives include another senior manager who is capable of assessing the significance of the information provided, or an external consultant.

The line manager or supervisor should not conduct the exit interview as they are too close to the action, may feel threatened by any criticism, and may discourage the employee from speaking up.

The interviewer also needs to remain neutral, neither defending the employer against criticism, nor agreeing with and supporting the departing employee.

Another option, which may be suitable for employees who regard a face-to-face interview as confronting or wish their comments to remain anonymous, is to provide a printed or online questionnaire. The employee’s responses may be more considered, but the drawbacks are some employees will not bother to complete the questionnaire and their comments cannot be clarified or probed.

3. Where to conduct the interview?

The location and timing should be convenient for the employee and they should be told when making the appointment how long the interview is likely to take.

Use a private room located away from the employee’s own workplace and work colleagues and ensure there will be no distractions or interruptions. A recruitment interviewing room is usually suitable.

In organisations with high turnover and problems with culture and morale, conducting exit interviews discreetly will be especially important. The value of interviews can be undermined if employees start referring sarcastically to HR offices or meeting rooms as “the departure lounge” or similar.

Finally, always remember the employee is doing the organisation a favour by agreeing to attend an exit interview. Thanking them for taking part, and again at the end no matter how the interview pans out, is important.

4. Is an exit interview mandatory for an employee?

Arguably yes, as an exit interview is a lawful and reasonable directive by the employer.

But if an employment relationship has deteriorated, an employee may be uncooperative and the result will be little more than a box-ticking exercise that wastes time.

QSuper can help

Being an employer of choice means supporting employees both when they join your business or workplace, and also when they make the decision to move on.

QSuper’s changing jobs resource can easily be included in your exit process. This can be provided to a departing employee, either in hardcopy or in a digital format, which can be attached to an email.

To request printed copies, give our Employer Support team a call on 1300 367 845.

If you'd like to know more about delivering a smooth exit process for an employee, read our News Hub article on 'Tips for the employee exit process'.

The opinions expressed and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the QSuper Board. No responsibility is taken for the accuracy of any of the information supplied and you should seek advice for your circumstances.