How to Conduct Exit Interviews (+ Free Interview Template)

It’s always hard when a good employee leaves. When they do, the best you can do is to find out why — and use these insights to shape your employee experience for the better. The time to do this is at an exit interview.

In this guide, we’ll explore what an exit interview is, why they’re useful, and how to conduct them effectively. We’ll also share some of our top exit interview questions and a template to help you streamline the process.

What is an exit interview?

An exit interview is a two-way conversation between a departing employee and someone from the organisation. The meeting is a chance for the employee to share valuable information, and for organisation reps to understand their reasons for leaving. The goal is to identify opportunities to create a better environment for future employees, leading to higher levels of employee retention.

Exit interviews typically take place between the leaving employee and someone in a management position (or from the human resources team). They’re usually not hosted by the direct line manager — this is to create more space to freely discuss management concerns and feedback.

Traditionally, exit interviews happen in person. However, there’s no reason why you can’t schedule a video or phone call to conduct your exit meeting instead — and this is rising in popularity thanks to hybrid and remote working.

The benefits of hosting exit interviews

Lots of people say that exit interviews are among the most important conversations you have at work (although Charlie's CEO actually disagrees). Regardless of your take on their importance, exit interviews do often uncover valuable insights — after all, it’s easier for your employee to speak honestly when they know they’re on their way out.

If you’re curious about why your best employees choose to leave, and what might’ve encouraged them to stay, you need to conduct exit interviews.

An effective exit interview allows you to discover:

Whether people are happy with their role or workload
If your management team is working effectively
What your departing employee thinks about your company in general
Honest feedback about corporate culture, working relationships, career opportunities, and more

The exit interview is a chance to listen, learn, and find ways to do better in the future.

What to cover in your exit interviews

If you’re new to hosting exit interviews, or you want to revamp your process, you might be wondering what to talk about. There’s no set list of questions or topics to cover, but it should be varied enough to be valuable to both of you.

An effective exit interview touches on topics like:

General experience of the role, company, workload, and time at the organisation
Job satisfaction and employee happiness
Feedback on their role, workload, and responsibilities
Experience of learning and development, training, and development opportunities
Feedback on company culture, work environment, and perks and benefits packages
Insights into management style and senior leadership
Reasons for leaving

You might decide to focus on one area more than others, but covering all these topics in your exit interview gives you a good opportunity to collect useful employee feedback for the future.

Not sure where to start with these topics? We’ll share our go-to interview questions later in the guide!

How to conduct effective employee exit interviews

We’ve covered why exit interviews are useful, but how do you run them in a meaningful way? Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to conduct exit interviews in a clear, effective, and valuable way.

1. Schedule the exit interview in advance

An exit interview shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Instead of inviting the leaving employee over for a quick chat on their last day, plan ahead and schedule the interview in advance.

The best time to conduct the interview is on the employee’s last day, or during their last week with you. Choose a date and time that works for both the employee and the interviewer, and offer different formats to accommodate needs — like a face-to-face meeting, a video call, or an asynchronous conversation.

2. Choose a neutral venue

The interview should feel open, impartial, and not dominated by either party. To allow this to happen, choose a meeting location that feels neutral to everyone.

Ask the employee where they’d feel most comfortable, and give them a few options. They might prefer a meeting room they use often, a local coffee shop, or a private space at a nearby coworking venue. At Charlie, we often head somewhere informal like a local café.

3. Prepare your questions in advance

There are no downsides to preparing your exit interview questions in advance. Doing this allows you to make sure you’re covering every topic of discussion fully, so you can get the most value out of the conversation.

Consider the topics we’ve suggested above and come up with your own questions, or use our free exit interview template to discover insightful questions to ask your departing employees.

4. Outline what to expect

Put your employees at ease by sharing an agenda and what to expect in advance. This might be their first exit interview, so it’s helpful to explain how you run them at your company. You should also share a list of topics or questions in advance so they can fully prepare.

With an agenda and a list of questions, your employee feels like they’re an equal participant in the conversation. They can mull over their experiences and come back with honest feedback, rather than quickly thinking of an answer on the spot.

5. Guide the conversation

Traditional interviews often feel like they’re heavily led by the manager or HR professional. In an exit interview though, you want to play the role of guide rather than leader.

Ask questions, but allow plenty of time and space for the employee to consider them before answering. Use open-ended questions that can be answered freely, rather than ones with a single-word or closed answer. Be there to steer the conversation to the desired topics, but welcome unexpected feedback too.

6. Listen carefully to the departing employee

Along with guiding the conversation, the interviewer’s other main role is to listen. This conversation is a chance to hear honest feedback, so you should be actively listening to what’s being said.

Allow yourself to fully focus on the conversation with no distractions. Look for opportunities to ask relevant follow-up questions, and engage in the discussion without taking it over.

Exit interviews can be really difficult, especially if the company is your own. It’s a conversation where someone basically has free reign to have a go at you and your company... It can feel like you’re being kicked whilst you're down. But the trick is to just swallow your pride, and let them have their say. Ben Gateley, CEO at CharlieHR.

7. Record any feedback you’re given

During and after the exit interview, note down any valuable feedback, insights, or issues you’ve uncovered. Write down everything — the good and the bad — so you have an accurate record of what was said or raised.

With detailed notes, you’re in a better place to take action later on. You can also share your findings with other members of the senior leadership or HR team, so you can work together to reach your employee retention goals.

8. Follow up with a thank you

Exit interviews aren’t mandatory, so it’s always positive when a leaving employee is happy to sit down and talk with you about their experiences. Express your gratitude by sending a quick thank you message or email.

Your thank you note is an opportunity to show you respect their time and the feedback they shared. You can also talk about what you’ll do in the future — for example, if their feedback will be shared with the leadership team, used to change your internal processes, or saved for the future.

9. Take action on feedback

It’s not enough to simply collect constructive feedback. You also need to follow up and act on what you’ve learned. This isn’t always easy, but it’s a necessary step if you want to grow into a better organisation.

Share your feedback with the right people and discuss how you can move forward with it. This might mean reviewing your onboarding process, adjusting perks and benefits, or introducing new training for managers.

10. Turn your steps into a process

People come and go all the time, even in a small business. Instead of creating a whole new journey every time, turn this exit interview process into a workflow that you can repeat every time you encounter the situation.

Use our free exit interview template and what you’ve learned in this guide to create an offboarding workflow that includes an exit interview. If you’re a Charlie user, combine this with our offboarding feature to streamline the way you handle leavers.

Also think about getting the leaver a letter of recommendation so they can give it to their new employer. It's a good practice before they ask for it, and you will both part on good terms. Have a look at our letter of recommendation template for more info.

18 useful questions to ask at an exit interview

It’s easier to imagine what the exit interview looks like when you have a list of questions to read over. That’s why we’re sharing these exit interview question examples, so you can take inspiration from (or borrow them) for your own process.

Many of these questions are the same ones we use at Charlie for our offboarding process. The questions are sorted by category and come with an explanation of the purpose of the type of question.

General experience

Get a general sense of what the employee’s experience was like working with you. Understand what factors were most rewarding, and what led to their decision to leave.

What aspects of your job did you find most satisfying?
What were your primary reasons for leaving?
Can you describe a typical day at work for you here?
What improvements, if any, would you suggest for the workplace?

Role-specific feedback

These questions focus specifically on the employee’s role within the company, and how well it aligned with their expectations. They also explore whether their day-to-day matched their job responsibilities.

How well did the job description match your initial expectations?
Were there any unanticipated changes in your role that affected your decision to leave?
How do you feel about the way your responsibilities were structured?

Learning and development (L&D)

Did the employee feel like they had a future in their role, and have access to training and resources? These questions can help you learn about how you can support your career advancement.

Did you feel supported in your professional development here?
Were there sufficient opportunities for learning and growth in your role?
How effective were the training and development resources provided to you?

Company culture

Company culture is what separates a job people want to stay in, and a job in which people check out mentally until payday. Get the employee’s perspective on aspects of workplace culture like inclusivity, respect, and work-life balance.

How would you describe the company culture?
What aspects of the company culture would you like to see changed?
Did you feel included and respected in the workplace?
How well did the company support work-life balance?

Decision to leave

Why did the employee choose to leave? Was it to pursue other opportunities, or was it something specific that happened in the company? Knowing the factors that influenced their decision to leave could be beneficial in preventing further turnover.

What prompted your decision to leave?
Were there specific events or circumstances that influenced your decision?
How do you feel about the way your departure was handled?
What could we have done differently to keep you with us?

Conduct better meetings with our exit interview template

Instead of copying and pasting the questions above, we’ve prepared everything ready for you in a handy downloadable template.

Get your free exit interview questions template now and start conducting more effective exit surveys with your employees.

Learn and grow with effective exit interviews

Exit interviews can feel awkward — especially if the employee is leaving under bad circumstances. But the discomfort is necessary if you want to grow as a company and create the kind of employee experience that people stick around for.

Use this guide to help you create or revamp your offboarding process to include effective exit interviews. Not only will you uncover honest feedback, but you’ll be able to leave on a positive note with your departing employee and demonstrate your commitment to building a better company culture and work environment to your current employees.

As you take steps to improve your offboarding process, consider investing in HR software to help you streamline steps and create better workflows. With Charlie, you can create not just offboarding workflows but manage onboarding, time off, performance management, and more. Start a free trial today to find out more.

Exit interviews: Frequently asked questions

Our HR experts get asked about offboarding and exit interviews a lot. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions, along with our best advice on how to tackle this tricky subject.

Is an exit interview a legal requirement?

No. While we think exit interviews are extremely useful, there’s no legal requirement in the UK to conduct them. This also means there’s no requirement for employees to attend them, so it’s not unusual for people to decline the request.

What should you say in an exit interview?

An exit interview is an opportunity for the departing employee to talk about their experience and why they’re leaving. And as a HR department representative or manager, it’s the interviewer’s chance to understand what went wrong (and what worked well), so they can make improvements for the future.

It helps to have an agenda, but leave plenty of freedom for the interviewee to talk openly about their time at the organisation. Allow them to speak honestly, as long as the discussion feels respectful and appropriate.

When should the exit interview be scheduled for?

It’s best to schedule the exit interview to take place during the employee’s last week at the company. If you conduct it too early, they may not feel comfortable being completely honest. If you wait until after they leave, they may simply decline or be too busy with their new job.

How long is a typical exit interview?

Exit interviews shouldn’t be too long. Aim for between 30 minutes and 1 hour. This gives you plenty of time to cover the required topics and get the answers you need, and also allows some extra time in case the interviewee wants to talk about a particular subject or experience in more detail.

Should you always do an exit interview?

Some experts believe you should only host outgoing interviews with star team members and your top talent. We believe you should conduct exit interviews with everyone that leaves, regardless of how they feel about your company.

Interviewing everyone means you can gather a more varied and more accurate set of data to compare. You get positive and negative feedback, along with a more accurate picture of how your company is viewed by employees.

Should the questions be the same for every interview?

There will be some questions that don’t apply to everyone — for example if you ask about how it felt to manage a team — but in most cases, the interview questions should remain the same for everyone.

With the same questions, you can compare feedback across different interviews, teams, and departments. It’s also easier to manage, as you can send a standard list of questions to your departing employees in advance rather than personalising it every time.

How many people should be in the exit interview?

Talking about your experience of the workplace can feel overwhelming for some people — especially if it wasn’t all positive. Create the best possible environment for honesty and transparency by limiting the number of interviewers to one.

Should you record exit interviews?

Some people feel that you should record every interview or meeting at an organisation, while others take a different approach. Take the lead from your own internal policy on recording meetings here, and discuss your approach with senior leadership. Agree whether you’ll record all exit interviews or not, and make this clear to employees in advance.

If you do choose to record them, you should also explain where the recordings are stored, who they’re shared with, and what they’re used for.

What other ways can you gather feedback from a departing employee?

Exit interviews are extremely valuable, but they’re not the only employee engagement method you can use to get feedback. Encourage them to share feedback anonymously in a suggestion box, send out an anonymous survey or questionnaire, or let them know they can write or speak to you at any time to share additional comments about their experiences. You could also send an exit interview form before your meeting to gather thoughts in writing.

And our final tip, make sure you've got a succession planning template at the ready way before people leave – this will allow you to scope the needs for each role and avoid stressing out to find a replacement.