How To Design An Exit Interview Format (With Template)

Updated 22 November 2022

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An exit interview is a final interaction the company has with an employee who has decided to leave the organisation. The company does this to discuss the reasons the employee is leaving and their experience of working for the organisation. As an HR professional, you may conduct this interview, and it can be helpful for you to understand its format. In this article, we discuss what an exit interview format is, explain how to draft one and provide an example template to help you draft your own.

What Is An Exit Interview Format?

An exit interview format or template includes questions designed to elicit honest feedback from a departing employee. During a face-to-face interview with the employee who is leaving, the interviewer asks exit interview questions. It usually consists of open-ended questions that can help start a discussion about why the employee left the company and what they liked or disliked about the workplace culture and environment. Employee feedback assists the company in identifying and improving turnover and creating a more positive work environment to retain employees in the long term.

How To Design An Exit Interview Template

Here are the steps you can take to create an exit interview format while ensuring that the template serves the organisation's best interests:

1. Gather the basic information

An exit interview starts with questions about the basic information about the employees and their role in the company. This information helps the interviewer locate the specific departments or managers who may need some development. Using this information, you can also contact the manager and the employee's teammates to understand how important the employee has been to the organisation. This can help you help address the employee's needs and change their decision to leave the firm.

You can ask for these details at the top of the form:

Name of the employee
Employee ID or employee number
Designation
Department
Name of the supervisor or manager
Duration of employment in the company
Location

2. Get feedback on training and onboarding experience

Consider beginning by asking about the onboarding experience. An efficient onboarding process and proper employee training can help develop confident and proficient employees. The initial training they receive also improves employee productivity. The company may be in a better position to show high retention rates when the employees feel that their job description was clear and their training was effective. Employers use negative reports on training and on-boarding experiences to make changes and improve their processes. You can also use this section to understand the extra training, seminars and courses that employees in different fields would prefer after joining work.

3. Evaluate workplace culture and climate

Workplace culture and environmental factors may affect overall job satisfaction. It can be helpful to a company to know what an employee feels when working in a particular role, to make changes accordingly and to retain employees. This section also helps reduce the difference between the expected work culture of the organisation at its top level and the actual work environment. The feedback from this section can help you, as an HR professional, to suggest improvements and activities for specific departments. Here are a few questions you can ask to understand and evaluate workplace culture and climate:

Please describe the culture and atmosphere of the company.
Do you feel that the company valued and recognised you?
Did you feel welcome in your team or department?
What did you like most about your work environment? What did you like the least?
Were there enough opportunities to make friendly connections at work?
Did you feel supported in your role?
Did you have the equipment and technology you required to do your job properly? If not, what was lacking?
Were you given clear goals and objectives for the job?
Was there a safe way to express questions or concerns?
Did you feel happy coming to work each day?

4. Ask questions about the employee's decision to leave

If an employee's reason for leaving the company is work-related problems, their feedback can help the company make specific improvements. Here are the questions that may be helpful in identifying a need for improvement:

What was your reason for resigning?
Were you satisfied with your salary?
Were you satisfied with your job title?
Were you satisfied with your job location?
Did you feel recognised for your contributions to the company?
Did the job live up to your expectations?
What prompted you to look for a different job, and what made you decide to leave?

5. Ask for the employee's personal opinions

It is important to know the personal opinions of the employees regarding the company. This may help the company make changes in the organisation. Here are the questions that may be helpful in knowing the employee's personal opinions.

Did the job live up to your expectations? If not, then why?
Do you feel your job description has changed since the company hired you? If so, then how?
What qualities may we absolutely look for in your replacement?
What was the best part of your job?
What was the worst part of your job?
Did you get clear goals and objectives?
Could we have done something to make you stay? If so, what?

Purpose Of An Exit Interview

It is critical that the employee understands the purpose of the exit interview form and why it is critical for the company to receive truthful responses. A company tries to keep their employees for as long as possible because it takes time, effort and money to hire, train and pay employees. Employers value a high employee retention rate. The longer an employee stays with a company, the greater the return on investment. As a result, it is in employers' best interests to make their company a place where employees want to work and want to continue working in the future.

You can explain the following to the employees before they complete the exit interview form:

The purpose of the form
The need for honesty over unearned compliments
Assurance of confidentiality

Example Exit Interview Template

Here is an example exit interview template you can use as a guide while designing your own:

Confidential employee exit feedback form

Basic Information

Name of the employee:
Designation:
Department:
Name of the supervisor or manager:
Duration of employment in the company:
Location:

Preparedness

Help us understand how prepared you felt to complete your assigned duties with proficiency. Review the following questions and rate your experience on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest level:

The job description I received was comprehensive and relevant to the role.
The training was impactful in understanding and fulfilling the job.
The number of training courses and resources I received was sufficient in preparing for your role.
Someone was available as a resource or guide.
I had received all the tools and equipment needed for the job.

Culture

The following are YES or NO answers. Feel free to elaborate to help us better understand your experience.

Did you feel welcome in your team or department?
Were there enough opportunities to make friendly connections at work?
Did you feel supported in your role?
Was there a safe way to express questions or concerns?
Did you feel happy coming to work each day?
Did your salary feel commensurate with the workload and job title?
Did you feel recognised for your contributions to the company?
Did you ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable in the workplace?

Reason for departure

What led to your departure from the company? Please check all that apply.

Lack of connectedness
Work duties were unmanageable
Work duties were not challenging
Relationship with supervisor
Lack of work-life balance
Length of commute
Insufficient salary
Lack of promotion or advancement
Job offer elsewhere
Relationship with a peer or team member
relocating for reasons unrelated to work
personal reasons

Please read the following questions and respond with as much detail as possible:

What is your reason for leaving this role?
If you had concerns about this role, did you ever communicate them to a peer, HR or supervisor? If so, who did you talk to, and what was the outcome of that communication?
Is there anything that our company could have done to avoid your departure?
Would you be willing to return to work for our company at some point in the future?