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Retention and its levers

What is an exit interview?

Definition

An exit interview is a structured conversation with a departing employee about why they are leaving and what would have changed their mind.

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An exit interview asks a leaver why they are going.

It happens after notice is given and before the last day, usually with someone from HR or a manager other than the leaver's own, so the person can speak freely. The aim is to learn what caused the exit and what would have changed it.

By then it is too late to change this exit. The value is in the next one. That is the difference from a stay interview, which asks the same questions of people who have not resigned, while you can still act on the answers. The written version is the exit survey.

Leavers will tell you things that current staff will not.

It is the cheapest source of honest feedback you will ever get, and the least useful if nobody aggregates the answers. One interview is an anecdote, fifty tagged interviews are a pattern.

A useful exit interview follows the same steps every time.

Schedule it during the notice period, not on the last afternoon. Have it run by someone other than the direct manager, ask the same core questions every time, and tag the main reasons for leaving from a fixed list, so the answers can be counted.

These core questions work in most exit interviews.

  • What made you start looking, and when?
  • What would have changed your mind?
  • How would you describe your relationship with your manager?
  • Did you see a path to grow here?
  • What should we keep doing?

You measure exit interviews by counting the tagged reasons.

Formula

Share of exits citing a reason = interviews tagged with that reason ÷ all exit interviews × 100

Take an invented year with 40 exit interviews. If 14 of them name a stalled path as the main reason, that is 14 ÷ 40 × 100 = 35% of exits, a pattern worth acting on. One interview naming it is an anecdote.

Report the counts to the leadership team every quarter, split by team and by whether the exit was regretted. A reason that keeps appearing among regretted exits is the first thing to fix.

These are the common mistakes with exit interviews.

  • Having the leaver's own manager run it, when the manager may be the reason.
  • Writing free-text notes that nobody can count later.
  • Holding it on the last day, when the person has already mentally left.
  • Collecting answers but never reporting the pattern to the leaders who could act on it.

Find out who is showing exit signals.

An exit interview explains an exit after the fact. Score one person against ten factors in five areas, in a few minutes, and see the next one coming.

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These related terms are in the glossary too.

  • Exit survey

    An exit survey is the written, usually anonymous form version of the exit interview, built from consistent questions so answers can be counted across many leavers.

  • Stay interview

    A stay interview is a structured conversation with a current employee about what keeps them here and what would make them consider leaving.

  • Voluntary turnover

    Voluntary turnover is a departure the employee chose: a resignation, a retirement, or a move to another employer.

  • Regretted attrition

    Regretted attrition is a departure the company did not want: someone whose performance, skills or relationships you would have paid to keep.

  • Resignation signal

    A resignation signal is an observable change that tends to precede someone giving notice, such as a public profile refresh, a withdrawal from optional work, or a shift in visible career activity.

  • Employee turnover

    Employee turnover is the movement of people out of a company over a set period, counted as the employees who leave and are replaced.

These pages on this site go deeper.

Back to the HR glossary, where all 52 terms are defined.