Exit Interview Questions and Answers
An exit interview is a process of collecting comments from an exiting employee and utilizing them for the improvement of the company. Every employee in the company has his/her own experiences. These experiences may be of success, failure, teamwork, communication, workspace problems, hardware, software problems etc. These experiences have been, in some way, a part of the employee's stay in the company and have contributed to or affected the performance.
These problems, faced by employee, but not known to the employer can be brought out when the employee is leaving the company. These experiences can be recorded and rectified in the form of comments such that other employees have better experiences. An exit interview is in the form of a questionnaire, usually evaluated by the human resources personnel, contains questions and expects honest answers from the employee. However, an employee has the option of not answering it.
The most common questions in a questionnaire include:
- Reasons for leaving the company: The Company will surely require the reason for the employee to leave, probing on which the company can stop losing more employees in the same concern.
- Problems in training: Questions regarding problems faced by the employee during training sessions or procedures is of frequent occurrence. The employee can list problems if any.
- Goals : Some companies set goals that may not be completed within the mentioned deadline. Such situations that had caused work pressure should be mentioned. It can relieve other employees when taken care of.
- Performance appraisal : The hard work done by employees that resulted in better productivity or problem solving may not have been accounted for. It is left to the employee to decide to give information on this sensitive issue.
- Support : Experiences in the support offered by team and project leaders, head of the department, senior management or colleagues is useful in altering the problems and providing better support.
- Most liked : The employee can mention the policies or work culture that he/she liked the most during his/her tenure. Suggestions to improve can also be given.
- Most disliked : The company's features disliked by the employee should be mentioned. The answer should be shaped in order to not hurt anyone's emotions especially colleagues who were working with the company.
- Company policy : Certain policies of the company may not be suitable for the employee. It is hard to make corrections in company policies, still the employee can render his/her thoughts.
- Salary : One of the primary reasons for which the employee leaves. If the employee does not want to stay in the company, even if the pay is increased, it is better to skip this section.
- Transfers : If the employee is moving out of town, the employer may raise a question about transfers within the organization. Genuine reasons should be stated here.
- Encourage to stay : The company can ask the employee to suggest any offerings with which he/she would prefer to stay. Same as the salary question, this is better to skip if a decision is made.
- Replacement : Skills a replacement should possess. Can be suggested by the employee.
- Recommendation : The employee may also be asked to recommend a known person who can better fit the vacant position.
- Rehire : Question about the employee's interest in returning to the company in the future. A wise answer for this question would be 'yes'.
