Last Updated on 10 months by Anoob P T
Exit interview questions are really helpful for employees and managers to grow. In this post, we are going to look at 14 Sensible Exit Interview Questions & Answers.
I have worked for over 12 years in different capacities and my last full time job was handling digital marketing for a large company.
Now, I’m making a full time income online through different side projects and few clients.
If you also interested in getting started with a career in digital marketing, you can read my post on How to Get An Entry Level Job in Digital Marketing.
During the course of my career, I have handled exit interviews for many employees and I have also exited many companies.
I have changed almost 8 jobs in 12 years so you can imagine how many exit interviews I would have attended.
Exit interview questions bring forth an opportunity for managers and owners to gain a deep insight over the matters related to company and employees.
In my opinion, it’s better to approach an employee who is about to leave the company to get honest feedback concerning company culture, business management, and other stuff.
It’s highly possible that an employer might not know about some matters going on. It could be related to behaviour of a manager, employee, or anything.
Exit interview questions and answers are a great chance to know the employee’s perspective for the company.
14 Sensible & Practical Exit Interview Questions & Answers
Table of Contents
What made you think of switching your job?
Every person will give a unique answer for this question.
Every employee has their own reason to start looking for a job in another company.
But it still is a relevant question, as it might be able to detect if the people are leaving jobs due to a common theme.
In my case, most of the times I exited a company or someone in my team exited was because of Managers.
Some managers tend to think that creating fear and micro managing work is the best way to get a job done.
In this age of Internet and opportunities, it is very difficult to retain good employees so you want to understand why the employee is leaving your organization.
Why are you thinking of leaving?
The first and second question might appear to be the same, but they aren’t.
People prefer to keep knowledge about offers and packages offered by other companies.
But not all of them decide to switch their jobs. Henceforth, there could be something that might have triggered the employee of the company to leave.
For example, I stayed in a company for 4 years building a startup and scaling it. I thought this was my company and when funding finally happened, they just kicked me out.
For 4 years, I never got a hike but I stayed because I treated my job as a passion and I assumed that I would be taken care of at the end.
Finally, I just quit because I had enough of thier bullshit.
Under normal circumstances, it will be good to ask an employee why they are thinking of leaving so that if it is something that is fixable, you can fix it.
What is the new position offering that made you leave your current job?
The candidate’s answer to this question might give you a hint of areas where your company could be lacking.
The answer could be salary packages, company culture, benefits, incentives, flexibility, etc.
This question will help you understand if you need to change the hierarchical structure in your company or whether the designations in your company are not attractive enough for new talent.
Would you think of returning to our company?
This exit interview question will help you understand what is brand value of your company.
There are many of my ex-companies which I would never go back to working even if I did not have a job.
This includes an e-learning company whose only goal was to get sales, a digital marketing agency that only wants more clients etc.
The employee might reply with yes or no to this exit interview question.
But your major concern should be trying to know which factors would make an employee change their mind for returning to the company in the long run.
Is there anything that our company could have done to continue your job here?
I have always asked this question to people exiting my team and some HR Managers have also asked me this question.
In most cases, employee might come up with some direct answers explaining dissatisfaction with the work, company culture, incentives, salary package, etc.
These direct answers are valuable for a manager or an employer to know the underlying reason behind people quitting jobs.
Finding good talent, training them and then bringing in a replacement is very difficult and I always try to retain employees where possible.
Were you feeling equipped while doing the job in our company?
This question will help the manager or an employer to get a better insight on training employees.
An employer can also take an action to retrain the current employees of the companies.
These answers could make an employer a little uncomfortable, but they will benefit from making some changes in the training department.
In my last company, the expectations on my team was to deliver 20x ROI. My team was doing about 8-10x ROI and that too with many challenges.
My CEO once told me 8-10x ROI is nothing for us, if you cannot double it, I would fire your entire team.
Needless to say, people started quitting.
This question in an exit interview is important because it helps you understand if resources are working at maximum efficiency.
Did you have any problem while talking to the manager?
This question will help you to know about two people (employee and manager) in the company.
If you don’t receive a positive answer, then you ask the manager to make improvements or hire a new leader for your team.
Like I mentioned before, the single biggest reason why I have seen employees leave is due to thier manager.
If you notice a pattern with the way a Manager is behaving, you need to communicate with the Manager about the issue.
Is there anything that the manager could have done better?
This question will help you to know how much the manager is efficient in handling situations. You can get a better idea of the things going on at the company.
I had a manager in the past who refused to give a relieving date because he thought that if he gave me a date, I would not work properly.
Talk about petty behavior.
When my HR asked me is there something the Manager could have done better, I told her, “Yeah, he could have treated people better.”
This question will help you understand if the Manager of your team is at fault.
What do you feel about our company’s culture?
You get to know the opinion of an employee about the company culture when you ask effective exit interview questions.
It’s good to know if they felt company culture to be honest and trustworthy. This will give you a fair idea of how people perceive your business.
Have you shared your concerns with team members or any other person in the company?
This question will give a clear idea about whether actually the company culture is honest and trustworthy as much as the employee has been stating.
Company culture is something intangible and what your employees tell about your company to thier friends and family and not to the HR.
In most cases, employees will say that the company culture is great and there is nothing to improve even when they hate the culture to the core.
Try to get an honest answer for this question in the exit interview.
Do you feel like a valuable employee of our company?
If the employee says that he never felt like being treated as the valuable person in the company, then there’s a high possibility that other current employees might be feeling the same.
I knew one person who quit his job because his Manager kept asking him to shut up during the meeting.
This lady manager even used to bang her hand on the desk as an indication to her team member to shut up and then I remember her saying that she was the only female member on the board and her voice was not being heard. LOL.
This exit interview question can help you identify if there is any issues with the company culture.
Which qualities should the company expect from the employee who shall be your replacement?
This question focuses on the qualities of a person rather than skills or expertise. Maybe the job role requires a person who is patient or has people skills.
This is a rather tricky question and many people might not give a direct answer.
This is because people tend to think that they are the best at what they do and they cannot imagine anyone else doing better than them.
Still, ask this as a question in the exit interview.
What do you think was the best part of the job?
Just like the first question, this question will also be answered differently by every employee.
Every employee is unique and has specific interest and expertise. Accordingly, you will receive a unique answer for this question.
This exit interview question will help you understand where you are doing good so that you can focus more there.
What do you think was the worst part of your job?
Every employee will give a unique answer to this question.
Even if the employees are doing the same kind of job, they will have different answers depending on their perspective and experiences.
Some employees will be truthful here and lot of times, I have noticed that micromanagement was the worst part of people’s job.
Ask this question so that you understand where you can improve the day to day life of employees.
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