Exit Interview Questions: 20 Essential Qs for HR Leaders

When an employee leaves your company, you want to understand the reasons behind it. According to Gallup, 36% of voluntary leavers did not consult anyone before their resignation. Exit interview questions provide the rare opportunity to gain valuable insights into your employees' true feelings and to learn how you might prevent further departures.

Exit interviews are an important part of your offboarding strategy. The questions in the exit interview should encourage honest and detailed answers—regardless of the circumstances of the departure.

Skipping exit interviews – or ignoring their insights – can significantly jeopardize employee retention. For example, if an employee leaves the company due to a culture perceived as toxic or a lack of development opportunities, it is likely that others feel the same way. And as long as these weaknesses are not addressed, it is only a matter of time before more employees leave. In other words: if you don't ask, you'll never know.

To help you with this, we have compiled 20 of the best questions for exit interviews and surveys. These will help you uncover hidden patterns, identify potential issues, and strengthen employee retention.

Why are exit interviews important?

Exit interviews and surveys are important because they provide honest insights into your company culture, daily operations, and management practices. They also help you understand why employees leave your company.

While negative feedback is often hard to accept, without exit interviews your company could miss important opportunities to increase employee satisfaction and improve retention.

There are many reasons for resignations – higher pay, poor supervisors, and lack of career advancement opportunities are among the three most common. But remember: it doesn’t always have to be something negative. A move, a career change, or a position that better suits work-life balance and personal priorities can also be reasons.

The 20 Best Questions for Exit Interviews

To help you make the most of your exit interviews, we have compiled 20 of the best questions for you. Our sample questions are divided into different subcategories so you can find the ones that are right for your company.

Reasons for Leaving

Questions in an exit interview that relate to an employee's reasons for leaving are important because they capture their overall experience at your company. They also allow the employee to provide more general answers. These questions can also be explored in greater depth during the exit interview.

1. Why did you decide to leave the company?
2. Did you get along with your direct supervisor?
3. Did you get along with your colleagues?
4. How would you assess working at our company in general?
5. Could we have done anything to prevent you from leaving?

Employee Experience

Employee experience affects employee retention and satisfaction in any company. By incorporating this aspect into your exit interview questions, you can highlight strengths and areas for improvement and optimize the work environment for current and future employees.

1. How did you perceive your leadership?
2. Did you receive regular constructive feedback from your supervisor?
3. Which benefits or programs did you miss in the company?
4. Were your achievements adequately recognized?

Role-Specific Questions

Role-specific questions in an exit interview help uncover skill gaps, challenges, and inefficiencies within a position. This provides insights into the expectations for the role, workload, and more, allowing for better role structuring and smoother transitions for future hires.

1. Were your responsibilities clearly defined? Did you know what was expected of you?
2. Did you have all the necessary resources to do your job here?
3. Did you receive adequate training?
4. Did the role meet your expectations?
5. Were there clear development goals to work towards?
6. What did you enjoy about your work? Was it fulfilling, challenging, or too easy?

Future-Oriented Questions

Exit interviews are about openness and honesty. Honest feedback from departing employees can improve company policies, reveal systemic issues, and create a positive work environment.

1. What are the biggest risks for our company?
2. What advice would you give to your team?
3. What would make this company a better place to work?
4. Could you imagine working here again?
5. Would you recommend that others apply to work with us?

5 Tips for Better Exit Interviews  

Most departing employees are skeptical about exit interviews. This can be due to fear of a break with their previous employer or the perception that nothing will change. According to a Gallup survey, only four out of ten U.S. employees were satisfied with the exit process at their previous employer. Design your exit interviews so that they provide a positive experience for both parties.  

The good news? You can improve the situation by ensuring clarity from the start. Here are five tips for conducting and designing an effective exit interview.

1. Explain the purpose of the conversation

Exit interviews can be uncomfortable for departing employees if they don’t know what to say. Therefore, it is important to assure them that they have nothing to worry about. Explain that you simply want to understand their reasons for seeking a new position.

Also emphasize that, on behalf of the employees, you aim to promote positive changes to improve the company culture and that you value their honest and constructive feedback. Once employees understand the reasons for the conversation, they are much more likely to share their thoughts.

2. Schedule the exit interview at the right time.

Most employees give four weeks' notice. Therefore, it is best to schedule the exit interview in the last week of work. At this point, they are likely open to sharing their thoughts. If possible, meet in person, but a video call is also acceptable.

However, some companies only conduct the exit interview after the employee has left. This often takes the form of a questionnaire. By then, the employee has likely already switched off, which can allow for a more relaxed conversation and thus a more open discussion.

3. Choosing the Right Person for the Exit Interview

Most employees don’t quit their job, they quit their manager. A LinkedIn survey found that seven out of ten U.S. workers reported leaving their job due to a bad manager.

So if the exit interview is conducted by the departing employee's direct supervisor, this can be problematic. A Gallup survey also showed that 24% of departing employees experienced "rudeness, hostility, or generally negative reactions" from their manager.

Keep the atmosphere neutral and friendly by having a HR manager or a second-level manager conduct the conversation. Since these individuals occupy an intermediate position (they are one level above the departing employee), they can gather more honest feedback. Additionally, they have the opportunity to make changes based on the employee's feedback.

4. Listen attentively

In an exit interview, it is important to listen carefully to the employee. This gives the employee the sense that their feedback is valued by the company. Also, ask follow-up questions to build on their feedback and avoid jumping to conclusions.

5. Asking the Right Questions

Unfortunately, unsuitable questions often prevent an effective exit interview. Therefore, follow our recommendations to optimize the offboarding process. Otherwise, your company may miss out on important opportunities for improvement. With the right questions and appropriate interview techniques, you can better understand the reasons behind an employee's departure.

The right questions in an exit interview also help you gain valuable insights about your company, enabling you to increase employee satisfaction and retain top talent.

Next steps: Optimize your exit interviews

Once you have created the right atmosphere and encouraged honest employee feedback, it is up to you to take action.

While former employees may not care what measures your company takes—or does not take—based on their feedback, it is certainly important for current employees.

To get the most out of your exit interviews, listen carefully, analyze the results, and look for patterns. Have several people complained about the same thing? Make a note of it and talk to your current employees to find out how you can improve their experience.

If you take the time and effort to make the offboarding process professional for your departing employees, it can bring many benefits.

Exit interviews are indispensable tools for organizational improvement, transforming voluntary departures into actionable insights. Asking the right questions, conducted by a neutral HR professional, is the key to uncovering systemic issues that drive turnover. The insights gathered are only valuable if they lead to measurable change. IceHrm's Core HR and Reporting features are essential for this final step. By documenting the structured feedback from these 20 questions within IceHrm, HR can generate reports to uncover hidden patterns (e.g., high turnover linked to specific managers or departments) and track whether reported weaknesses—such as lack of development opportunities or poor manager relations—are being addressed. This ensures that the time invested in exit interviews directly contributes to a data-driven strategy for strengthening employee retention and overall company culture.