13 Exit Interview Survey Questions & How to Run Them

So, your employee decides to leave the company and pursue new professional opportunities? Or take a career break? Or perhaps you decide it’s time for them to look for new challenges elsewhere?

Whether their departure is regrettable or not, exit surveys can offer valuable insights on how to better retain employees and help them realize their true potential.

In the article, we explore 13 questions to ask in the survey and the insights they offer.

You will also find two email templates that will help you get higher response rates and learn best practices for running exit surveys.

13 employee exit survey questions

Let’s unpack the 13 sample exit interview questions you should always include in your surveys.

They come from our employee exit survey template.

You can also find them directly in Honestly. Just create a new survey and import the questions from the template.

1. Which factors influenced your decision to leave the organization?

This multi-select question seeks to uncover specific triggers for employee turnover. Like dissatisfaction with leadership, their benefits package, or opportunities for career growth, to name just a few.

Why you care: Understanding these reasons and acting on the insights could help companies reduce turnover by 42%, according to a recent Gallup report.

2. What did you like most about your job?

You can ask this open-ended question to identify positive elements in the employee experience.

Why you care: Understanding what employees like about their work can inform your retention strategies. And by emphasizing them during the recruitment process, you can attract new talent.

3. The organization was able to put my skills to good use.

This agree/disagree question checks whether employees feel that their skills were fully utilized during their tenure at the company.

Why you care: Having the chance to put their skills to good use improves employee morale and job satisfaction. Underutilization also leads to skill attrition, and McKinsey has found that companies could improve workforce productivity by 25% if they used employee skills better.

4. I was paid well for the work I did for the organization.

This agree/disagree question evaluates employee satisfaction with your compensation package.

Why you care: Compensation remains a top factor for employee retention. According to the Gallup study cited above, 30% of preventable turnover is related to compensation and benefits.

Moreover, the 2023 PwC Financial Wellness Survey found that financial stress negatively impacts productivity and engagement.

5. I was treated fairly by my supervisor.

Ask this agree/disagree question to measure how employees perceive leadership fairness.

Why you care: Fair treatment by supervisors correlates with increased trust and loyalty. For instance, employees who think that promotions are given fairly are nearly 19% more likely to go the extra mile for their company.

6. How often did you receive recognition for your work?

This question tracks how often employees felt appreciated by their managers and co-workers.

Why you care: People want to feel valued for their contributions; if they don’t, they often quit. Studies have shown that 79% of employees who leave do it because of a lack of appreciation.

7. I felt safe at my job.

The question assesses safety in the workplace. Physical and psychological.

Why you care: Employees who don’t feel safe at work are more likely to leave. A large-sample study by Boston Consulting Group discovered that psychologically safe workplaces have a turnover rate of just 3%.

8. On a scale from 1 to 5, how well were you trained in order to perform your job effectively?

The star-rating question evaluates the quality and sufficiency of job-related training.

Why you care: Employees who don’t receive sufficient training cannot keep up with the demands of their jobs. Which reduces their productivity and erodes morale.

9. How easy was it to balance your working life and personal life during your time at this organization?

This exit survey question measures work-life balance, a key factor in employee satisfaction and retention.

Why you care: Poor work-life balance can lead to burnout, which, according to 95% of HR professionals, is the key reason behind employee attrition. Employees who aren’t satisfied with their work-life balance are also less engaged and, consequently, less productive.

10. On a scale from 1 to 5, how good were this organization’s professional growth opportunities?

This star-rating question assesses employees’ perceptions of career development opportunities.

Why you care: Lack of growth opportunities is one of the top reasons employees leave.

The 2018 Workplace Learning Report by LinkedIn found that 94% of employees would be happy to stay in their current role if they were offered better CPD opportunities.

What’s more, companies with robust training and growth opportunities find it easier to attract new staff, according to 83% of HR professionals.

11. Given an opportunity, what could the organization change that would potentially convince you to stay? Comments/Suggestions:

Asking this open-ended question helps you identify key areas that could improve retention.

Why you care: Let’s face it. You aren’t likely to stop an employee from leaving at this stage. But you can prevent others from following in their footsteps.

12. On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely is it you would recommend this organization as a place to work?

This question measures employee loyalty through Net Promoter Score (NPS). To calculate the score, deduct the number of detractors (score 1-6) from the number of promoters (score 9-10).

Why you care: A high NPS indicates satisfaction and is linked with higher retention. Employees wouldn’t be willing to vouch for your company if they weren’t satisfied.

13. Are there any additional comments or suggestions you might have to improve this organization?

This open-ended question encourages feedback about possible improvements that structured questions may not cover.

Exit survey email template

Responding to an employee exit survey may be the last thing the employee wants to do. Especially if the decision to leave wasn’t theirs.

That’s why how you invite them to take part in the survey can make all the difference between getting tons of constructive feedback and not getting any.

We’ve created two templates you can use to increase the response rates.

Regrettable departure email template

While the tone of this template is less formal, make sure to adjust it to the circumstances and your organizational culture.

Subject: We’d love your feedback before you go! (Exit survey)

Dear [Employee Name],

As your time with us at [Company Name] is coming to an end, we’d really appreciate your thoughts on your experience here. Your honest feedback is super valuable and will help us make [Company Name] an even better place to work.

We’ve put together a quick exit survey:

• Survey Link: [Insert survey link]
• Time to Complete: About 10 minutes
• Deadline: [Insert date, 1-2 days before last day]

It’s completely voluntary, but we’d be really grateful if you could take the time to fill it out.

Your responses will be kept confidential!

If you have any questions, just reach out to [HR Contact Name] at [HR Contact Email].

Thanks for everything you’ve contributed to [Company Name]. Wishing you all the best in your next adventure!

Best regards,

[Your Name]

HR Team

Non-regrettable departure email template

As the employee didn’t choose to leave the company themselves, they might not be having the best time. To respect this and avoid causing offense, we made this template a bit more formal.

Subject: Request for Your Feedback: Exit Survey

Dear [Employee Name],

As your time with [Company Name] comes to a close, we would like to invite you to participate in our exit survey. We understand that this is a challenging time, and we truly value your honest feedback about your experience with us.

Your insights will play a crucial role in helping us improve our workplace practices and policies. We assure you that your responses will be kept strictly confidential.

Survey Details:

• Survey Link: [Insert survey link here]
• Estimated Time: 15-20 minutes
• Deadline: [Insert date, typically within 1 week of the last working day]

While participation is voluntary, we greatly appreciate your input. Your feedback can make a significant difference in shaping the future workplace environment at [Company Name].

If you have any questions or need assistance with the survey, please contact [HR Contact Name] at [HR Contact Email].

We thank you for your time with [Company Name] and wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Human Resources Department

[Company Name]

Pro tips for running such exit surveys

Let’s be honest: Exit surveys or interviews aren’t the easiest ones to conduct.

The employees may be too detached from their roles at this stage to care, whether they’re leaving on their own or you made the decision for them. And if they’re not, you may face a lot of negativity in their responses.

Here are 7 best practices that will help you get the most out of the surveys:

✅ Send out the survey request 2-3 weeks before their last day. Follow up after a week. And then again. When I was leaving my last role, I only responded to the third email.

✅ Keep it short: 10-12 questions at most. Especially if they’re open-ended ones. If the survey takes more than 10-15 minutes to respond, the leaving employee may not bother or give superfluous responses.

✅ Reassure the employee that their responses are confidential and won’t have any impact on their future references. To get truly candid feedback.

✅ Automate the survey requests. If your survey tool doesn’t integrate with your HR system, use Zapier to automatically send surveys when the notice is handed in. In tools like Honestly, you can automatically trigger an exit survey when an employee is going to leave the company.

✅ Use AI to analyze employee responses for common themes. More and more survey tools, including Honestly, offer such capability.

✅ Cross-reference the responses with other survey results to gain a deeper understanding of underlying issues. For example, segment employees who provide negative NPS scores and analyze their satisfaction, engagement, and wellness survey responses for more actionable insights.

✅ Follow-up with in-person interviews for selected employees, either randomly or to explore specific issues that they bring up in their surveys.

Employee exit interview survey FAQ

Let’s wrap up by answering a few frequently asked questions about employee exit surveys!

What is an employee exit survey?

An employee exit survey, also known as an exit interview questionnaire, is a tool used to gather feedback from employees who are leaving the company.

It helps companies:

• Understand the reasons for the employee’s departure
• Assess the employee’s overall experience with the company
• Gather insights about the company culture, management, and work environment
• Identify areas for improvement within the organization

Why are employee exit surveys important?

Employee exit interviews offer valuable insights you can use to:

• Improve retention: By understanding why employees leave, you can address issues and potentially reduce future turnover.
• Identify systemic issues: Patterns in exit survey responses can reveal underlying problems in management, policies, or practices.
• Gather honest feedback: Departing employees may feel more comfortable providing candid opinions about their experiences.
• Improve hiring and onboarding: Insights from exit surveys can inform better hiring practices and onboarding processes.
• Maintain positive relationships: A well-conducted exit survey shows that the company values the employee’s opinion, potentially leaving a positive last impression.

What are the disadvantages of employee exit surveys?

While exit surveys are valuable tools, they do have some potential drawbacks:

• Timing bias: Employees may be emotionally charged when leaving, which can potentially skew their responses.
• Reluctance to be candid: Employees may not provide honest feedback for fear of burning bridges or receiving poor references.
• Resource-intensiveness: Conducting and analyzing exit surveys requires considerable effort from HR departments, even if they use modern feedback tools like Honestly.
• Delayed insights: By the time issues are identified through exit surveys, valuable employees may have already left.
• Response rate challenges: Departing employees may not always be motivated to complete the survey, leading to low response rates.

Conclusion

Employee exit surveys or interviews may not seem the most rewarding ones, especially if someone is suddenly left without a job.

But think about them in this way:

The more thoroughly you do them, the fewer of them you’ll have to do in the future. Sure, you can’t stop people from retiring or having career breaks. But the survey insights will help you support your other employees and retain the most valuable staff for longer.

If you’d like to learn more about Honestly and its survey templates, book the demo!