An employee gives notice. On their last day, someone asks a few quick questions, the answers go into a file, and everyone moves on. A few months later, someone else on the same team resigns.
Exit interviews can be one of the most useful tools a business has for understanding why people leave. When they’re done well, they reveal patterns early enough to do something about them. When they’re rushed or forgotten in a folder, they rarely change anything.
Why Exit Interviews Are Worth Getting Right
A lot of turnover is preventable. In a nationally representative Gallup study, published in 2024, of 717 people who had voluntarily left a job in the past year, 42% said their manager or organization could have done something to keep them. Nearly half (45%) said that in the three months before they left, no manager or leader had talked with them about their job satisfaction, performance or future with the organization.
Exit interviews are one way to learn from those departures. Harvard Business Review shared an example from researchers Everett Spain and Boris Groysberg: a manager at a financial services company started with a department of 17 people, and a year later only eight remained. When an executive reviewed the exit interviews of the four who had resigned, all four described the same problem with the manager’s leadership. The interviews pointed to a bigger issue, too. The company had been promoting people into management based on technical skill, and it changed its promotion process as a result.
That’s the real value of an exit interview. One conversation tells you about one person. Several conversations, looked at together, can tell you what needs to change.
Set the Conversation Up Well
Choose the right interviewer. It usually helps to have someone outside the employee’s direct reporting line lead the conversation, such as HR or a leader one level above their manager. That’s especially important if the manager is part of the reason they’re leaving.
Pick the right moment. The final hour of someone’s last day is usually rushed. Scheduling the conversation a few days before they leave gives both of you time to think.
Explain how the information will be used. Let the employee know who will see their feedback and what happens with it. Be honest about confidentiality. If comments will be shared in summary form with leadership, say so.
Use a consistent set of core questions. Asking every departing employee the same main questions is what makes it possible to compare answers and spot trends later. You can always follow up on anything specific to their experience.
Questions That Get Useful Answers
Open-ended questions tend to draw out more detail than yes-or-no questions. A few that work well:
- What prompted you to start looking at other opportunities?
- When did you first start thinking about leaving?
- What did you enjoy most about working here?
- What would you change about your role or your team?
- How supported did you feel by your manager?
- Did you have the tools and information you needed to do your job well?
- Was there anything that could have changed your decision?
Listen for specifics, and ask follow-up questions. In Gallup’s research, the most common thing leavers said could have kept them was additional pay or benefits, which accounted for 30% of the actions they named. The other 70% related more to how they were managed day to day, such as better interactions with their manager, career advancement, or fixes to staffing and workload. If pay comes up, it’s worth asking a follow-up question or two, since there may be more to the story.
Throughout the conversation, stay curious and avoid defending the company. The goal is to learn.
Turn Conversations Into Data
In their research, Spain and Groysberg found that some companies collect exit interview information but don’t analyze it. That’s where much of the value gets lost.
You don’t need sophisticated software to fix this. A simple spreadsheet works for most small and midsize businesses:
- Record the main reasons for leaving using a short, consistent list of categories, such as pay, growth opportunities, management, workload, schedule or relocation.
- Note the basics for each departure, like team, role, manager and length of time with the company.
- Capture a few key quotes that explain the reason in the employee’s own words.
- Review the results regularly, quarterly or twice a year, looking for patterns by team, manager or tenure.
A single comment may be one person’s perspective. When the same theme shows up across several exits, it deserves attention.
Act on What You Learn
Data only helps if something happens next. Share a summary of the themes with leadership, decide on one or two changes worth making, and check back later to see whether they made a difference. If exit interviews keep pointing to the same manager or the same team, that’s a signal to step in with support or training.
Don’t wait for the exit. Exit interviews tell you why people left. Stay interviews help you learn what keeps people around while they’re still here. Given that nearly half of the leavers in Gallup’s study said no one had talked with them about their satisfaction or future in the months before they quit, a simple conversation now can go a long way. Ask current employees what they enjoy about their work and what might tempt them to leave.
Every Departure Has Something to Teach
Employees who are leaving can offer a perspective that’s hard to get any other way. With a thoughtful setup, consistent questions and a habit of reviewing the results, exit interviews can become a steady source of insight into what’s working and what isn’t.