Eventually all your employees will leave your company. Some because they are moving on to another phase in their lives. Some because you have decided they no longer meet the performance expectations of the position. Or it is simply time for them to retire.

No matter the reason, you are missing a great opportunity to improve your organization if you are not conducting exit interviews. Exit interviews provide a great opportunity to receive employee input on how you can improve the organization. I would also suggest that you not wait until it is time for an employee to leave prior to asking them their opinions.

We will not go into what questions to ask and what questions not to ask during the
exit interview. There is more than enough information on the internet to cover that. I would like to cover the format that exit interviews should be held. Many will tell you that exit interviews should be person to person. That way the interviewee feels like they are having the maximum amount of input possible and that someone will at least listen to them. I do not agree with this method of doing exit interviews.

In my opinion exit interviews should be done via some sort of computerized survey. That way the employee can remain anonymous and provide you more honest answers to the questions. Not saying any employee will purposely not tell the whole truth. But can we really expect employees to provide us an honest assessment if they have any inkling that their answers will be used against them in the future.

I have found the Typeform at www.typeform.com provides great options on coming up with various surveys. They also allow employees to fill them out anonymously. After you have compiled the data using the Typeform surveys, you can then look at any trends that are negatively affecting your company and take steps to correct them.