Exit Interview Questions and Form

Good exit interview questions tell you why people leave, while you can still do something about it. Below are 15 questions to ask, grouped by topic, with a line on why each one matters. They’re all on a free printable exit interview form, with space to write, 1–5 ratings and a completed example.

What you get

A seven-page PDF, sized for US Letter paper, and an editable Word file:

• Pages 1–3: the blank exit interview form: employee details, an opening script, ratings, the 15 questions with lines to write on, and a follow-up box.
• Pages 4–6: the same form completed for a fictional veterinary clinic.
• Page 7: notes on running the interview and what to do if someone raises a complaint.

What is an exit interview?

An exit interview is a short, private conversation with an employee who is leaving, usually in their last week. The aim is to find out why they’re going and what it was like to work for you. People who are leaving often say what current staff won’t. One interview is an opinion; the same answer from several people is a pattern you can fix.

15 exit interview questions to ask

Reasons for leaving

1. What made you start looking for a new job? The first reason is usually the real one. It’s often different from the reason they give for accepting the new job.
2. What does your new job offer that you didn’t have here? Pay, hours, growth or a shorter commute. This tells you what you’re competing with.
3. What could we have done to keep you? The most useful question on the list. The answer is often small and cheap to fix.

The job and your manager

4. Was the job what you expected when you were hired? A gap here points to your job ads and interviews, not the job.
5. Did you have the training, tools and information you needed to do your job well? Broken equipment and missing training wear people down quietly.
6. How would you describe the support and feedback you got from your manager? People leave managers as often as jobs. Ask this one neutrally and just listen.
7. Did you feel your work was recognized? Recognition costs little. Its absence is a common reason good people go.

Pay, benefits and schedule

8. How did you feel about your pay, compared with the work you did? One answer is anecdote; three in the same role means your pay is behind.
9. Which benefits mattered most to you, and what was missing? It tells you which benefits are worth paying for, and which nobody uses.
10. Did your schedule and workload feel manageable? In shift work, how schedules are set often matters as much as pay.

Culture and the team

11. How would you describe working here to a friend? It gets a plain summary, in words you might hear from future applicants.
12. Did you see or experience anything at work that worried you, such as unfair treatment, harassment or a safety problem? Ask it every time. If the answer is yes, you need to know, and act (see below).
13. What should we start, stop or keep doing? Three quick prompts that turn complaints into suggestions.

Looking ahead

14. Would you work here again, or recommend us to a friend? Why or why not? A simple test of how they really feel, and the “why” is where the detail is.
15. Is there anything else you would like to tell us? Some of the most useful answers come last, once people have relaxed.

Rating questions

The form also asks the employee to rate eight areas from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent): the job itself, their manager, training and support, pay, benefits, schedule and workload, coworkers, and the business overall. Ratings take a minute and are easy to compare across several departures, which open answers are not.

How to conduct an exit interview

1. Book 20 to 30 minutes in the employee’s last week, somewhere private.
2. Choose an interviewer other than their direct manager, if you can.
3. Read the short opening on the form: it’s voluntary, they can skip any question, and who will see the answers.
4. Start with the ratings to warm up, then ask the questions that matter most. You don’t need all 15.
5. Listen and take notes in their words. Ask “Can you give me an example?” Don’t argue, explain or defend.
6. Thank them. Then fill in the follow-up box with what you’ll do, and by when.

Completed example

The example in the download is an exit interview with a veterinary technician at a fictional clinic who is leaving for a hospital job with higher pay and fixed shifts. Her ratings are good for the job, her manager and coworkers, and low for pay and schedule. The answers point to one theme: rotating weekends changed at short notice. The follow-up box records that she’s the third technician this year to mention it, with a date for the owner to look at fixed weekend teams and a pay check before the next budget.

If they raise harassment, discrimination or safety

An exit interview may be the first time you hear about a problem. Don’t file it away. The EEOC says an employer is liable for harassment by coworkers or non-employees it controls if it knew, or should have known, and failed to take prompt and appropriate corrective action. Treat it as a complaint: write down what was said, look into it, and get advice if it’s serious. Never treat the person worse for raising it, which can be retaliation. That’s why the form’s opening script doesn’t promise total confidentiality.

What to do with the answers

File the form with the employee’s records and share only the themes with managers, not names. Every few departures, read the forms together and look for the same answer coming up twice. Then act on it, and check the follow-up dates you wrote down. An exit interview you never act on isn’t worth holding.

Want help reading what your exit interviews are telling you? That’s what hrsupport.io is for: HR answers for your state, with the law behind every answer.