What is an exit interview? Exit interviews are individual meetings to
question departing employees about their reason for leaving as well as
their attitudes and observations about the company. These interviews are
conducted in a variety of ways: the formal interview in which specific
prepared questions are asked, a casual conversation interview, and the
written questionnaire. As a general rule, written questionnaires are not
effective because they do not allow for follow up questions and they do
not protect against evasive or incomplete answers. The most successful
exit interviews are those that follow a preplanned format, like the formal
exit interview, and are conducted in a casual conversational manner. These
types of exit interviews allow the employee to feel relaxed, thereby
allowing the interviewer to elicit information about the employee’s work
experience and decision to leave.
