The Exit Interview

The Exit Interview

This category of interview is a common practice when the employee has decided to end the working relations, therefore when they chose to resign. In reality, whatever the grounds for resigning, the employee can provide valuable pieces of information regarding the company’s internal policies, relations, organization, being a genuine instrument in determining retention methods.

Generally it takes the form of a semi structural interview, which must be conducted by anyone but the direct boss, usually by a HR specialist or by any other person with communication abilities and creating interpersonal relationships.

The discussion must be held in a neutral environment, on an informal tone. The questions that are asked mustn’t be intuitive or require monosyllabically answers. Furthermore, when an employee refuses to participate in such an interview, his decision must be respected.

The question can relate to:
– Motives of resigning (if it is the case);
– Positive/negative aspects regarding the experience inside the company;
– What would he change and how would he do it;
– Who are the colleagues with whom he collaborated well, those with whom he didn’t manage to do it and what the causes might be;
– What were the biggest accomplishments or failures;
– Would he come back and what would be the reasons for such a decision;
– What were the most beautiful/ugly or frustrating experiences;
– Which of the company’s policy makes no sense or has no utility;
– Whether he would or not recommend the company to friends or acquaintances;
– Whether efforts were made by the company to avoid the situation which led to separation;
The relevancy of the answers is connected to the skillfulness of the interviewer, to the human profile of the interviewed, but also to the general atmosphere inside the company. Paranoid companies have minimal chances to obtain valid results from an exit-interview.

In the case of a great personnel fluctuation and if it isn’t available to attend at such interviews, an online form can be edited, and so the employees can voluntarily fill in when they leave the company.

Regardless of the organization form, the received answers are somehow subjective. For example, the ones who chose to resign pass through moments of negative psychological impact. That’s why it is indicated that the pieces of information which are collected in this manner be correlated with the results from internal studies regarding the employees’ satisfaction or with other types of information.