Have you noticed employees leaving your company without much of an explanation? Maybe you’re not asking them the right questions.
That chat between an employer and an employee on their way out could be more useful than you think. And that’s why you should take exit interviews seriously.
They’re your chance to dive into the departing employees’ work life, understand why they’re leaving, and gather their valuable suggestions for making your company a better place to work.
Using this feedback, you can make meaningful changes to retain your employees and enhance your employer brand to attract fresh talent.
We’ve curated a list of exit interview templates that will guide you toward conducting insightful exit interviews.
Top 10 Free Exit Interview Templates & Questions for HR Teams
- What Makes a Good Exit Interview Template?
- 10 Exit Interview Templates
- 1. Exit Interview Form Template by Template.net
- 2. Exit Interview PDF Template by Volunteering Resource Hub
- 3. Construction Employee Exit Interview Template by Template.net
- 4. Exit Interview Questions Guide by People Managing People
- 5. HR Exit Interview Template by Breathe HR
- 6. Exit Interview Form Template by Best Templates
- 7. Word Exit Interview Template by Legal Templates
- 8. Exit Interview Questions Template by Paycor
- 9. Exit Interview Form Template by CaseIQ
- 10. Exit Interview Format Template by Startup HR Toolkit
- Other HR Tools
- Make Exit Interviews Insightful with ClickUp
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Makes a Good Exit Interview Template?
An exit interview template is a pre-made document designed to guide the conversation during an employee’s final interview before leaving a company.
Think of it as a bridge between an employee’s past and the company’s future. It’s setting up a cozy chat room for honest sharing, offering insights for those who stay.
It typically includes open-ended and closed-ended questions grouped into different categories to gather comprehensive feedback on the employee’s experience.
Here’s a quick guide for HR to conduct a good exit interview:
- Categorize: Group questions like job vibes, culture, and departure reasons
- Encourage stories: Use “Why” or “Tell me more about” to dive deeper
- Diversify questions: Blend direct, indirect, and action-based queries for varied insights
- Personalize: Include questions tailored to specific roles or departments
- Maintain confidentiality: Assure anonymity and encourage honest responses
- Provide rating scales: Use scales for specific aspects like satisfaction or likelihood to recommend the company
- Offer space for extras: Allow room for any final thoughts or concerns
- Make it accessible to all: Offer digital and print versions to cater to different preferences
Remember, a good template is a starting point, not a script. Adapting it to each employee and listening actively will unlock the true value of the exit interview process.
Summarize this article for me please10 Exit Interview Templates
Don’t know where to start with your exit interviews?
We’ve got an easy solution— customizable exit interview templates. These templates are suitable for different industries and will help you get the answers you seek from employees leaving your organization.
They’ll also help you take the first step in transforming your company into a thriving workplace environment that retains the best talent.
Get browsing! 👀
1. Exit Interview Form Template by Template.net
Looking for a simple, effective exit interview template that fits almost any department or industry? This is what you’ve been looking for!
Get actionable insights on why employees leave, with convenient tick-boxes and open-ended comment sections.
Employees can give ratings from highest to lowest for parameters that define employee satisfaction, like benefits received, utilization of skills, overall job satisfaction, work environment, and more. Tailor the template to your specific needs by adding or removing relevant factors.
Grab a pen or go digital! Choose from Word, Google Sheets, Photoshop, and other formats to conduct exit interviews your way.
2. Exit Interview PDF Template by Volunteering Resource Hub
Volunteers at your organization are not obligated to participate in an exit interview, but it’s always great to thank them for their time and request if they are willing to grant you one.
This customizable free template with engaging questions can help you gain valuable insights into why volunteers choose to leave, the support from your organization, any roadblocks they’ve faced while volunteering, and if they wish to stay in touch with you.
In all fairness, this template can help you build a better volunteering program for future talents, and the volunteers themselves will feel valued and heard, leading to recommendations, better goodwill, and support going forward.
3. Construction Employee Exit Interview Template by Template.net
Construction companies often grapple with high employee turnover, which makes understanding the reasons behind departures crucial.
A great starting point for any construction company, this template is highly beginner-friendly for conducting exit interviews, as it addresses essential factors like compensation benefits, work-life balance, work environment, safety and wellbeing, training, and development.
Written and designed by construction business experts, this template complies with standard construction company benchmarks and can be customized for every employee. You can add your branding to it to give it a personal touch.
4. Exit Interview Questions Guide by People Managing People
Conducting effective exit interviews can be a game-changer for your HR team. This guide provides key insights for crafting well-structured questions that delve into various aspects of the employee’s experience.
Within these pages, you’ll find adaptable mock questions for every departing team member. The key categories include reasons for leaving; role-specific, manager-specific, and team-specific questions. As well as development-focused, inclusion and diversity, and organization-focused questions.
By focusing on these key areas, you’re not just conducting an interview; you’re engaging in a meaningful conversation that can illuminate paths for improvement and inspire positive changes within your company—for current and future employees.
To download the free template, you will have to subscribe to People Managing People.
5. HR Exit Interview Template by Breathe HR
This template includes a variety of questions that you can ask your employees, such as “What were your reasons for leaving?”, “What did you like most about your job?” “What could we have done to keep you?” and “If you are leaving for another role, what was the attraction to that position?”
By asking these questions, you can get valuable insights into what your employees think and feel and how their mindset affects their career decisions. This information can then be used to make changes that will help improve the culture at your company.
If you’re looking for a template for your exit interviews, the one in this article is a great place to start. However, you may also consider customizing the template to fit your company’s specific needs.
6. Exit Interview Form Template by Best Templates
If you want to streamline exit interviews across departments in your company, exit interview forms have your HR team covered.
Easy-to-tick check boxes, additional comment sections to urge employees to give their insights, a rating scale to measure what employees think about the company, and the yes or no questions keep the interview short and insightful.
While leaving the company, employees are already set to move ahead with the next opportunity, dealing with goodbyes at the current company and bogged down with paperwork they need to fill out.
This simple exit interview format is not only quick and easy to implement for everyone but is also easy to standardize across various functional teams.
It’s available for immediate purchase as a single template or through a subscription to access an extensive collection suitable for virtually any scenario.
This fully customizable template is designed for sharing across all digital platforms and is also compatible with universal document readers.
7. Word Exit Interview Template by Legal Templates
All exit interviews are important, whether an employee is leaving amicably or otherwise. This is because such interviews don’t occur under an employee’s direct command. So, the employee might be able to bring in a new perspective about the senior leadership that may have been overlooked.
This exit interview template by Legal Templates covers all the essential questions around “factors contributing to employee’s decision to leave,” “most satisfying thing about employee’s role,” “least satisfying thing about this role,” “job duties aligning with employee’s expectation” and “employee’s suggestion on improving the company.”
Free to download and easily customizable, this template also offers an additional page on company property the departing employee needs to submit to HR, which helps them keep a tab on items returned or yet to be returned.
8. Exit Interview Questions Template by Paycor
HR teams who put as much effort into the offboarding process as they do in the onboarding process are rare. But thanks to their commitment and sincerity, they often manage to transform their operational practices for the better.
This free-to-download template makes a great starting point for an in-depth exit interview wherein every question urges the employee to answer with insights from their authentic experience. Some questions have multiple options and an additional comment box to elaborate their response.
The data you get from this exit interview template should be appropriately reviewed. Use it to establish critical themes, create action items, and implement them to prevent legal issues and PR disasters or identify toxic work culture that can harm your company’s reputation.
9. Exit Interview Form Template by CaseIQ
With editable sections and sample text, this free-to-download exit interview template helps you jump-start the offboarding process!
Covering all the vital exit interview questions, the employee feedback you get can be used to improve the company culture, identify areas where the company can improve, and make changes to retain employees.
Let’s say an employee leaves a remark in the exit interview about not being given enough opportunities for professional development. The company can change its training and development programs based on the remark.
Similarly, you can customize questions for different departments where management training has been provided.
10. Exit Interview Format Template by Startup HR Toolkit
While beneficial for companies of all sizes, exit interviews are particularly crucial for startups due to their dynamic nature, limited resources, and focus on growth and culture.
When actively collecting and analyzing valuable feedback from exit interviews, startups can gain a competitive edge, improve employee experience, and build a thriving company culture.
Every HR professional in a startup will find this free template easy to customize, share, and adapt as it covers all the necessary questions that can help you figure out why the person is leaving the company, the satisfaction they’ve derived from their role, and their opinion on work-life balance and the benefits the company has provided.
Exit interviews create a feedback loop, allowing your HR team to assess the effectiveness of changes implemented based on previous employee feedback. This continuous learning and improvement cycle enables your startup to evolve and adapt for the better.
Summarize this article for me pleaseOther HR Tools
Managing HR processes can feel like juggling many tasks! Between document chaos, repetitive admin work, and the need for data-driven decisions, HR teams often struggle to optimize their impact.
A human resource management system would simplify most of these for you.
This is where ClickUp comes in–a powerful project management software that seamlessly integrates document management, AI tools, and pre-built HR templates to streamline your workflow, unlock valuable insights, and transform your employee experience.
Use ClickUp’s HR management platform to manage hiring and onboarding. Apart from being a great recruitment tool for handling applications and outreach, it also helps with employee engagement and information.
ClickUp Docs becomes your HR team’s digital filing cabinet. Store employee files, handbooks, policies, and more in one secure, accessible location.
You can use Docs to collaborate on everything from a new employee device policy to a security training program. With live collaborative editing, you and your team can make real-time updates, implement version control, and assign and resolve comments to stay on the same page.
You can also create custom templates for onboarding packets and offer letters and policy updates, ensuring consistency and saving time.
When you pair Docs with ClickUp’s AI-powered search that understands context and keywords, you can get all the information you need, right at your fingertips.
With ClickUp’s AI tools, you can gather intelligent insights and optimize your HR strategy accordingly. Analyze employee data to identify trends and patterns in turnover, engagement, and performance. Prompt AI to create questions and even templates for exit interviews and edit them in seconds.
You can also personalize onboarding plans based on employee roles and skills, enhancing engagement and employee retention. Generate text for surveys and analyze sentiments to understand employee feelings and areas for improvement.
ClickUp’s HR templates make your daily routine a well-rehearsed performance. Utilize pre-built templates for hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, and terminations, ensuring efficiency and consistency.
Customize HR templates with custom fields, tags, and statuses in ClickUp. Automate repetitive tasks, like sending performance review reminders or triggering background checks. Track progress, manage employees, and monitor all HR KPIs and activities within these templates, keeping everyone informed and accountable.
Summarize this article for me pleaseMake Exit Interviews Insightful with ClickUp
Every departing employee carries experience and insights. Letting them leave without capturing their feedback is like letting a treasure chest slam shut before peeking inside.
That’s where exit interviews come in, offering a valuable opportunity to understand employee sentiment, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately cultivate a thriving workplace culture.
However, conducting compelling exit interviews requires more than just a checklist.
You need powerful HR software that empowers you to gather honest feedback, analyze it meticulously, and translate it into actionable insights.
Sign up on ClickUp today to equip your HR teams with the tools they need to improve their offboarding processes and the entire recruitment lifecycle.
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