PeopleMuster

Exit interview form

Exit interviews fail when they ask people to rate things. Ratings produce an average nobody acts on. Asking when the decision was made produces a date, and a date points at a cause.

Hold this in the last week, before the final day rushes everyone. Someone leaving after a dismissal needs a different conversation, and it is not this one.

EXIT CONVERSATION — [COMPANY NAME]

Leaver: [LEAVER NAME]   Department: [DEPARTMENT]
Joined: [DATE OF JOINING]   Last day: [LAST WORKING DAY]
Held by: [INTERVIEWER NAME]   Date: [INTERVIEW DATE]
Interviewer is not the leaver's line manager: yes / no

THE DECISION
When did you first think about leaving?       [DATE OR PERIOD]
What happened around then?                    [TRIGGER]
What made it final?                            [DECIDING FACTOR]
Was there a point we could have changed it?    [YES, HOW / NO]

THE ROLE
Did the job match what you were told at the start?   [ANSWER]
What took most of your time?                          [ANSWER]
What did you never get to do?                         [ANSWER]

THE TEAM
How did you find out how things worked here?          [ANSWER]
Who did you go to when you were stuck?                [ANSWER]
What would you change about how the team runs?        [ANSWER]

THE NEXT ROLE
What does it offer that this one did not?             [ANSWER]
Anything other than the obvious?                      [ANSWER]

CLOSING
Would you work here again?                            [YES / NO / DEPENDS ON]
Anything you held back until today?                   [ANSWER]

FOR THE FILE
Primary reason, one word: [MANAGER / PAY / GROWTH / WORKLOAD / LOCATION / PERSONAL / OTHER]
Notes shared with: [WHO SEES THIS]
Action raised: [ACTION] · owner [OWNER] · by [DATE]

What to put in each blank

[DATE OR PERIOD]
Write the month if you get one. Clustered dates across leavers point at one event.
[TRIGGER]
Capture their words, not your summary of them. Paraphrase loses the finding.
[MANAGER / PAY / GROWTH / WORKLOAD / LOCATION / PERSONAL / OTHER]
Pick one code so leavers can be counted. Free text cannot be counted.
[WHO SEES THIS]
Tell the leaver who reads the notes before you start, and then keep to it.
[ACTION]
Raise at most one action. A form with five actions produces none.

Before you send it

  • Have someone other than the line manager hold it. People say more to a skip-level or to HR, especially when the manager is part of the reason.
  • Ask when the decision was made before you ask why. The date is the most useful field on the form.
  • Read the codes quarterly, not one at a time. One exit is a story and eight are a pattern.
  • Say plainly who will see the notes. Vagueness here is why exit interviews get polite answers.

In PeopleMuster the exit conversation is a step on the offboarding process, tracked with the rest of the last week

Questions people ask about this letter

When should an exit interview be held?

In the final week, once handover is largely done but before the last day turns into goodbyes. Held too early people stay guarded, and held on the last morning nobody has time.

Why avoid rating scales?

An average of scores tells you nothing you can act on. A date, a trigger and one coded reason give you something specific to change, and they take the same ten minutes.

Should the notes go to the line manager?

Share the themes, not the transcript, and decide that rule before the conversation rather than afterwards. Leavers answer honestly only when they know where the words go.

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