No matter how big or successful your company is, chances are that over time you will lose some employees due to a number of reasons. Instead of simply going with the flow and through the motions, you can ask some pointed interview questions for employees during an exit interview to the individual concerned to get some valuable feedback about your company such that you will be able to learn from your mistakes in the future and not lose valuable employees anymore. Here is a list of some employee exit interview questions you should always make it a point to ask employees.
Exit Interview Questions to Ask Employee:
There may be many reasons for an employee to leave an organization. Lack of employee satisfaction can be one of the reason according to an exit survey. Here comes the purpose of exit interview to understand the reasons better. The following mentioned are few exit interview tips, what to say in an exit interview and exit interview questions to ask employees.
1. What is the reason why you are leaving the company?
The decision to leave a company is no small one; no one will just leave the job without having a concrete reason to do so. So you as an interviewer should make sure to ask this question so that you can find out if this is a personal reason which you can have no control over or if there is something wrong with the company which has driven the person to hand in his or her resignation. You cannot prevent someone from leaving the job but you can use this as an opportunity to evaluate your manager and other workers as well.
2. What could we as a company do better?
This is a very general question that you can ask the individual, in simple words what are some areas where the company can change its methods of functioning so as to do better. It is only employees that have worked with the company in the past will know, what things are actually going wrong that are driving employees to take this decision to leave. There words and their advice should be taken into consideration as they do not have any reason to utter falsehoods unnecessarily.
3. Do you feel over worked and under paid?
One of the biggest reasons why employees leave a job is because they realize that they are being over worked and under paid for the services which they provide to the company. After doing a little bit of research and asking around with other contemporaries if they find out that they are being paid a much lower salary then they have no qualms about handing in their resignation. In this day and age, money is very important. If a person is getting paid better somewhere else why should he not accept that job?
4. Are the work hours too much for you?
In this day and age in order to keep your sanity it is absolutely vital to maintain a proper work-life balance. In your youth working for long hours with no proper breaks or vacations is alright but however as employees grow older they realize that spending quality time with family is very important as well and by working for such long hours they are missing out of that aspect of their life. You can ask the person leaving if he or she believes that the work hours are simply too long and in addition to this if employees find themselves carrying some of the work home with them too.
5. Did you find your job too challenging? Or not challenging at all?
Everyone is different and everyone looks for different things from their careers. Some people want to have an adventurous, uncertain and challenging kind of job where they can get up feeling like each day at work is a new adventure before them waiting for them to be explored. Yet on the other end of the spectrum there are people who hate uncertain jobs and long for stability even if doing the same thing day in and day out. Ask the person concerned if he thought of his job to be too challenging, simply too dull or just rather average.
6. Was the office politics too much to handle?
Work place politics is something that is a good as well as bad thing. It is good because it often breeds healthy competition and encourages employees to work better, yet at the same time it is often a very negative thing as well where some employees find this additional load of the politics too much to handle. If the person concerned is leaving due to this negative office politics which is simply too over whelming for him or her to handle, then you can ask if he or she is comfortable in providing some names of employees who are spreading the most negativity and hatred.
7. Did you see no future for yourself at the company?
It is important to ask the person concerned if he is leaving because he saw no future for himself at the company. If his answer is yes, then you can inquire why. He might be able to furnish you with a couple of reasons that may be personal in nature like for example that he did not have any educational qualifications to move ahead anymore, or secondly it was his dream to live in another city where the company has no branches at all, or even that he wants to begin his own company etc.
8. Or do you think the future of the company is not bright?
If the person could not see any future for himself at the company, was it because according to him the company had no future at all. This is a pointed question indeed, but you should be willing to ask as well as be prepared for any sort of answers that may come your way. Since the person is leaving the job, chances are that he or she will have no inhibitions in speaking the whole truth without holding back at any point of time. Very often if employees see the company as a sinking ship they choose to find a new job rather than being unemployed later on.
9. Is the general work atmosphere not conducive?
People who have worked with a company know exactly what is good about it and what is bad about it, so taking feedback from them would be absolutely advantageous for you even if what they say might hurt a little bit. It is important to ask if they think that the office atmosphere in general is not conducive to getting tasks done in an effective manner. Do employees think that the company infrastructure is not up to the mark? Does the company not spend enough on getting the latest technological gadgets to help employees get work done faster and better?
10. What more does your new company offer to you that we do not?
In order to keep at par with other top companies you need to inquire what all do they offer their employees which you do not. So that you can ensure that your employees are happy and content and are not demoralized or dissatisfied at any point of time. Companies often choose to keep this kind of information under wraps so the best way to find such things out would be to ask employees who work there. If they offer things like paid vacations, transportation facilities as well as medical insurance, then you too can try to grant some facilities to your workers.
11. Was your manager open, receptive and approachable?
No one in the company will rarely ever give his or her honest employee opinion about the manager for sheer fear of the fact that the manager might find out and be annoyed and irritated. However once a person has handed in his or her resignation papers, he or she can give honest feedback without any fear or worry of any kind at all. You must know exactly what the manager is doing wrong and how he is failing or succeeding in carrying out the manifold responsibilities entrusted to him. A manager has many important functions to handle so ensure you choose someone capable.
12. Did you as an individual ever feel slighted?
Ask the person concerned if he or she is leaving because he felt like he was never given his proper dues in the office. Not merely in monetary terms but also in terms of being given praise or being granted promotions. Being slighted once or twice is hurtful, yet acceptable, but if a person is genuinely putting in a lot of hard work and never reaping the dividends of working in an unassuming and unobtrusive manner then why should he or she seek employment there where his or her contributions are not appreciated.
13. What are three ways in which we could improve the job satisfaction of employees?
A good exit interview question you should ask employees is three things that the company can do in order to make its employees happier. May it be in the form of more positive reinforcements, more technological gadgets to get work done faster and better or even something else like less working hours etc You might not realize but even these small things could go a long way in keeping the employees happy and content, At least they can feel satisfied at the fact that yes, the company does take pains to think about our well being as well.
14. Name another employee who could make a good manager?
If the person concerned has mentioned a number of serious problems with the manager that others who have handed in their resignation have also stated then you should seriously consider verifying the charges and if they prove to be true then find a new manager. Ask the individual for a person they think will make a good and able manager to carry out all the responsibilities entrusted to him in a satisfactory manner.
15. Did you ever feel kept in the dark about decisions being taken?
Employees like it when they feel like they are an important part of the company. They do not like it when they have been kept in the dark about important decisions that have been taken. Ask this question to the person concerned to find out whether or not everyone is being involved in the decision making process at the office.
16. Which was your best and worst day at the company?
This question might not be able to provide you with a lot of feedback, but it will help the person concerned leave some of his personal experiences at the office. Every day at the office is different. Some days are good and some are not so good. Based on what the person said about his or her worst day, you should keep in mind the negative things he or she mentioned. You could also ask the question that given the chance would you ever return to be a part of the company again?
17. Did you ever feel unsafe at the office?
It often happens that employees, especially women choose to leave the job if they believe that there is a threat of some kind to their safety. If there is someone who has been acting in a way that makes employees uncomfortable, then employees should be encouraged to come forward and speak without any fear or worry at all. It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that everyone is safe and free of any fears.
So these are some of the most important pointed questions which are always asked during an job exit interview process. An exit interview policy is a chance for you to gauge how others view your company and also to find out what are the ways in which the company can improve. Sometimes it happens that they have personal reasons and then in that case there is nothing that you can do, but if you realize that all employees leaving have more or less the same issues with the company then you ought to stand up and make amends before things begin to get out of hand entirely.
