What does an exit interview tell you about your hiring?

Most exit interviews open with the question of why the person is leaving. That is the weakest question in the whole conversation, and it comes first.

It is weak because it asks for a summary. People summarise their departure politely, and the result sounds the same at almost every employer: a new challenge, a shorter commute, more money, a different stage of life. All of that can be true, and none of it is an observation. It is a verdict, delivered by someone who knows they may still need you as a reference. Ask that question and you get a reason while losing the story.

Three other questions do produce something, because they ask about moments and observations rather than judgements.

When did you first think about leaving, and what was happening at the time? This gives you a date and a situation. The moment is often much earlier than the resignation, sometimes in the first few weeks, and the situation is usually something very concrete: a task that never arrived, a team that worked differently from the description, a commitment that nobody mentioned again.

What did you expect before your first day that turned out to be different? This is the real recruitment question. The answer describes the distance between what you promised in the advert and the interview, and what the person found. The wording matters: you are not asking whether you promised too much, you are asking what was different. That takes blame out of the room and gets you a description instead.

Who would you recommend this job to, and who would you warn off? This gives you a description of your target group from someone who has actually done the work. It is often sharper than the role profile, because it comes from practice rather than from a document that has been handed down for years.

This is where the HR conversation turns into recruitment. At most employers the exit notes end up in a personnel file and nobody reads them again. They are free research into precisely the text you will use to find the next person.

Put the answer to the second question next to your job advert. Not figuratively, but literally side by side. If someone says they expected more work of their own, look for the line in the advert that says so, and you will usually find it. It is rarely a lie. It is a phrase that means one thing inside the building and something else on the page. That is fixable, immediately and without budget. How such a text is built up is covered under recruitment content.

The second step is collecting. One conversation is an anecdote; you only have a pattern once the same unmet expectation comes back with several leavers. Keep a simple list with three columns: when the thought of leaving appeared, which expectation went unmet, and who this job suits according to that person. Repetition is what you can act on.

If the same unmet expectation keeps coming back, you no longer have a wording problem, you have a question about your employer promise. Either you change the work or you change the promise. Both are defensible choices, but you have to make one, otherwise the same departure repeats with the next person. How a promise that holds up is built is described under employer branding.

And then the point that gets skipped most often. If someone says the thought of leaving appeared in the first few weeks, the cause does not sit in the departure but in the induction and the period just before it: in the expectation that was set during the process. The exit interview is then not an endpoint but a look back at your own hiring, and that is exactly what you are holding it for.

The usual moment is the last working day, and that is too late. By then the person has mentally moved on, the handover is pressing, and everyone wants to part on good terms. Hold the conversation one or two weeks after the resignation instead, when the decision is final but daily working life is still fresh.

Who holds it determines what you hear. If the direct line manager does it, you get the polite version, because few people will say something uncomfortable to that particular person. If someone from HR or a neutral third party does it, the conversation opens up. Say beforehand what happens with the answers and what will not be passed on.

One practical note: do not turn it into a form with scores from one to five. You are looking for sentences, not ratings. A single precise sentence about an expectation that went unmet is worth more than twenty rating questions, because you can hold that sentence up against your advert. The way we record conversations with candidates is set out under screening and candidate follow-up.

Is an exit interview worth it if the person is leaving anyway?

Not for that person, but very much for the next one. Someone who is leaving is the only person who has experienced your advert, your application process, your induction and the actual job, and who has far less to lose by describing them. You cannot get that combination anywhere else, and it costs you half an hour.

Do you really get honest answers in that conversation?

More honest than in any job interview, provided you ask for observations rather than judgements. Do not ask whether something was good, ask what was different from what they expected. And do not let the direct line manager run it. Anyone who still needs a reference will phrase things carefully, which is entirely understandable.

What do I do if several people say the same thing?

Then it is no longer an incident but a pattern, and you have two options: change the work or change the promise. Either beats carrying on as before. If similar people are also dropping away during the process itself, it is worth reading candidates drop out.

Should the conversation be written or spoken?

Spoken, with notes made afterwards. A questionnaire gives you ticks, a conversation gives you phrasing, and the phrasing is the part you can actually reuse in your next advert. Write the answers down word for word rather than summarised, otherwise you lose precisely the thing you held the conversation for.

We read sentences like these as raw material for the next search; if you would like someone to look at yours, SocialFind is happy to think along. If you would like articles like this in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.