Exit survey and exit interview questions: examples to ask

Good exit survey questions ask leavers why they decided to go, what would have kept them, and how they found the things you can change: their manager, their job, their pay and development, and how safe and supported they felt. Below are exit survey questions built on the four pillars of our engagement model, a short set of exit interview questions, and what the research says about when to ask and how to get honest answers.

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What exit survey questions should you ask?

Ask about the decision to leave first, then rate the main parts of working life on one scale, then finish with a few questions about the future. Around 20 questions is enough, which most people can answer in about ten minutes. This leavers' questionnaire follows the four pillars of our engagement model. Using the same pillars, statements and scale as your engagement survey means you can compare what leavers said with what the people who stay say.

Part 1: your decision to leave

1. What was the main reason you decided to leave? Choose one: pay and benefits; career progression; training and development; my manager; workload or hours; flexibility; the work itself; how I was treated; my health or wellbeing; moving away, or a change in my personal life; retirement; something else.
2. What else played a part? Choose any from the same list.
3. Was there a particular moment or event that made you decide to go?
4. What could we have done that would have made you stay?
5. What are you doing next? Choose one: a job in the same sector; a job in a different sector; working for myself; study or training; taking a break; retiring; something else.

Part 2: looking back. How much do you agree with each statement? 1 Strongly disagree, 2 Disagree, 3 Neither agree nor disagree, 4 Agree or 5 Strongly agree.

Connection: feeling informed, heard and part of the vision

6. I understood where the organisation was going, and how my work helped.
7. I felt my views were listened to.
8. I was kept well informed about things that affected my work.

Leadership: confidence in managers and leaders

9. My manager helped me to do my best work.
10. I was recognised when I did good work.
11. I had what I needed to do my job well.

Fulfilment: how well the role met people's needs, from pay to pride

12. My pay and benefits were fair for the work I did.
13. My job challenged me in a good way.
14. I was proud to work here.

Wellbeing: feeling safe, secure and supported

15. I felt safe and secure in my role.
16. I felt supported when I needed it.
17. I felt able to be myself at work.

Part 3: looking ahead

18. Would you recommend us to a friend as a place to work? Yes, not sure or no.
19. Would you consider working here again one day? Yes, not sure or no.
20. Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

Keep the reasons list the same for everyone and every year, so you can see whether "my manager" or "workload or hours" is rising. Ask about the main reason and the other reasons separately, and leave room for people's own words: real reasons are rarely tidy. When researchers tried to sort 352 nurses leaving the NHS by the way they had decided to go, a substantial number didn't fit (Morrell and others, Applied Psychology, 2008).

Question 3 matters more than it looks. In a study of more than 1,200 leavers, a particular event, which researchers call a "shock", was more often the immediate cause of leaving than dissatisfaction that had built up over time (Holtom and others, Human Resource Management, 2005).

Question 5 helps you tell a planned move from a walk-out. In a study of 159 leavers, those who quit with no other job to go to showed more negative feeling than others, which suggests they left on impulse (Maertz and Campion, Academy of Management Journal, 2004).

Which questions find someone's real reasons for leaving?

Specific questions about the things people most often leave over: their manager, their prospects, their workload and how they were treated. Swap these in, or add a few, where you want to look more closely. Each fits one pillar of the model.

Your manager (leadership)

• My manager gave me regular, useful feedback.
• I could raise a concern with my manager.
• I had confidence in the senior leadership team.

Development and prospects (fulfilment)

• I had the chance to learn and grow here.
• I could see a future for myself here.

Workload and hours (wellbeing)

• My workload was manageable.
• My hours or shift pattern worked for me.

Fair treatment (wellbeing)

• I was treated fairly, whatever my role or background.
• When I raised a concern, it was dealt with.
• Did you experience or see bullying, harassment or discrimination while you worked here? Yes, no or prefer not to say.

For people who leave in their first few months (connection)

• The job was what I expected when I accepted it.
• I was given the training I needed when I started.

If many people leave in their first months, the questions to ask are the ones about how they started. Asking new starters how they are settling in, while they are still with you, will tell you sooner.

What exit interview questions should you ask?

A few good open questions, asked well. An exit interview is a conversation, not a questionnaire read aloud: the survey has already covered the ratings, so use the time to hear the story behind them, in the leaver's own words, and to follow up on what matters.

• What first made you think about leaving? When was that?
• Was there a moment when you decided to go?
• What will your new role give you that this one didn't?
• What did you enjoy most here, and what should we make sure we keep?
• What could your manager have done differently to support you?
• If you could change one thing for the people who stay, what would it be?
• Is there anything you didn't feel able to say while you worked here?
• Would you consider coming back one day?

Why so few? In an hour or less, you can explore a handful of questions properly, asking "What happened then?" and "What would have helped?" until you understand. A long list turns the conversation back into a form, which is the survey's job. If you need another prompt, any statement from the survey can become one: "Tell me about the recognition you got here."

What not to ask:

• Don't try to talk them out of going. If you want to keep someone, have that conversation separately, before the exit interview.
• Don't ask them to rate or name colleagues. Ask what happened and the effect it had. If they raise a concern about someone, take it seriously and follow it up properly.
• Don't ask what they'd be right to keep to themselves, such as their new salary or their health, unless they raise it.

Who asks matters. A leaver may not be candid with the manager they are leaving, so ask someone else to hold the conversation, such as a person in HR the leaver hasn't worked closely with, and make clear that nothing they say will affect their reference. Send the survey first, so the conversation can start from what it shows.

What is the difference between an exit survey and an exit interview?

An exit survey is a questionnaire every leaver answers in the same way; an exit interview is a conversation. An employee exit survey, also called a leaver survey or a leavers' questionnaire, asks why someone is going and what working for you was like, so the answers can be added up and compared: by team, by site, by length of service, or with what the people who stay tell you. An exit interview gets the story behind the answers, and the detail a list of options can't hold. Many organisations use both: the survey for every leaver, and a conversation where it helps.

Are leavers honest in exit surveys and interviews?

Not always, but they say more when it is safe to. A study of 227 people found that they were more likely to give their real reasons for leaving when the answers were treated confidentially and reported only in aggregate, when they were protected from a bad reference, and when the organisation had already fixed problems raised in earlier exit questionnaires. Where the reason was their supervisor, only aggregate reporting, or a supervisor with little power to retaliate, made the difference (Feldman and Klaas, Journal of Managerial Issues, 1999).

Worry about the consequences is one of the things that holds people back, according to a study of why leavers might shade their answers (Giacalone and others, Journal of Psychology, 1997).

People hold back face to face in particular. In a study of 80 leavers, only 41% gave the same reasons in a face-to-face exit interview on their last day as they gave later, in writing. Of those who gave no particular reason at the interview, half went on to name problems with their supervisor or colleagues (Lefkowitz and Katz, Personnel Psychology, 1969, as described by Feldman and Klaas).

So ask every leaver the same questions: one guarded answer is then outweighed by the pattern. Make it safe to answer: report answers for groups of leavers, keep them away from the leaver's own manager, and make clear they won't affect anyone's reference. Fix what leavers keep raising, and say so. And ask in writing, not only face to face: a confidential survey hears things a conversation may not.

When should you send an exit survey?

As soon as someone hands in their notice, and no later than the middle of their notice period. Don't leave it to their last week.

• Early, while the decision is fresh. People still remember what made them start looking, they have time to answer, and you can still act on anything urgent.
• Not in the last week. The last days go on handovers and goodbyes, and many people have already switched off. Writing in Harvard Business Review, two researchers who surveyed or interviewed 220 executives and leaders, from 210 organisations, note that most exit interviews happen in that last week. They report that some experts prefer about halfway between someone giving notice and leaving, once the first rush of emotion has passed (Spain and Groysberg, Harvard Business Review, April 2016).
• Give people a few days, and a reminder. People answer when it suits them, on a break or at home.

• Every leaver, every time. A survey that depends on someone remembering to send it gets missed, most often for people on shifts, at other sites or leaving a team that is already stretched. An exit survey is a survey like any other, so in Ten Space it can go out automatically as someone leaves, at the point you choose, so it is never forgotten.

  See Journeys for more.

Should exit surveys be anonymous?

They should at least be confidential, with results shown only for groups: that gets the most candid answers about managers and colleagues. Leavers come in ones and twos, which makes them easy to identify in a small team, so report their answers across a group, such as everyone who left a site in a quarter or a year. An identified survey lets you follow up a serious concern with the person who raised it, but only if they know that before they answer.

What should you do with exit survey answers?

Act at once on anything serious. Then look for patterns across leavers, compare them with what the people who stay tell you, and act on the few things that matter most. Asking alone keeps nobody: a Cochrane review found no controlled studies of whether exit interviews reduce turnover among healthcare staff, though it says they may give useful information about the workplace (Webster and Flint, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2014). Acting is where many organisations stop: in the Harvard Business Review survey, fewer than a third of executives whose companies held exit interviews could name an action that had come from one.

1. Act at once on a serious concern. Some answers can't wait for the next report, such as a leaver saying they were harassed. Decide in advance who should hear about them, such as your HR director, and make sure they hear at once, so they can step in and follow up straight away.
2. Look across leavers, not at one leaver. A reason that keeps coming up, or a team, site or length of service where scores are lower, is a pattern.
3. Compare leavers with the people who stay. If leavers rate their managers much lower than the people who stay do, managers may be part of why people go. If both groups rate pay low, the people who stay may be thinking about it too.
4. Watch the trend. Is "workload or hours" rising as a reason? Are people leaving sooner after joining? Tracking the answers by cohort, department or job family shows it early.
5. Agree a few actions, each with an owner and a date. "Review the overtime rota at the busiest depot by March" is an action. "Improve retention" isn't.
6. Tell people what changed. Say what you learned, in general terms, and what you are doing about it.

Why ask the people who stay as well?

An exit survey only hears from people once they have decided to go, and keeping people is getting harder: in the CIPD's 2026 resourcing survey, 44% of organisations said talent was more difficult to retain (CIPD, Resourcing and talent planning report, 22 September 2026).

Unhappiness usually shows first as an intention to leave. Across 155 studies, how satisfied and committed people were predicted whether they meant to leave, and that intention carried nearly all of the link to actually leaving (Tett and Meyer, Personnel Psychology, 1993). A survey of the people who stay can pick that up while there is still time to act. In one hospital's study of why its nurses left, a staff attitude survey gave more, and better, information than its exit interviews (Fottler and others, Hospital & Health Services Administration, 1995).

Engagement and pulse surveys hear from everyone while there is still time, and asking new starters how they are settling in catches early problems before they become early leavers.

See employee experience and retention for more.

How Ten Space helps

Ten Space is a UK-based employee survey and performance management platform. Its Journeys follow people through key moments in their employment, such as onboarding, a return to work and leaving, at the points you choose.

• Questions to start from. Start from our engagement model and ready-made questions, or use your own values and write your own questions. We work with you to fine-tune your questions.
• Sent and chased for you. Exit surveys go out by email, WhatsApp or SMS. Reminders follow by themselves, and people who have already answered aren't chased.

• Every leaver, however they answer. People on the shop floor, on the road or on shift may never have had a work email. Ten Space reaches people by email, WhatsApp, SMS, QR code or even paper, with surveys in over 100 languages: with a mobile number, no email address is needed.

  See surveys that reach every employee for more.

• Answers kept to the right people. You choose for each survey. It can be fully anonymous (certain features such as automated reminders and segmentation may not be available); filtered, with our ethics filter, so results are only shown for groups of six or more; or identified, so authorised users can see which individual answered, and people are told before they send any answers. With the ethics filter on, leavers' answers show once six people have answered. Everyone sees what their role allows, and only that, so an exit survey can be limited to named people.

• Serious concerns, straight away. An alert can tell a named person, such as your HR director, as soon as an answer needs attention, for example if anybody reports harassment, so they can step in and follow up straight away. What they can then see is still set by their role.

• Patterns, early. See the reasons people give by department, site or length of service. Custom dashboards track each journey, split by cohort, department or job family, so you can spot issues and trends early, and see the effect of changes you make to your processes.

  See custom dashboards for more.

• Actions that get done. Agree actions with an owner and a due date. Reminders go out automatically, progress is tracked for you, and each action stays linked to the result it came from.

  See action planning for more.

We set the platform up for you, and expert help, training and support are always included. Every client has a dedicated client success manager: a named UK-based expert who works alongside your team.

Frequently asked questions

How long should an exit interview take?

An hour at most, for most people. Recommendations vary: in the Harvard Business Review survey, some executives would keep it to an hour, with the option to carry on, and others suggest up to 90 minutes. With a focused set of questions, and the survey answered first, you rarely need longer.

Should managers see exit survey results?

Yes, for their own area, but as themes across a group of leavers, never one person's answers. People were more willing to name a problem with their supervisor when answers were reported only in aggregate, so wait until enough people have left a team for the answers to stay confidential.

Should you survey people who are dismissed or made redundant?

Yes, but separately from people who choose to leave. Ask how the process was handled and what support they had, and report their answers apart, so they don't blur the picture of why people choose to go.

Why do people leave their jobs?

Usually for more than one reason, and often after a particular event rather than from slowly growing unhappiness. The reasons differ between organisations and between groups of staff, which is why it is worth asking your own leavers.

See how Journeys hears from every leaver, automatically. Book a 30-minute demo.