Form questions

Exit interview questions grouped by why people leave

Ask 12 to 15, choosing the sections that match the first reason given. Never skip what made the person start looking, what would have kept them, and whether they would come back. Those three show whether the loss was preventable, and they are the answers a quarterly summary is built from.

An exit interview has to find out what actually started the search, what could have changed the outcome, and whether that cause is repeating across the organisation. These twenty five questions are grouped by the usual reasons people leave, so each section can be kept or cut depending on what the departing employee names first.

The questions

The decision

  1. What made you start looking?Single choiceRequired

    The first cause, not the final straw. Keep the options identical every quarter so trends hold.

  2. And what else contributed?Multiple choice

  3. What would have kept you?Long text

    Asked early, before the ratings wear the person out.

  4. When did you first think about leaving?Single choice

    In the last month, one to six months ago, six to twelve months ago, over a year ago.

  5. Did you raise any of this with someone before you resigned?Single choice

    Yes, my manager; yes, the people team; yes, someone else; no.

Pay and progression

  1. How fairly were you paid for the work you actually did?Single choice

    1 to 5, very unfairly to very fairly.

  2. How does the new package compare?Single choice

  3. Could you see a next step for yourself here?Single choice

  4. How useful were the development opportunities you were offered?Single choice

    1 to 5, with none were offered as a separate answer.

  5. Was your next career step discussed with you in your last year?Single choice

Manager and team

  1. How much do you agree with each statement about your manager?Rating grid

    Gave useful feedback, recognised good work, supported my development, handled problems fairly, was available. One answer per row.

  2. How well did your team work together?Single choice

  3. Could you raise a concern without it costing you?Single choice

  4. Is there anything about your manager the people team should know privately?Long text

The work and workload

  1. How well did the role match what you were told when you were hired?Single choice

    1 to 5, not at all to exactly.

  2. How sustainable was your workload?Single choice

  3. Did you have what you needed to do your job well?Single choice

  4. How much flexibility did you have in your working arrangements?Single choice

  5. What should change about the role before your replacement starts?Long text

Leaving well

  1. How likely are you to recommend working here to a friend?Single choiceRequired

    0 to 10 as eleven options.

  2. Would you come back?Single choiceRequired

  3. How well was your handover handled?Single choice

  4. May the people team contact you in six months?Single choice

  5. Which team were you in?DropdownRequired

    Team level only, and only where each team is large enough to keep answers unidentifiable.

  6. May the people team share your answers with your manager?Single choiceRequired

    All of it with my name, summarised without my name, or no. Required, so sharing is always an explicit choice rather than a guess.

Which questions to make required

Five are required: what made the person start looking, whether they would recommend working here, whether they would come back, their team, and whether the answers may be shared with their manager. The linked form requires nine, adding length of service, last day, what made them accept and its grid. Every other rating and open question stays optional, because a departing employee owes the organisation nothing and a question they do not want to answer should be skippable rather than end the survey.

The form built from these questions

A static copy of the finished form, from its own example page.

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Which team were you in? *

Team level is as specific as this gets. Nothing you write below is attached to your name in the summary.

↵Enter

Three ways to change this bank

For customers or members who cancel, replace pay and the manager with price, value, service and the product itself, keep what would have kept you word for word, and add whether they would return at a lower price or with a missing feature. For a student withdrawing from a course, swap the sections for course fit, teaching, money and personal circumstances, and ask whether they plan to return to study later, which tells a college whether the student is lost or only paused. For a volunteer stepping down, replace pay with time commitment and recognition, keep the manager grid as a coordinator grid, and ask whether they would come back for a single event, since many volunteers leave a role but not the cause.

Questions people ask

How many exit interview questions should one survey ask?

Twelve to fifteen, taking about ten minutes. The full twenty five are a bank to choose from. Start with the decision section for everyone, then keep the sections that match the organisation's known problems, such as pay or management. A departing employee who is asked everything stops giving considered answers by the halfway point.

Why group exit interview questions by reason for leaving?

Because causes cluster. Someone who left over their manager has a lot to say about feedback and fairness and little about pay, and the reverse is true for someone who left for money. Grouped sections let the survey go deep on the reason that matters and let the quarterly summary compare like with like.

Are exit interview answers covered by privacy law in Australia?

It depends how they are used. The Fair Work Ombudsman explains that personal information an employer holds about current or former employment is not covered by the Australian Privacy Principles, but only when used directly in relation to that employment. Treat exit answers as confidential regardless, and say on the first screen who reads them.

Who should read the answers?

The people team, not the departing person's manager, unless the employee agrees. Answers about a manager are only honest when the manager will not read them with a name attached. Summaries by team, published quarterly, give managers the themes without exposing individuals, which is what the final sharing question makes possible.

Should an exit interview be a survey or a conversation?

Often both. A survey sent in the last week collects comparable answers from everyone, including people who would never say the same things face to face. A short conversation afterwards, with someone outside the reporting line, can follow up on anything the survey raised. Offer the conversation; never make it a condition.

What should happen to exit interview results?

Read them together, not one at a time. Each quarter, count first reasons by team, pull the answers to what would have kept you, and share the themes with leaders along with one change to make. The response export gives one column per question, so the count is a filter rather than a manual tally.

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Other question banks

Stay interview questions to ask before someone resigns

Stay interview questions ask current employees what keeps them, what might tempt them away and what one change would make them more likely to stay, while there is still time to act. These twenty questions are written as a manager's script, with the answers captured in a form so themes can be tracked across a team.

360 feedback questions

A 360 round fails when raters score a personality instead of a behaviour, and when there is nowhere honest to say they have not seen something. These questions fix both, and the written half is the part of the report anybody rereads.

Churn survey questions

A cancellation survey gets one honest answer or none at all, and which one you get is usually decided before the first question. Run it after the cancellation has already gone through, keep every retention offer out of it, and the answers change completely.

On writing the questions themselves, read How to run an exit interview survey. For everything the builder can do, see the form maker. Step by step: Create a conversational form with AI, then View, export and manage your responses.

Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .