HR Exit Interview Agenda

Exit interviews provide a golden opportunity for you to understand exactly why a departing employee is leaving. When these meetings are conducted well, both sides benefit. The organization gains valuable insight and the employee affirms their contributions to the organization. 

The overarching goals of the exit interview should always be centered around learning and knowledge-sharing. This concept of learning is built into our meeting agenda template for exit interviews. With this template, you create the structure that will guide the conversation in a way that maximizes productivity. Just remember, the exit interview should feel like a conversation, rather than a list of questions. So don’t feel like you have to follow everything to a tee.

On a similar note, you may want to make tweaks and evolve this agenda template for your own specific purposes. While we welcome—and encourage—those tweaks, keep in mind the need for continuity. 

Part of conducting exit interviews is to identify repeating patterns across the organization, departments, or specific roles. By standardizing certain questions and including them in every exit interview, it’s easier to identify important patterns. Beyond that, though, feel free to incorporate questions specific to the person, role, or department.

Finally, it’s also a smart idea to share this agenda or a list of questions with your interviewee before the meeting. That way, the employee has a chance to put some thought into their answers rather than being forced to answer on the spot. And if specific action items come from your exit interview, you can use this agenda template with Hugo to integrate tasks with your project management software.