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Collecting honest feedback and getting the best insights is essentially most of the time to notice various perspectives. One of the critical situations in which you may need the best insights is resignations.
Many employees leave their companies for many reasons, such as company culture, insufficient wages, work environment, working hours, and workload. Employers should investigate these reasons and make the necessary changes according to the feedback if the company needs it.
There are various ways to collect constructive feedback from employees who resign. The most common way to do it is to conduct exit surveys.
Exit surveys are preferred because they can be created online and can be filled out quickly via mobile applications. In this article, you will learn methods, questions, and reasons to obtain the best insights in your surveys in a detailed way.
What is an exit survey?
Exit surveys are a type of survey that is conducted for the purpose of getting information from quitting workers. These surveys include questions about the reasons for leaving the job.
Leaders can create a better company culture when employees express their opinions about why they are leaving the organization.
The responses to the exit surveys show more clearly where the company has shortcomings. For this reason, the responses should be noted and analyzed to improve employee engagement and retention. So companies can make the necessary moves to correct their shortcomings.
4 Reasons why you should use exit surveys
You may wonder what other benefits exit interview surveys can bring to work culture and companies. In many ways, these surveys give your company a new perspective, and you become a company where employees compete to work with you.
1. Gain useful feedback
With the feedback and various ideas you get, you can bring new perspectives to the HR department and make existing employees more satisfied. These feedbacks are usually about the situations that employees are uncomfortable with.
Engaged employees will be more committed to their workplace. In addition, they will embrace workplace projects as their own.
2. Build stronger relationships
Even if employees resign, this does not mean they will never work in the same place again. They may not like their coworkers or, more importantly, their job at their new workplace, and they may want to work with you again.
For this reason, employee exit surveys can help you keep in touch with them and even build a stronger bond.
3. Discover the weak and strong points
Criticism is one of the best ways to detect your weak points so that you can improve yourself in every aspect. Companies and their management groups need to be open to both positive and negative criticism because only in this way can they discover their strengths and weaknesses.
If you do more activities to improve your weaknesses, you will automatically satisfy your new employees.
4. Avoid further churn
While many people can work for you, hiring a new employee for a company is an important and lengthy process. Both employees and employers need to trust each other mutually. Every employee who leaves is a waste of time and effort for the company, and proper communication with employees can help you avoid these losses.
How to conduct an exit survey: 5 Best methods
If the information you have read has made you realize how useful these surveys can be for your company and your employees, you are probably thinking about how to create them.
We have compiled 3 frequently used methods for you so that you will have an average knowledge of each one and can choose the best one for yourself.
1. Face-to-face
One of the most used ways to conduct an exit survey is face-to-face. The older and more traditional paper questionnaires are prepared by HR departments and are expected to be answered by employees who have declared their intention to resign.
You can ensure employees read the survey questions completely and answer them themselves. The downside is that the answers to these questions have to be recorded and analyzed individually, which is a very long process.
2. Printed surveys
Printed surveys are another way to collect honest feedback from your employees. You can quickly print the surveys you create on the computer and then give them to those who resign from their jobs. This method is a bit more costly and laborious than others.
Employees also need to be physically present in the office to complete the printed questionnaires, which is something that many people do not want to deal with.
3. Phone call
Surveying by phone call is also one of the methods used, although it is not very popular. The first reason for its unpopularity is the very low response rate to these surveys.
According to PewResearch, the response rate to telephone surveys continues to decline. During phone calls, the person in charge reads the previously prepared text to the resigned employees and records their answers.
However, this method is a very tiring process for both parties. Misunderstandings and poor connections can also have a negative impact on the results of the survey.
4. Create a survey by writing code
Another well-known method is to write code to build an online exit survey. With this method, you can create a survey with your desired look. To do this, you need to know how to code or hire a programmer.
The downsides of coding are that it is both expensive and takes too long to create a survey. For this reason, although it is a well-known method, it is also a method that is no longer preferred.
5. Using survey maker tools
Another frequently preferred and popular method is online employee feedback and survey tools. One of the most preferred reasons is that online survey tools do not require coding knowledge, and surveys can be created online.
Moreover, many survey maker tools include exit survey templates, which makes your job even easier. Ready-made templates and themes will help you to create surveys in a minute.
How to create an exit survey
Creating an exit survey can be valuable for gathering feedback from individuals leaving your organization or program. The survey can help you identify areas for improvement and gain insights into why they departed.
Here's a step-by-step guide to help you create an effective exit survey:
1. Define your objectives
Determine the specific goals you want to achieve with the exit survey. For example, you may want to understand the reasons for employee turnover, identify areas of dissatisfaction, or gather suggestions for improvement.
2. Select the survey method
Decide on the format and delivery method for your survey. You can choose between online survey tools or paper-based surveys.
3. Choose the survey questions
Develop a set of questions that align with your objectives. Consider a mix of closed-ended (multiple-choice or rating scale) and open-ended (free text) questions. Here are some common types of questions to include:
- Demographic information: Collect basic data such as job title, department, tenure, or reasons for leaving.
- Likert scale questions: Use rating scales to measure satisfaction levels, such as asking them to rate aspects of their job or the organization.
- Multiple-choice questions: Offer predefined options for respondents to choose from, such as asking about the primary reason for their departure.
- Open-ended questions: Provide space for respondents to provide detailed feedback, suggestions, or additional comments.
4. Ensure confidentiality and anonymity
Assure respondents that their answers will remain confidential and anonymous. This helps foster honest and unbiased responses.
5. Keep the survey concise
Respect the respondents' time by keeping the survey short and focused. Avoid unnecessary or repetitive questions.
6. Pilot test the survey
Before distributing the survey widely, conduct a pilot test with a small group of individuals who are leaving or have recently left. This will help you identify any issues or ambiguities in the survey and make necessary adjustments.
7. Distribute the survey
Once you're confident in the survey's design, distribute it to the intended audience. Send it via email, provide a link on your organization's website, or distribute paper copies if necessary.
8. Set a deadline and send reminders
Clearly communicate the deadline for survey completion and consider sending reminder emails to encourage participation.
9. Analyze the data
Once you've collected the responses, analyze the data to identify patterns, trends, and key insights. Look for common themes, recurring issues, and areas for improvement.
10. Take action
Use the insights gathered from the exit survey to inform your decision-making and improve your organization or program. Implement changes based on the feedback received to address any identified issues or concerns.
How to use exit interviews to improve performance
If you have not seen an exit interview before and do not know which points to pay attention to, you may not get the efficiency you want from the questions you prepare.
Even if you understand the general purpose by looking at exit survey examples, you need to do a more detailed examination to improve performance in the company. If you follow the steps below one by one, it will lead you to a successful path.
1. Conduct exit interviews with leaving employees
As soon as your employees inform the human resources department that they want to resign, you should send them the exit survey you prepared earlier. You can do this in the way you think will be most useful for you. For example, these can be online surveys or paper surveys.
Your exit survey should consist of engaging questions with a purpose, similar to other HR survey questions. Employees should answer questions without wasting too much time after leaving their work. Otherwise, it can be difficult to get the most honest feedback.
2. Analyze the data to see if there is a shared pattern
The next and one of the most important steps is to analyze the answers. The first thing to look for when analyzing the answers is whether there are common answers. These shared patterns make it easier to identify your company's strengths and weaknesses.
You should especially note your weak points so that you don't face the same problems in the future. You should also record your employees' favourite features in your company so that you don't have to put effort into developing them further.
3. Compare exit interview results with the results of other surveys
Another way to analyze the survey results is to compare them with other employee surveys and forms. The general purpose of these surveys is to measure employee satisfaction with their work and to improve their performance. In all surveys, you can check whether employees answer the questions consistently.
If employees are dissatisfied with the same aspects across all surveys, the human resources department should prioritize improving them. This way, you can both enhance your company culture and obtain more engaged employees.
4. Identify weak points and work on improving them
Another step is to identify and categorize weak points. Once you have categorized them, it will be easier to enhance them. For example, employee concerns can be related to work, work environment, company culture, economic reasons, or mobbing.
If a direct person is responsible for these problems, you should communicate this with them. If these problems are things that the company can improve and change, they should be given importance, and you should strive to implement these innovations.
5. Share your findings with executives to develop new policies
Your final step is to note all your analyses in detail and make an overall assessment. You should share all the results with your managers in your organization and think of new strategies to improve these shortcomings.
If you can turn all these shortcomings into strengths, you can make your company even more desirable from your employees' perspective.
20 Amazing exit survey questions to ask in your surveys
If you want to create an exit survey from scratch and are unsure what kind of questions you should include, you should use the questions below.
Even if you don’t use the same questions below, you can take inspiration from them and come up with more relevant questions to your own company.
- Which reasons led you to look for a new job?
- Did any of your colleagues have anything to do with your resignation?
- Did any of your managers have any influence on your resignation?
- Have you been subjected to any kind of mobbing at your workplace?
- Do you think the company cares enough about the opinions of the employees?
- Do you think the company culture is supportive?
- What do you think needs to be improved in the company?
- What was your favorite thing about the company?
- What did you enjoy the most while working?
- Are you satisfied with the extra benefits the company offers you?
- Would your manager have taken your suggestions into consideration?
- How would you solve a problem if you encountered one?
- Would the working hours make you tired?
- Did you think your responsibilities at work were too much?
- Was your salary sufficient for your living standards?
- Did you look for a new job because of economic concerns?
- If you could go back to work again, what would you want to change?
- Would you feel stressed while working?
- Did you have time for your personal life outside of work?
- What did you consider when applying for your new job?
Key points to take away
Collecting honest feedback and asking employees for their opinions will help you improve your company. You can transform your company culture and working conditions so employers and employees can get maximum efficiency.
Exit surveys are one of the best ways to get the most honest feedback because a resigning employee can freely offer his or her opinions about coworkers and the work environment without any hesitation.
In order to get the best results, face-to-face and online surveys built by survey-maker tools seem to be the most practical and effective.
Moreover, with the ready-made templates offered by survey maker tools, you can create professional surveys in no time and ensure that employees can access these surveys from anywhere thanks to the phone application. Start creating exit surveys to collect feedback without wasting time!
