Survey template

Exit interview survey

People rarely give the true reason in a face-to-face exit chat — they're managing their reference. This template asks about what actually happened over the last few months, so you learn whether the issue was the manager, the growth path, or the pay, instead of a tidy 'new opportunity'.

Best for: Founders, People teams, and managers trying to fix the causes of regretted attrition.

The questions

1. When did you first start thinking seriously about leaving?

   Short text

   The timing usually points at the trigger event better than any single reason.

2. What was happening around then that pushed you toward looking?

   Long text

   Past episode beats a generic 'why are you leaving' — same Mom Test move.

3. What's the real reason you're leaving — the one you might not put in a resignation letter?

   Long text

4. What, if anything, would have kept you here?

   Long text

5. How would you rate each of these where you sat? Manager, growth path, pay, day-to-day work.

   Long text

   Free text per factor surfaces the one that actually broke, instead of an average.

6. How likely are you to recommend working here to a friend?

   NPS

   An honest loyalty read on the way out — and a benchmark you can track over time.

7. Is there anything you held back saying while you were here?

   Long text

How to run it well

• Run it a few days after notice, not on the last day — the goodbye logistics crowd out honesty on day one.
• Keep results anonymous in aggregate and say so up front; people protect their reference unless you remove the reason to.
• Have someone outside the person's reporting line own the survey — nobody tells the manager the manager was the problem.
• Tag responses by team and tenure, then read for clusters; one bad manager shows up as a pattern, not a vibe.
• Quote the verbatim reasons back to leadership — 'compensation' usually means 'I stopped growing and the pay didn't justify staying'.

FAQ

Should exit interviews be anonymous?

Aggregate the results and remove names before anyone in the reporting line sees them. Honesty rises sharply when a departing person knows their words won't follow them as a reference.

Survey or live conversation?

Do both, but lead with the written survey. Async written answers remove the social pressure that makes people soften the real reason in a live exit chat.

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