Exit Survey Template

People tell the truth on their way out — if you ask properly. An exit survey is not a retention tool for the person leaving; that ship has sailed. It is an early-warning system for everyone still on the team, and its value depends entirely on whether the departing person believes candor is safe and worth their time.

How the structure earns honesty. The intro states plainly that answers do not affect references or final pay — the unspoken fear that quietly censors exit feedback. The reason question comes first because it is the easiest to answer and the one HR systems track, but the two open questions are where the real information lives. "Was there a specific moment?" is deliberately narrower than "why are you leaving" — resignations are usually decided in a moment (a promotion that went sideways, a meeting where a decision landed badly) months before the notice, and naming that moment tells you what your next resignation's trigger looks like. "What could have kept you here?" converts regret into a checklist.

The two numbers to trend. Boomerang intent ("would you return?") and recommendation willingness are your alumni-relationship metrics. A company people would rejoin and recommend has an exit problem; a company they would not has a culture problem — different fixes, and this survey distinguishes them. The experience matrix adds structure: five areas rated on one scale, so patterns emerge once you have even five or six exits to compare.

The page break is doing quiet work. Ratings live on page one and reflection on page two, so the emotional gear-shift is explicit rather than jarring. Because responses save partially as people progress, a leaver who abandons mid-reflection still leaves you their matrix scores — imperfect data beating none.

What we left out. Manager names in dropdowns (a legal and psychological chill on candor — the open questions catch specifics when people want to give them), compensation figures, and forced-choice blame questions. Everything after the first question is optional, because a hostage survey produces hostage answers.

Who runs this. HR teams standardizing offboarding, founders who just lost someone they did not expect to lose, and agencies or clinics with high-turnover roles trying to find the leak.

Make it yours. Send the link after resignation is settled but before the last day — final-week apathy is real. Keep it separate from equipment-return checklists; mixing logistics with reflection cheapens both. Password-protect the form if you share it beyond a private channel. As responses accumulate, export the CSV and read reasons against matrix rows: when "lack of growth" leavers also rate onboarding poorly, you are watching the same story repeat with different names.