Hr Exit Interview

---
name: hr-exit-interview
description: Builds an Exit Interview Programme that names who runs the interview (not the line manager), the question set, a consent and recording note, a quarterly theme read for groups only, and the loop back to leaders. Use for "run hr-exit-interview", "exit interview questions", "exit interview template", "leavers say nothing ever changes", "why are people leaving", "exit survey themes", "quarterly exit report", part of the AI for HR Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Exit Interview Questions

## When To Use
Leavers decline the exit interview because "nothing ever changes", and the few who agree give polite answers to their own manager. Use this when you want exit conversations people trust, a theme read leaders cannot wave away, and a record of what changed because of it.

## When Not To Use
If the person is staying, run Stay Interview Questions instead. If the leaver was dismissed or has an open complaint or claim, do not use an exit interview to collect evidence; take it to your adviser and handle the practical steps with Offboarding Checklist.

## Inputs
- Where leavers work (country, and state or province where it matters) and how you record interviews today.
- Who could run the interview other than the line manager (HR, a skip-level leader, a neutral colleague).
- Past exit notes or leaver reasons, if you have them, with names removed.
If you have none of this, I start from a blank programme with HR as interviewer and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
The exit interview programme in four moves (collect, analyse, share, act), as Spain and Groysberg explain it in "Making Exit Interviews Count", Harvard Business Review (hbr.org/2016/04/making-exit-interviews-count). The value is in the last two moves: themes reach the leaders who can act, and future leavers hear what changed. The failure it prevents: a folder of exit forms nobody reads, and an interview weeks after a firing that feels like legal fishing.

## Workflow
1. Ask three questions: where leavers work; who can run the interview other than the manager; and the minimum group size below which no theme is shown (you set it; I do not build the theme read until you do).
2. Set who and when: someone other than the line manager, in the last week or just after leaving, offered and never required. Skip or reroute when there is a live dispute.
3. Write the consent and recording note: voluntary, what is recorded, who sees it (themes only beyond HR), how long it is kept. Retention and consent are adviser questions for the place concerned.
4. Write the question set, open and in plain words: why now; what would have changed the decision; the role as it turned out against as it was described; the manager relationship as experienced, in their words, never rated; what we should keep; anything else.
5. Analyse each quarter: code each interview to themes you define, count themes across interviews, split by group only where the group meets your minimum; otherwise "fewer than [n], not shown". No quote that could identify the speaker.
6. Share and act: each theme goes to the leader who can act, with one action, an owner and a date. Record what changed and tell the next leavers.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Exit Interview Programme
Place: [country, state or province] | Interviewer: [role, not line manager] | Minimum group size: [n, set by you]
## Consent and recording note
[Voluntary; what is recorded; who sees it; kept for [period, confirmed with adviser]]
## Questions
| # | Question | Follow-up |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | [open question] | [follow-up] |
## Quarterly theme read ([quarter])
| Theme | Interviews mentioning it | Group split | Example wording (not identifying) |
|---|---|---|---|
| [theme] | [n] | [group, or fewer than [n], not shown] | [paraphrase] |
## Actions
| Theme | Leader who can act | Action | By when | What we tell future leavers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [theme] | [role] | [action] | [date] | [line] |
## Adviser questions
- [Consent, recording and retention rules for this place]
## Decision
[Named leader] accepts or declines each action by [date]; [HR lead] reports back on what changed at the next quarterly read.
```

## Done When
- The interviewer is not the leaver's line manager.
- The consent note states what is recorded, who sees it and for how long, with retention sent to an adviser.
- The theme read applies your minimum group size and attributes nothing to a person.
- Every theme shared has an owner, a date and a line for future leavers.

## Quality Bar
- Answers are paraphrased into themes; no individual answer travels upward with a name or a role that identifies it.
- No rating or ranking of named managers from exit data; a manager theme goes to their leader as a pattern.
- No reason code beyond the categories you define; no guess at the "real" reason someone left.
- Claude writes the process, never the verdict: it never screens, ranks, scores or reads people, a named person decides and signs every decision about someone, and every legal point goes to a qualified adviser for the country it concerns.

## Next
Run hr-dashboard (HR Dashboard) to show the themes alongside turnover.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).