50 exit survey questions to ask employees who leave

Exit survey questions are the prompts you send to an employee who is leaving, in a short written form, to learn why they're going and what would have changed their mind. A written exit survey captures the reasons more honestly and at greater scale than a rushed final-day chat, because people answer on their own time, in their own words, often anonymously. This guide gives you 50 exit survey questions organized into eight categories, plus a ready-to-use template and the rules that make people answer candidly. Pull the ten or twelve that fit your situation and leave the rest.

Exit survey vs. exit interview: which should you run?

They're not the same thing, and the difference matters.

• An exit interview is a one-on-one conversation, usually with HR or a manager, on or near the last day. It's good for nuance and follow-up questions, but honesty suffers when someone is sitting across from a person they may need as a reference.
• An exit survey is a written questionnaire, often anonymous, sent in the final week. It scales to every leaver, produces data you can trend, and tends to surface harder truths because there's no one to soften them for.

The strongest offboarding programs use both: a short survey to capture comparable data from everyone, and an optional conversation for those who want it. If you're designing the conversation side too, our employee exit interviews guide covers structure and best practices. This page focuses on the survey.

How to run an exit survey that people answer honestly

A few rules separate exit surveys that produce real insight from ones that produce polite nothing:

1. Make it anonymous, or at least confidential. Departing employees protect their references. Anonymous surveys get you the unvarnished version.
2. Send it before the last day, not after. Engagement drops to zero once someone has walked out the door.
3. Keep it short. Ten to fifteen questions. A long form on someone's way out has a terrible completion rate.
4. Mix rating scales with open text. Scales let you compare leavers over time; comments tell you the story.
5. Actually read and act on it. Patterns across exits are your cheapest source of retention insight. Wasting them is the real cost.

Now the questions, grouped by what you're trying to learn.

1. Reason for leaving

The core of the survey. Ask it directly, then let them explain.

1. What is the main reason you decided to leave?
2. When did you first start thinking about leaving, and what prompted it?
3. Was there a specific event or turning point behind your decision?
4. Is there anything the company could have done to keep you?
5. How does your new role compare to your current one (pay, growth, flexibility, culture)?

2. Role, workload, and day-to-day work

6. Did your actual responsibilities match what you expected when you joined?
7. Was your workload sustainable?
8. Did you have the tools and resources you needed to do your job well?
9. How clear were your goals and what was expected of you?
10. Did you feel your skills were well used?

3. Manager and leadership

11. How would you describe your relationship with your direct manager?
12. Did your manager give you useful, regular feedback?
13. Did you feel supported by your manager when you needed it?
14. Did you trust the decisions made by senior leadership?
15. Did leadership communicate openly and honestly?

4. Recognition, growth, and development

16. Did you feel your work was valued and recognized?
17. Did you have clear opportunities to grow your career here?
18. Did you get the development and learning you needed?
19. Could you see a realistic path to advancement?
20. Did you feel fairly rewarded for your contributions?

5. Culture, belonging, and wellbeing

21. How would you describe the company culture in one or two sentences?
22. Did you feel respected and included at work?
23. Did the company live up to the values it states?
24. Did you feel the company cared about your wellbeing?
25. Did you feel safe raising concerns or disagreeing?

6. Compensation and benefits

26. Was your pay fair for the work you did?
27. How did your compensation compare to similar roles elsewhere?
28. Did the benefits meet your needs?
29. Was compensation a factor in your decision to leave? If so, how much?
30. Did you understand how pay decisions were made?

7. The full employee experience (onboarding to offboarding)

31. Looking back, how was your onboarding experience?
32. At what point were you most engaged in your time here?
33. At what point were you least engaged, and why?
34. Was there a moment the company could have re-engaged you?
35. How would you describe the offboarding process so far?

8. Loyalty, referral, and the future

36. On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company as a place to work?
37. Would you consider returning in the future under the right circumstances?
38. Would you recommend the company to a friend looking for a job? Why or why not?
39. Is there anything you'll genuinely miss about working here?
40. What is the one thing you'd change if you could?

Open-text questions worth always including

41. What's the single biggest reason you're leaving, in your own words?
42. What did we do well that we should keep doing?
43. What should leadership know that they probably don't?
44. What advice would you give to the person who replaces you?
45. Is there anything else you'd like us to know?

Rating-scale statements (5-point agreement)

46. I would recommend this company as a great place to work.
47. My manager supported my growth and success.
48. My work was recognized and valued.
49. I was fairly compensated for my role.
50. I had a clear path to grow here.

That's 50 questions. You won't use them all. Pick a focused set of ten to fifteen, lead with the reason-for-leaving block, close with the recommend question, and add two or three open-text prompts.

Ready-to-use exit survey template

Here's a tight, twelve-question version you can copy and send today:

1. What is the main reason you decided to leave?
2. Is there anything we could have done to keep you?
3. How would you describe your relationship with your manager?
4. Did you feel your work was valued and recognized?
5. Was your workload sustainable?
6. Were you fairly compensated for your role?
7. Did you have clear opportunities to grow here?
8. How would you describe the company culture?
9. On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us as a place to work?
10. What did we do well that we should keep doing?
11. What should leadership know that they probably don't?
12. Is there anything else you'd like to share? (open text)

For other survey types, our employee survey template library has copy-paste sets for engagement, onboarding, wellbeing, and more.

Turn exit data into lower turnover

A single exit survey is a story. Fifty of them are a strategy. The whole point is to spot the patterns, the manager whose team keeps leaving, the comp band that's no longer competitive, the growth ceiling people keep hitting, before they cost you the next hire.

Tie what you learn back to two things: your live engagement survey data, so you can catch at-risk people while they still work for you, and your real cost of attrition. Our employee turnover calculator and employee turnover guide help you put a number on what each avoidable exit is worth, which is usually what gets leadership to act.

Frequently asked questions

What questions should an exit survey ask?

A good exit survey covers the reason for leaving, the relationship with the manager, recognition and growth, compensation fairness, culture and belonging, and a final recommend question. Lead with why they're leaving, keep the total to 10 to 15 questions, and include two or three open-text prompts for context.

What is the difference between an exit survey and an exit interview?

An exit survey is a written, often anonymous questionnaire sent before the last day; it scales to every leaver and produces trendable data. An exit interview is a one-on-one conversation that allows follow-up nuance but tends to get more guarded answers. Many companies run both.

Should exit surveys be anonymous?

Confidential or anonymous exit surveys generally get more honest answers, because departing employees worry about protecting future references. If you need to follow up on specific issues, let respondents opt in to be contacted rather than requiring names.

When should you send an exit survey?

Send it during the employee's final week, before their last day, while they're still engaged and have system access. Surveys sent after someone has left have very low completion rates.

How many questions should an exit survey have?

Keep it to 10 to 15 questions, answerable in about five minutes. A long survey on someone's way out has a poor completion rate, and the reason-for-leaving and recommend questions carry most of the value anyway.

Start listening to your leavers

Every resignation is expensive feedback you've already paid for. The least you can do is collect it well. Pick a focused set of questions from above, send them anonymously before the last day, and review the patterns across exits each quarter.

Create a free account to build and send anonymous exit surveys in minutes, and connect what leavers tell you to the engagement signals of the people still on your team.