Who should conduct the exit interview?

Someone other than the direct manager. HR, a second-line manager, or a third-party firm if budget permits. Direct managers conducting their own employees' exit interviews introduces both bias (they were part of the experience) and intimidation (employees may soften criticism of the person across the table). Aggregate themes across multiple interviews are far more useful than individual responses anyway.

When during offboarding should the interview happen?

Last week or last 2-3 days — late enough that the employee has thought through their decision, early enough that operational tasks (equipment return, knowledge transfer) are not at the same time. Avoid the literal last hour, which feels rushed for both sides. 30-45 minutes scheduled is typical.

Are we required to pay out unused PTO?

Depends on state law and company policy. Some states REQUIRE payout: California (Labor Code §227.3), Massachusetts, North Dakota, Oregon (under certain conditions), Colorado, and others. Some states explicitly allow company policy to dictate (Texas, Florida, etc.). Some states require payout if the company's own policy promises it. Check your state and your handbook before final paycheck calculation.

When is the final paycheck due?

State law varies dramatically. California: immediate for involuntary terminations; within 72 hours for voluntary. Massachusetts: immediate for involuntary; next regular payday for voluntary. Texas: 6 days for involuntary; next regular payday for voluntary. Many states: next regular payday for both. Statutory waiting-time penalties (often 1 day's wages per day late, capped) apply for late pay in many states. Calculate carefully.

What about COBRA continuation coverage?

Federal COBRA applies to employers with 20+ employees. Notice to the qualified beneficiary must be sent by the plan administrator within 14 days of receiving notice of the qualifying event. The employee has 60 days to elect. Smaller employers (fewer than 20) are exempt federally but covered by state mini-COBRA in many states (California, Connecticut, New York, others). Premium is 102% of plan cost (employer + employee + 2% admin fee), payable by the former employee.

Exit Interview Template

Structured questions for an outgoing employee — captures retention insights and offboards cleanly.

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Company name

Departing employee — name

Job title

Department

Start date

Last day of employment

Voluntary or involuntary

Q1: Primary reasons for leaving (top 3)

Q2: What you enjoyed most

Q3: What you enjoyed least or found frustrating

Q4: Feedback on direct manager and leadership

Q5: Compensation and benefits

Q6: Would you recommend the company as an employer?

Q7: Open to returning in the future?

Q8: One change you would make if you could

Offboarding tasks (one per line)

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EXIT INTERVIEW

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Company: Acme Corporation
Departing employee: Jordan Alex Taylor
Job title: Senior Software Engineer
Department: Platform Engineering
Tenure: August 15, 2023 to May 15, 2026
Departure type: Voluntary resignation

QUESTIONS

Q1. Primary reasons for leaving (top 3):
1. New role offers significant career growth opportunity (technical leadership track) not available here.
2. Compensation increase ~22% at new employer for similar level.
3. Hybrid policy at new employer better matches personal commute situation.

Q2. What you enjoyed most:
Smart, low-ego team. Genuine respect among engineers and openness to challenges. Manager (Priya) has been supportive and gave me real autonomy. The product itself is interesting and the customers are loyal.

Q3. What you enjoyed least or found frustrating:
Slow promotion process — promotion calibration twice yearly creates a long lag. Tooling for staging environments is fragile (CI/CD gaps mentioned multiple times in retros). Some cross-team communication breakdowns between Eng and Product.

Q4. Feedback on direct manager and leadership:
Direct manager (Priya): excellent — clear, fair, advocate. Specifically appreciated her support during my parental leave.
Senior leadership: strong technical vision; sometimes slow to communicate strategic shifts to ICs. The Q1 reorg was announced too late and felt rushed.

Q5. Compensation and benefits:
Salary at level was at market median; new employer is at 75th percentile. Benefits package (health, 401k match) was strong. Equity grant felt low for a senior IC. Additional vacation accrual would have been valuable.

Q6. Would you recommend the company as an employer?
► Yes — with reservations

Q7. Open to returning in the future?
► Yes — open to it under different circumstances

Q8. One change you would make if you could:
Move to a quarterly promotion calibration — twice yearly is too slow and concentrates politics. Either add a Q1 and Q3 mini-cycle, or move to a continuous-promotion model where managers can advocate at any monthly meeting.

OFFBOARDING TASKS

Return company laptop, badge, fob, and any equipment.
Knowledge transfer of active projects to designated successor.
Final expense reimbursement submitted and approved.
Payout of accrued PTO per state law and company policy.
COBRA / health-insurance continuation paperwork.
Final payroll verified — including any commissions, bonuses, equity vesting.
Disable all SSO and system access on last day (close of business).
Forward email per retention policy (1 year typical).
Update org chart and reassign any open tickets.

CLOSING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

By signing below:

(a) Employee acknowledges return of all company property listed above (or accounts for any not yet returned).

(b) Employee acknowledges receipt of final-paycheck information, COBRA/insurance-continuation rights notice, and any required state-specific notices (unemployment-insurance pamphlet, etc.).

(c) The exit interview responses may be summarised and aggregated for retention/HR insights; individual responses may be shared with HR leadership and (with employee consent) the direct manager.

_______________________________ Date: May 15, 2026
Jordan Alex Taylor (Departing employee)

_______________________________ Date: May 15, 2026
HR / Interviewer

About this template

Exit interviews are the cheapest, most under-utilised retention research a small business can run. Departing employees provide more candid feedback than current employees because they have nothing left to lose; aggregated themes across multiple exit interviews surface systemic issues that no individual current-employee survey can capture. The most useful structure has 6-8 questions covering reasons for leaving, what worked, what did not, manager feedback, compensation perception, and likelihood-to-return — with both rating questions (for trending over time) and open-ended questions (for theme extraction). Some companies hire third-party firms to conduct exit interviews because departing employees are more candid with neutral interviewers; for small businesses without that option, having someone other than the employee's direct manager conduct the interview (HR, founder, second-line manager) achieves a similar effect. The companion offboarding checklist handles the operational side: equipment return, system access termination (within 1 hour of departure for security-sensitive roles, end-of-business-day for typical roles), final-payroll calculation including accrued PTO (state law dictates whether unused PTO is owed — California, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Oregon, others require payout; many states leave it to company policy), COBRA notice (federal — within 14 days of qualifying event for plans with 20+ employees, with state mini-COBRA for smaller employers), and any state-specific final-pay rules (California: final paycheck due immediately for involuntary termination, within 72 hours for voluntary). Insights from exit interviews typically flow to HR strategy: compensation calibration, manager training, process changes, retention-program design.

When to use it

Voluntary resignation by an employee with significant tenure.
Layoff / restructuring (note: candid responses are limited).
End of contract or project conversion.
Quarterly aggregation of recent departures to identify themes.
Annual offboarding policy review.

What to include

Tenure, department, departure type.
Open-ended questions on reasons, likes, dislikes.
Manager and leadership feedback.
Compensation perception.
Likelihood to recommend or return.
Operational offboarding checklist.

Frequently asked

No — voluntary participation is the norm and produces more honest answers. Employees who feel coerced often answer guardedly or non-substantively. Frame as "we'd appreciate your perspective; participation is voluntary; responses help us improve for current and future employees."

⚠ Legal disclaimer. Final-pay rules, PTO-payout rules, and COBRA / mini-COBRA obligations vary significantly by state and by employer size. California (Labor Code §227.3 and §201-202), Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, North Dakota, and others have specific requirements; failure to comply triggers waiting-time penalties, statutory damages, and potential class-action exposure. Consult an employment attorney or HR/PEO provider for state-specific compliance, especially around final-paycheck timing and unused-PTO payout.