A letter of resignation

The moment an employee hands in his or her two week's notice and resignation, their employer is playing from behind, as they now must scramble to replace that lost labor. Making matters worse, it often costs businesses a considerable amount of money and resources to search for, interview, hire and train a new employee. Mixed in with all of these negatives is one positive when it comes to an employee leaving the company.

Exit interviews of departing employees provide a human resources department with valuable information that can be used to better retain current and future employees. However, for exit interviews to bring about positive results, businesses need to ask the right questions of departing employees, according to Forbes. The following is a list of 16 questions Forbes suggests human resources departments should ask in exit interviews.

1. Did you feel valued?

2. What made you look for a different job?

3. What was your relationship with your manager like?

4. Would you recommend this company to others seeking a job?

5. Have you told your manager why you have decided to leave?

6. Did we as a company embrace you for who you are?

7. What could have been done to make you stay?

8. Who at this company helped you to succeed in your job?

9. What could have been done differently to help you feel more engaged?

10. What should this company start doing? What should we stop doing? What are we doing that is working?

11. If you could go back in time would you still decide to work for this company?

12. Is there something we should know about? If so, how can we improve upon this?

13. What does your next employer provide that we don't?

14. What should our future hires know about us?

15. If you could have changed anything about your job, what would it have been?

16. Do you have any advice for the person we hire to replace you?

Of course, keeping employees in the first place is the ideal situation. For tips on doing this, click here.