Companies started asking people why they were leaving only after turnover became expensive.
The exit interview became a standard human resources practice in American corporations during the 1960s and 1970s, as companies began treating voluntary turnover as a measurable cost rather than an inevitable feature of employment.1
The format is simple. An employee who has resigned is asked, usually by someone from human resources rather than their direct manager, a set of questions about their experience, their reasons for leaving, and their suggestions for improvement.
The practice was shaped by the growing field of organizational behavior. Researchers like Douglas McGregor and Frederick Herzberg had argued that understanding why employees left was as important as understanding what kept them. Herzberg's two-factor theory suggested that dissatisfaction and satisfaction were driven by different factors, and exit interviews became a way to identify which dissatisfiers were pushing people out.2
Studies on exit interview reliability have been skeptical. A widely cited finding in organizational psychology research is that departing employees frequently withhold their real reasons for leaving, offering polished explanations that avoid burning bridges.3
The employee engagement survey can be understood as the preventive counterpart to the exit interview: measuring attitudes while employees are still present, rather than after they have decided to go.