What’s the first thing that you say when a member of staff hands in their notice? Perhaps you ask them where they are going next; maybe you express how sad you will be to see them go.

But how often do you really dig down into their reasons for leaving? How much do you learn from them about what you should be doing differently as a line manager, or as a school?

In the business world, employers usually have the chance to ask these crucial questions through an exit interview. But in education, these opportunities are rare.

Indeed, when education consultant Jill Berry tweeted the following earlier this year, she received hundreds of replies and likes: “We need to conduct proper exit interviews when staff decide to leave our schools, and look more closely at their stories. What can we do to improve retention and address attrition? Can we be more systematic in our analysis of why people are moving on and learn lessons?”

The overwhelming majority of those who replied to the tweet had never been offered an exit interview - but they were clear that if they had been given the chance, they would have taken it.

“Exit interviews don’t happen in schools: I have worked in education for 19 years, in five schools, and never once have I been offered one,” says Hannah Wilson, a former teacher and founder of the WomenEd education movement.

“And yet there’s so much we need to know from those who are leaving organisations. People are leaving because things are toxic, there’s bullying, or things that aren’t right, but not everyone feels confident enough to call it out when they’re going through it.”

Exit interviews are just as important in schools as they are in industry, argues Mandy Coalter, founder of HR consultancy Talent Architects, because they can help leaders to understand what improvements need to be made to maximise retention.

“Sometimes people will leave because of life circumstances, and there’s not much you can do about that, but actually, when I’ve looked at data from schools, people are leaving for career progression, because the workload is too high, they’re stressed, or there’s an issue with their manager,” she explains. “Exit interviews can help you to identify areas in the school that you might need to improve to make the school a better place to work.”

For the individuals who are leaving, the interviews are really important too, Coalter adds. They ensure that the person feels valued and gives them an opportunity to have their voice heard.

Not everyone will take up the offer, she says - but every departing member of staff should at least be given the opportunity.

So how can we go about introducing exit interviews in schools? When should they happen? What needs to be asked? And, crucially, how can schools make the most of what they find out?

When should the interview happen?

Coalter says that the interviews should take place in the last few weeks of employment. “Don’t do it on their last day - they should be free to enjoy that day with students and colleagues,” she says. The interview should take no more than an hour and be conducted somewhere private and neutral.

Who should conduct it?

Ideally, the interviews should be with a line manager, Coalter says, as they have the most power to respond to the feedback, whatever it might be. However, if the working relationship between the line manager and that member of staff isn’t great, then the leaver should be offered an interview with another senior member of staff or someone in the HR team.

What should you ask?

The interviews need to have a structure, and should be about finding out why the person is choosing to leave. That reason doesn’t have to be negative, Coalter stresses, and positive feedback is valuable, too.

She suggests posing the following questions:

• What has worked well for you in this role?
• Did you feel valued?
• Would you come back in the future?
• Is there anything we can do better?
• Could we have done anything to prevent you leaving?
• Would you like us to keep in touch with you about future roles?

If someone has been made redundant, or left because of capability issues, the questions need to be reframed, adds Coalter. “When people are exiting under those circumstances, there’ll be a lot of conversations going on anyway, and it’s about just asking them, at the very least, if the process felt humane, giving them dignity and the support they needed,” she explains.

How do you respond to the feedback?

Once the interview has taken place, it is vital that you act on what you have learned - otherwise there was no point investing the time to conduct the interview in the first place.

Coalter suggests that those conducting the interviews take note of any issues raised, and then compare notes, so you can see if there is a trend across the school: for example, a problem with workload or a lack of flexible working.

Senior leaders then need to meet to discuss any emerging trends and ask themselves honestly whether there are any steps they need to take to address those trends. If it’s something that is causing people to leave, it’s worth taking the time to make changes - and stop further potential exits.

While exit interviews are worthwhile, they shouldn’t be the only feedback tool that schools use, Coalter points out.

“Schools need to be surveying all members of staff on a regular basis. Doing a big survey online once an academic year is a great place to start. Once you’ve done that, go a step further, and start doing shorter poll surveys once a term,” she suggests.

“[These surveys] can give you a good sense of what you’re really good at, and once you have made changes according to the issues people have raised, you can target your poll surveys in some of those areas to check those changes are having a positive impact. The surveys should be supported by regular opportunities to give face-to-face feedback, too.”

If you can afford it, buying in an external survey company to collate all the data can really give staff the confidence, and confidentiality, to be honest about their feedback, she adds.

Of course, exit interviews require time and resources, which are often in short supply. But if the investment into conducting them properly ensures exits are positive, and ultimately, are reduced, then surely it’s an approach worth considering.

Kate Parker is schools and colleges content producer at Tes

This article originally appeared in the 5 November 2021 issue under the headline “How to make the most of an exit interview”