Exit Feedback

Exit feedback helps Council understand why employees leave, what parts of the employment experience should be protected or improved, and which retention risks are recurring.

The recommended Mastertek design is deliberately more focused than a broad retrospective employee survey. The annual Employer of Choice Employee Survey remains the comprehensive diagnostic anchor. Exit feedback adds a standardised leaving dataset, direct comparison on a small number of Employee Survey measures, and qualitative explanation of the decision to leave.

Recommended standard

Council should adopt one consistent exit-feedback pathway rather than assembling a different question set for each leaver:

All eligible leavers receive the same standard digital exit survey.
Voluntary resignations receive the standard reasons-for-leaving branch. Other separation types skip questions that assume the employee chose to leave.
The survey always includes the same three X-Factor comparators and six fixed EOF / Employee Survey driver comparators. These are not selected case-by-case.
A targeted follow-up interview is used only when a defined trigger is met — for example a critical or regrettable resignation, a material risk signal, an employee request, or a recurring theme that needs more context.
All structured and open-text results are coded consistently, using the standard reason taxonomy and EOF drivers, then reviewed in aggregate through the quarterly listening cycle.

This is the default Mastertek recommendation. The Optional and Alternative Reference is for future design changes or additional probes; it is not a menu to vary the standard survey from one employee to the next.

What the channel tests

Outcome	What Council needs to know
Leaving reason	What was the primary reason for a voluntary resignation and what other factors contributed?
Decision pathway	What prompted the employee to think about leaving and what, if anything, could realistically have influenced them to stay?
Employment experience	How do departing employees rate their overall experience, advocacy and pride using the same measures as the annual Employee Survey?
Retention conditions	What do fixed comparator items show about manager relationship, job design, workload, development, pay and flexibility?
External pull	Where relevant, what does the next opportunity offer that Council was not providing?
Strengths and improvements	What should Council protect and what should it change for employees in similar roles?
Future relationship	Would the employee consider returning to Council?
Serious concerns	Is there a safety, wellbeing, conduct, integrity or other serious issue that requires a formal response rather than routine trend reporting?

Standard process

Step	Standard practice	Owner / timing
1. Trigger	Start the process once the separation is confirmed. Do not wait until the last day.	People and Culture / HRIS trigger
2. Prepare	Pre-populate employment metadata from HRIS — separation type, directorate / business unit, role, tenure and last day. Do not ask the employee to re-enter information Council already holds.	People and Culture
3. Invite	Explain purpose, confidentiality, limits to confidentiality, estimated completion time and the follow-up interview pathway.	Normally 5–10 working days before the final day
4. Collect	Issue the Recommended Exit Feedback Question Set. Use the same wording, response scale and branching rules for every eligible leaver.	Digital survey; target completion before the final day
5. Follow up	Conduct a targeted interview only where a standard trigger is met. Use the fixed interview prompts in the recommended question set and then probe as required.	P&C interviewer; final week or within 7 days after departure
6. Code	Apply the standard reason-for-leaving taxonomy to structured responses and code qualitative themes to the relevant EOF driver(s).	People and Culture
7. Escalate	Move serious safety, wellbeing, conduct, integrity, legal or other risk matters out of the listening process and into the appropriate formal pathway immediately.	People and Culture / relevant assurance owner
8. Review	Review participation, reason codes, direct Employee Survey comparators, EOF themes and actions quarterly. Integrate with turnover and workforce metrics.	People and Culture / Executive sponsor

If an employee leaves immediately, the survey can be sent after departure, ideally within seven days while the experience is still recent.

Eligibility and branching

The standard survey is suitable for resignations, retirements, end-of-contract departures and redundancy exits once the relevant employment process is sufficiently complete. Dismissal / termination and active employee-relations matters should be managed through the relevant case process rather than automatically using the standard exit survey.

Separation type	Standard route
Resignation	Full survey, including the reasons-for-leaving and retention branch.
Retirement	Skip questions that assume the employee began searching for another job or could necessarily have been retained; complete the common experience, improvement and future-relationship questions.
End of fixed-term / contract	Skip the voluntary-resignation reason branch unless the employee independently chose not to continue; complete the common experience questions.
Voluntary / involuntary redundancy	Complete the common experience questions after the redundancy process is sufficiently complete. Do not report redundancy as a preventable retention reason.
Dismissal / termination / active dispute	Do not default to the standard survey. Manage feedback and risk through the relevant P&C / case process.

Confidentiality model

The recommended model is confidential, not anonymous. A response may be linked to employment metadata so Council can interpret exit patterns and follow up where necessary, but individual responses should not be routinely distributed to managers.

The invitation should state clearly that:

participation in feedback is voluntary;
routine reporting is aggregated and de-identified, with minimum reporting thresholds applied;
individual comments are accessed only by authorised people who need them for analysis or follow-up; and
Council cannot promise absolute confidentiality where the employee discloses a serious safety, wellbeing, conduct, integrity, legal or other risk matter that may require action.

Do not describe the process as anonymous if the response can be linked back to the employee through an invitation identifier, employment metadata or follow-up process.

Relationship to the Employee Survey and EOF

The annual Employee Survey remains the comprehensive measure of the full EOF and the four X-Factors. Exit feedback should not repeat the whole survey.

The standard exit survey uses three direct X-Factor comparators:

X1.1 Experience — Overall, my experience working at Council has been positive.
X1.3 Advocacy — I would recommend the Council as a great place to work.
X1.4 Pride — I am proud to work for Council and of the work we deliver.

It also uses six fixed direct Employee Survey driver comparators covering manager relationship, job design / use of skills, workload, development, pay competitiveness and flexibility. See the Recommended Exit Feedback Question Set for the exact wording and codes.

X1.2 Intent is not asked at exit. Once a person has decided to leave, the statement It would take a lot to get me to leave Council is no longer a valid retention-confidence measure. Instead, the reasons-for-leaving and retention questions are coded conceptually to Intent and to the relevant EOF driver.

Direct comparisons are only valid where wording and response scales are identical. Exit results should be compared with the annual Employee Survey as a different workforce cohort, not combined into a single score or treated as a continuation of the annual-survey trend.

Reporting standard

Quarterly exit reporting should include:

Reporting view	Standard measure
Channel health	Eligible leavers, survey invitations, response rate, critical / regrettable resignation coverage, interview completion where triggered.
Reasons for leaving	Primary reason, contributing reasons and trend by role / business area where reporting thresholds allow.
Direct Employee Survey bridge	X1.1 Experience, X1.3 Advocacy, X1.4 Pride and the six fixed EOF comparator items, shown alongside the most recent annual Employee Survey result.
EOF themes	Structured reasons and coded comments mapped to EOF drivers; show recurring themes rather than isolated anecdotes.
External pull	Common features of next opportunities that Council was not providing, where applicable.
Future relationship	Proportion who would consider returning to Council.
Risk and action	Serious matters escalated through formal channels; systemic themes entered into the improvement register with owner and due date.
Workforce context	Read alongside voluntary turnover, early turnover, vacancy / time-to-fill, critical-role turnover and other relevant people metrics.

Governance rule

Keep the standard survey stable long enough to establish a usable trend. Changes to the fixed question set should be made through the Listening Framework governance process, not because an individual manager wants to add questions for a particular leaver.

Additional direct comparators or diagnostic probes are available in the Optional and Alternative Reference when Council has a defined business need and is deliberately redesigning the channel.