Exit survey & onboarding survey

An onboarding survey is a survey that follows up how a new employee experiences their first time in the organisation. It can measure, for example, introduction, role clarity, support from manager and colleagues, access to the right tools, tasks, culture and expectations. In English, terms such as onboarding survey, employee onboarding survey and new hire survey are also used.

An intro survey or intro measurement is a survey that follows up the new employee's introduction and first experience of the workplace. The terms intro survey, intro measurement, introduction survey and onboarding survey are often used for closely related types of measurement and in practice describe the same basic need: to follow up how a new employee experiences the start in the organisation. The difference lies mainly in the terminology and how extensive the measurement is – an intro survey can focus more on the first days and the practical introduction, while an onboarding survey can also follow role, leadership, culture and belonging during the first months.

An onboarding survey helps the organisation spot early problems and understand what is working well in the introduction. That can include, for example, unclear tasks, lack of information, missing systems or tools, insufficient support from the manager, difficulty settling into the team, or unclear goals and expectations. When problems are identified early, there is also an opportunity to act while the onboarding process is still ongoing.

A good onboarding survey should measure the practical, social and organisational parts of the first period. Common areas are role and responsibility, expectations, introduction, information, systems and tools, support from the manager, support from colleagues, training, tasks, culture and values, a sense of belonging and the overall onboarding experience.

Good onboarding questions help you understand whether the new employee has been given the right conditions to succeed in the role, for example whether the person understands what is expected of them, whether the role matches expectations, whether they have received the right information and tools, whether support from the manager has been enough, whether they feel welcome in the team, whether the organisation's goals and ways of working are clear, and what has worked well, what has been missing and what can be improved for future new hires. Combine scale questions with open questions so that you can both follow results and understand the reasons behind the answers.

An onboarding survey works best when it is split into several measurement points during the first period. A simple setup is two measurements: one after about 2–4 weeks that focuses on welcome, introduction, information, equipment, systems and permissions and first contact with manager and colleagues, and one after about 2–3 months that focuses more on tasks, workload, leadership, collaboration, role clarity, culture, belonging, development opportunities and whether expectations have matched reality. Two measurements are better than one because they make it possible to follow how the experience changes over time: the first often captures practical questions and first impressions, while the second gives better answers about the role, relationships, leadership, workload and culture. That way a single survey does not need to try to cover the entire onboarding process.

An onboarding survey should be short enough to be easy to answer but focused enough to give information the organisation can act on. If you use several measurements, each survey does not need to cover everything – the questions can instead be adapted to where the employee is in the onboarding process. Whether the survey should be anonymous depends on the purpose: anonymity can make it easier to leave critical feedback, while identifiable answers can be valuable if the organisation wants to be able to help a specific employee who, for example, lacks support, equipment or clear tasks. Therefore be clear about how answers are handled and whether they are anonymous, confidential or identifiable.

Onboarding surveys can help the organisation spot signals that otherwise risk affecting the employee's wellbeing, engagement and willingness to stay, for example unclear expectations, insufficient support or problems with the introduction. The survey itself does not solve the problem – the value arises when the results are followed up and lead to action.

An exit survey is a survey carried out when an employee is about to leave the organisation. The purpose is to understand why the person is leaving, how the employment has been experienced and what the organisation can improve for future and current employees. In English, terms such as exit survey and employee exit survey are also used.

A departure survey is a survey that collects feedback from an employee in connection with the employment ending. The terms departure survey, exit survey and exit measurement are usually used for the same type of measurement, and both aim to understand the employee's experiences and the reasons why the person is leaving the organisation.

An exit survey helps the organisation identify recurring reasons why employees leave, for example leadership, work environment, workload, development opportunities, tasks, culture, collaboration, pay and benefits, expectations or other organisational factors. When several departures are analysed together, it becomes easier to see patterns that are not visible in a single conversation.

An exit survey should measure both the reason for leaving and the overall experience of the workplace. Common areas are the main reason the person is leaving, tasks, work environment, workload, immediate manager, leadership, development opportunities, culture, collaboration, pay and benefits, and what has worked well and what the organisation can improve.

Good exit questions help the organisation understand both why the person is leaving and how the employment has been experienced, for example what the main reason for leaving is, whether something could have been done differently, how the tasks and work environment have been experienced, how support from the immediate manager has worked, whether there have been opportunities to develop, what has worked particularly well, what the organisation should improve, and whether the person would consider working there again or recommending the workplace. Open questions are particularly valuable for understanding why the employee answers as they do.

An exit survey is a structured survey, while an exit interview is a personal conversation with the departing employee. The survey makes it easier to use the same questions for everyone, compare answers over time, find recurring patterns and analyse larger volumes of data, while the exit interview makes it possible to ask follow-up questions and go deeper into individual experiences. The two methods can therefore be used together.

The exit survey should be carried out close to the end of employment, for example before the last working day or in connection with the departure, so that the employee answers while the experiences are still current and before contact with the organisation disappears. Whether the survey should be anonymous depends on how the organisation wants to use the information: anonymity can make it easier to leave critical feedback, while some background information may be needed to analyse, for example, differences between operations or roles. Be clear about who can see the results and whether individual answers can be identified.

eNPS, Employee Net Promoter Score, measures how likely an employee is to recommend the organisation as a workplace. The question is usually asked on a scale from 0 to 10. Measuring eNPS in connection with exit can give additional information about the overall relationship with the employer even when the person themselves has chosen to move on.

The terms overlap but can have different focuses. An exit survey focuses mainly on why the person is leaving and how the employment has been experienced. An offboarding survey can also measure the departure process itself, for example information ahead of the departure, handover, administration, the last period in the organisation and contact with HR and the manager. The same survey can include both perspectives.

Exit surveys can help the organisation identify recurring reasons for unwanted departures. If several people return to the same problems, the organisation can examine which changes are needed, for example around leadership, workload, development opportunities or other parts of the employee experience.

Onboarding and exit measure two different parts of the same employee journey. The onboarding survey shows how the employee experiences the start, while the exit survey shows how the person looks back on the employment and why it is ending. By using both, the organisation can analyse whether problems that show up at exit can be spotted earlier.

Compare recurring themes between the measurements. If the exit survey for example shows that expectations of the role were unclear, you can examine the onboarding results for the question of whether the employee understands what is expected of them in their role. If exit data shows that support from the manager has been too little, onboarding data can be compared with the question of whether the employee gets the support they need from their immediate manager. That way the organisation can identify whether problems arise early and then follow through the employment.

A simple setup is three clear measurement points: an intro check after 2–4 weeks that measures welcome, practical conditions, information, systems and first contact with manager and team, an onboarding check after 2–3 months that measures role clarity, tasks, leadership, collaboration, culture, workload and belonging, and an exit measurement when the employee leaves that measures why the person is leaving, leadership, work environment, development opportunities, workload, culture and what the organisation could have done differently. By using some comparable questions in several measurements, it becomes easier to follow changes through the entire employee journey.

Certain themes can be measured both early and late, for example role clarity (“I understand what is expected of me in my role” at onboarding compared with “How clear have the expectations of your role been?” at exit), leadership (support from the immediate manager in both measurements), development (opportunities to develop) and culture and belonging (a sense of being part of the team compared with how culture and collaboration have been experienced). That makes the analysis between different parts of the employee journey clearer.

Yes. Onboarding and exit flows can be automated to reduce the manual administration. With esMaker, survey flows can be built together with respondent data and integrations so that the right survey is sent at the right step in the employee journey. esMaker can also be integrated with other systems via, among other things, API, which makes it possible to create more coherent flows between the organisation's HR data and employee surveys. The exact setup and which integration is possible depends on the organisation's HR processes, system environment and which data is to be transferred.

Yes. When onboarding and exit measurements are handled in the same platform, the results can be analysed together and over time, which makes it easier to identify recurring themes and follow whether problems that arise early also return later. They can also be combined with other employee surveys, for example employee surveys, pulse surveys, engagement measurements, leadership measurements and work environment surveys, so that the organisation can follow more parts of the employee journey instead of working with separate measurements without connection.

Yes. esMaker offers AI-based analysis of free-text responses. That can be used as support to process open comments from onboarding and exit surveys and get a better overview of larger volumes of qualitative feedback. The AI analysis can be combined with other analysis and reporting in esMaker.

The results should be used to identify recurring patterns and prioritise improvements. A good way of working is to identify the most important results, compare onboarding and exit, look for recurring themes, prioritise a smaller number of improvement areas, set concrete actions and then follow up whether the results change in upcoming measurements. The goal is not only to measure the employee experience, but to use the results to improve it.

esMaker is developed for GDPR-adapted handling of surveys and data storage takes place in Sweden. How a specific onboarding or exit survey should be designed also depends on which personal data is collected, how the results are used and who needs access to the information. Therefore be clear about the purpose, how answers are handled and whether the survey is anonymous, confidential or identifiable.