Conducting Exit Interviews
Bringing closure and providing feedback
Conducting Exit Interviews
Wisdom from the field:
"The most important thing in exit interviews is to provide a safe space for members to give feedback on the program and for us to talk to them about their strengths and things to work on," says Lara Jones, Individual Placement Coordinator for the Northwest Service Academy—Lower Columbia Center (Portland, OR). "The one thing I've learned during the three years I've been doing this is to provide the interview questions in advance. That way the members are prepared and their answers are more intentional."
For additional resources, see sample exit surveys in the Looking at the Individual section on this site.
Exit interviews serve several purposes. They're a chance to bring closure to the member's year of service while providing valuable feedback to both your program and the individual.
Lara Jones, Individual Placement Member Support Coordinator at the Northwest Service Academy (NWSA), offers some advice on handling exit interviews:
Step 1
Schedule the interviews about two days prior to the commencement ceremony. "This way, if there's missing paperwork or if they're short on hours, they still have a chance to fix that," she says.
Step 2
Ask members to come prepared. "They need to bring their last time sheet and time logs, their final site report, and their written evaluation of our program. The evaluation asks them to rate the program, staff, and support. It also asks them for contact information and about their plans for life after AmeriCorps."
Jones also gives members some questions to think about in advance that will form the basis of their interview. Although design for exiting leaders, the questions can be adapted for all members.
Step 3
Allow for an open conversation. Jones and the program leader spend about 10–15 minutes talking to each member individually about their experience. "We usually try to talk about things they've done well during their year of service and some things they may want to focus on. We also ask them to speak freely about the program and how it might be improved."
Step 4
Consider having an outside evaluator do a pre- and post-service survey. NWSA has an independent company, Merit Research, give members a survey as they start and end their service. The end survey takes about 20 minutes to fill out and is done just before the individual interviews are conducted. Merit Research analyzes the results and reports back to NWSA.
Step 5
Use the exit interview session as part of your end-of-year celebration preparation.
"I like to call in all the members of the team at the same time, which is about 15 people," says Jones. "As they're waiting for their individual interviews, they work on their group reflection piece for our commencement ceremony. It can be a skit, a song, or a video. They also fill out a 'yearbook' page, which will have their photo on it. We take these and make them into a book that's a nice take-away. All members get a copy and sign it at commencement, just like a high school yearbook."
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