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Webinar tip · 22 October 2026
Don’t wait for the exit interview
Exit interviews ask the right questions too late. Ask your people what would make them leave while they are still here.
Alex CassAon
Exit interviews gather valuable information, and then the person is gone. Alex Cass of Aon described a simple alternative, inspired by a manager at KPMG Australia: ask the same questions while people are still in the team.
How it works
Once a year, Cass has a conversation with people across the team, not just direct reports, about what makes them tick at work, what they like, and what is not working.
Then come the harder questions: what would drive you to go? What would make you leave? With the right relationship and a culture of trust, people give honest, tangible answers you can act on.
What to do this week
- Pick three people outside your direct reports and book a 20-minute conversation with each.
- Ask what keeps them here and what would make them leave.
- Act on one thing you hear, and tell them you have.
Read the clip transcript
why are we waiting until they leave to ask these key questions? We ask all this important information and they're gone. Once the interview takes place, they're either out the door or, you know, pretty much there. So it's essentially taking that process on exit interviews and doing it while someone's still here. So I run them with my team. So I talk to, I don't talk to everyone all the time, but I have once a year, I'll have a conversation with different people within the team, not just my direct reports and just talk to them about, you know, what makes them tick at work, what they like, what's not working, what's the stuff that, you know, and actually ask some pretty hard questions around, you know, what will drive you to go? What's the stuff that would make you leave? And some of them are sort of careful with it, but a lot of the time, if you've got the right relationship with them, you've built that trust culture, they'll give you some really good things that you can really, really work on, some tangible stuff.
From the webinar · Jun 2023
Retention is the new Recruitment
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