Often, managers tell company leaders that specific employee departures aren't regrettable. In those cases, it's often prudent to ask why. It could be that an employee has recently started underperforming. Sometimes, the root cause could be poor management.

In many situations, it can be difficult to get to the truth of a departure. Employees might be reluctant to share honest feedback, or their departure may have been preceded by a disagreement with their manager. As a result, HR initiatives focused on attrition and retention have to sift through a lot of very biased data, which makes it difficult to know what could have been done—and what should be done in the future—to prevent attrition.

With this survey Recipe, you'll be able to send an exit survey to a departing employee's manager, to ask why they think the employee chose to leave, and whether this is a regretted departure. You can compare this information with the answers the employee gave in their own exit survey and understand the truth behind every departure. As a result, you can see what's truly going on in your company and identify problematic managers or other issues that need to be addressed.

Want to send this survey to a departing employee's peers instead? As with all our survey Recipes, you can customize this template to your exact needs—or create and save your own.