Learning from Past Employees

While it’s always tough to see employees move on to another company, it’s a standard part of business and being an entrepreneur. One of the things I enjoy doing is catching up with the person after they’ve left and had time to settle in to find out how things are going. I especially like learning about what they like, and don’t like, about the new company. Now, this isn’t meant to be a feel good session that the new company can’t possibly be as good as the one they left, rather I want to learn as much as I can about how others do things.

Here are a few areas of interest:

• What’s the corporate culture like?
• How do they do meetings and internal communication?
• What’s the goal setting and accountability process like?
• What do you like overall?
• What don’t you like overall?
• What have you learned that didn’t expect when you took the job?
• What are your thoughts about the market, product, competition, etc?

These same questions can be used during an interview process as well as to learn from past employees. In addition to doing a standard exit interview, it’s also a good practice to reach out and learn from past employees after they’ve been at their new job for some time.

What else? What are some other questions you like to ask past employees?