I have read various opinions concerning exit interviews, and need some advice. One of our employees just gave us his letter of resignation dated 1/9/07 - but gave it to management (by placing it in our mailboxes last night) today. This has not been the most motivated of employees and is someone who often did what he wanted when he wanted even though he was written up for it frequently by management. Management wants to do the exit interview to show that we do value the opinions of our employees, but hasn't done one in a number of years, so we don't really know what questions to ask. Are there standard questions for an exit interview or do you taylor the questions to the employee? I personally have never been part of an exit interview and upper management is asking me how to handle it. Any help I get would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

There's really no one answer to your question. I tend to use the same questions for all employees because if you ask different questions, it's harder to come up with aggregate information. But if you have specific questions for one employee, there's nothing to prohibit that.

Here's a link to a list of commonly asked exit interview questions that may help you.

http://jobsearchtech.about.com/cs/interviewtips/a/exit_interview_2.htm