Analyze Exit Interview Themes with Claude

Collect all your exit interview notes from the past 6–12 months. If they're in your HRIS or a folder, open them all.

1. For each exit interview, note: employee's role, department, tenure, and their free-text responses about why they left and what the company could do better
2. Remove employee names and any details that could identify individuals (department and tenure are fine to keep)
3. Number each interview

What you should see: A numbered list of anonymized exit interview summaries

Open claude.ai. Use this template:

I'm an HR Generalist analyzing exit interview data from the past [time period]. Please analyze these [X] exit interviews and provide:

1. Top 3-5 primary reasons employees left (with frequency — how many mentioned each)
2. Key themes in what employees said we could do better
3. Any departments or tenure groups where issues cluster (if you see patterns)
4. 2-3 specific retention actions you'd recommend based on this data
5. A 3-sentence executive summary for leadership

Interviews:
[Paste all your notes, numbered]

Add all your numbered exit interview notes and send the message.

What you should see: A structured analysis identifying the main departure themes, department/tenure patterns, and specific recommendations

Ask follow-up questions: "Which interviews specifically support [finding]? What's the most surprising finding? What's the most urgent?"

Copy the analysis into a document. Add your own context (what you know about recent management changes, compensation surveys, etc.) and format it for a leadership presentation.