Ending employment and exit interviews

Employment can end voluntarily or through redundancy, contract end, resignation or termination. As an employer there are steps you will need to take to comply with the law and to ensure your business continues as usual. Create policies in your HR manual and become familiar with the National Employment Standards (NES) and your employee awards will help make the process easier.

Exit Interview

This is an ideal opportunity to discover from departing employees how you can improve the business.

Use our sample exit interview template for examples of questions you should ask during an exit interview. You can adjust the questions to fit your company's needs.

Exit Interview Template (DOC 226.5 KB)

Employer's tasks for the employee's last days at the business:

• write a reference or statement of employment
• set aside time for a thorough handover of duties, and if necessary, get them to report in writing any unfinished projects or tasks where lots of detail is involved, e.g. where they saved the files for project XYZ
• fill the job so they can train their replacement in the role
• set up an exit interview. 
• once the employee has left cancel their computer codes and passwords
• on their last day, make sure they return security passes, uniforms, safety gear, laptops etc.

General record keeping reminders:

• calculate final payments such as annual leave and accrued long service leave
• find out about employee termination payments on the Australian Tax Office website
  
• pay the remaining superannuation payment
  
• remember to include their pay as you go (PAYG) withheld amounts in your next BAS
• collect any information now for your next fringe benefits tax (FBT) report
• if a WorkSafe injury insurance claim is current, tell WorkSafe
  
• make sure you have their contact details so you can send them their statement of earnings at the end of the tax year.