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Culture Starts at the Exit

Thank you for contributing to Culture Starts at the Exit, a research initiative exploring how workforce transitions shape trust and culture long after the announcement is made. Your responses are confidential. This takes about 5–7 minutes.

Name

Best email to send early access to the findings from this survey.

1. Context

What is your current role?

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Roughly how many employees does your organization have?

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How long have you been in your current role?

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How long have you been with your current company?

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What industry is your organization in?

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Which of the following has your organization experienced in the past 24 months?

Tell us more about what happened.

What did the change show you about the organization's leadership team?

What was your role in communicating or leading the change(s)?

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2. What happened

How was this change communicated to the organization?

How would you rate the transparency of leadership's communication during this event?

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Were you aware of any communication strategy or preparation before the change(s) occurred?

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Tell us more about the communication strategy or planning leading up to the event and how it was delivered.

How do you think the employees received the communication strategy?

How would you rate the execution of this change?

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Please comment on your rating.

3. The aftermath: trust, engagement, culture

What was done to support employees after the change?

In the weeks and months following this event, how did employee trust in leadership change?

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Which of the following did you observe among employees afterward?

What positive behaviors or outcomes did you notice among employees after the change?

Which emotions did you most observe among remaining employees, based on what they expressed to you or their managers?

Did your organization see an increase in voluntary departures of high performers in the 6–12 months following this event?

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4. What leadership did (or didn't do)

Which of the following did leadership do in the aftermath?

How would you rate the trust employees had in the messages they received from leadership during and after the change?

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Tell us more about your rating above.

What is the ONE thing leadership did well that you'd recommend other organizations replicate?

In hindsight, what is the ONE thing leadership could have done differently to better support the change?

If you could go back and change one thing about how you personally showed up in that moment, what would it be?

5. Voluntary and Involuntary Exits

How well do you think most organizations understand the impact of workforce exits on remaining employees?

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In your experience, does it matter whether an exit was voluntary or involuntary in terms of its effect on remaining employees?

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What do you believe is the single biggest barrier preventing organizations from managing this well?

For example, lack of leadership training, Legal/HR caution limits on what can be communicated, short-term business pressure overrides long term culture concerns, etc.

If a CEO were about to announce layoffs tomorrow, what advice would you give them?

Years later, what do you think employees remember most about how they were treated through a layoff or reduction in force?

Anything else you'd like to share about how your organization has navigated workforce exits — what worked, what didn't, or what you wish you'd known?

6. Wrap-up

What else comes to mind? What haven't we asked that you have a perspective on related to workplace changes and culture?

Would you be willing to be contacted for a brief follow-up interview to share more details about your experience?

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We're building a program for leaders on the moments that reveal true leadership shaped by this research. Would you like to be added to the wait list?

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