Exit interviews can give you powerful info to help reducing turnover. But for some companies, the old-fashioned way doesn’t cut it. So they’re taking the process online.

There are some disadvantages of the sit-down exit interview. For one thing, it can be time-consuming. Also, some exiting employees might be afraid of burning bridges and it can be hard to get them to speak candidly when they still technically work for you.

That’s where online exit interview management systems come in (a good example is a service provided by Insightlink Communications). Basically, you get departing employees’ home e-mail addresses. Then you send a message linking them to an online survey. They take it if and when they want to, the software holds the data, and then you log on to view the results.

Price-wise, like a lot of software these days, most services are scalable based on the number of users. Some vendors charge a flat rate per survey conducted, while others charge monthly fees based on the size of your company.

It’s simple enough, but there are still solid reasons to stick with the old sit-down method. As long as people are willing to talk to you, you’ve got a really good chance to probe and get a lot of detailed, useful information from them before they say goodbye. And, if the company is small enough, you can make sure you interview every departing employee.

When you’re using an online survey, you don’t know what the respond rate will be, and you aren’t in any position to ask follow-up questions.