When an employee leaves a company, they are often asked to participate in an exit interview where a Human Resources representative or a manager asks questions about their experience with team dynamics, leadership, and why they have chosen to leave the company. The exiting employee often provides honest feedback on what they enjoyed and disliked, and what wasn’t working for them. This process serves as a gathering tool to gain a deeper understanding of the overall employee experience and is used by an organization to generate feedback to identify opportunities for improvement. But why wait until after they have given their notice to find out what isn’t working? Rather than asking employees why they have decided to leave, why not conduct stay interviews to uncover what motivates your employees and what it would take to keep existing talent longer?

This month’s blog post is about the importance of conducting stay interviews, how to conduct them, and who to conduct them with in order to learn more about the employee experience and improve job satisfaction while retaining employees.

So, What is a Stay Interview and Why Should I Conduct Them?

A stay interview, or stay conversation, is a one-on-one conversation with current employees that aims to gain information on what keeps them at your organization, where improvements should be made, and what may cause them to leave. Stay interviews are a valuable tool to save recruitment costs, increase employee retention, job satisfaction, and improve the overall work environment, just to name a few!

It is important to ask your employees, especially long-term employees, what has been keeping them at your organization for so long. What are their likes, dislikes, and motivators at work? Do they feel valued and recognized for their contributions? What would influence them to stay for a long time, or cause them to leave? Employers should conduct stay interviews to answer these questions and make changes before they lose their top talent. How Does it Work?

Typically, a manager would conduct the one-on-one stay interview as they have a deeper understanding of the employee’s role, everyday challenges, and have the authority to make these changes in real-time. This process can also help strengthen the manager-employee relationship and create an opportunity where employees feel comfortable sharing their concerns. It also may be equally valuable for Human Resources to conduct the stay interviews as employees may be more open and honest in their struggles and/or frustrations, especially if it relates to their direct manager. Human Resources can then compile and summarize the information collected and communicate it back to the manager, ensuring all concerns are heard.

Finally, a manager (or Human Resources) should consider conducting a stay interview with every member of their team. It should be more conversational in nature, rather than feeling like a formal structured interview and may take up to 45 minutes to complete.

Key Feedback Areas for Discussion

There are 5 key areas that an employer should consider gathering feedback on:

1. Work environment

2. Motivations and passions/energizers

3. Recognition and appreciation for contributions

4. Career aspirations and future opportunities

5. Experience with leadership and team

Discussing these 5 topics with your staff will provide you with direct insight into their overall employee experience, feelings towards the organization, as well as how they perform best. You can use their answers to provide them with the resources that they need in order to have success and satisfaction in their role.

Sample questions may include:

• What initially attracted you to the job/organization?

• How has your experience been – does it match up/meet expectations?

• What keeps you here?

• Do you feel valued and recognized for your contributions?

• How can your manager better support you?

• What would influence you to stay at this organization for a long time?

• What might cause you to leave?