Employees leave companies for various reasons – salary, working conditions, promotion, relocation, remote work, career changes, burnout, and more. Turnover is a routine and expected part of doing business. However, what should companies do when turnover is high or their best talent is walking out the door? Companies often use exit interviews as part of the offboarding process, gleaning insights about what should be improved, what should be changed, and what should continue. This guidance informs retention and engagement strategies to reduce turnover, which can be quite costly, as well as increase productivity and engagement and address issues that may arise.
“…Skilled employees are the assets that drive organizational success. Thus companies must learn from them—why they stay, why they leave, and how the organization needs to change. A thoughtful exit interview—whether it be a face-to-face conversation, a questionnaire, a survey, or a combination—can catalyze leaders’ listening skills, reveal what does or doesn’t work inside the organization, highlight hidden challenges and opportunities, and generate essential competitive intelligence. It can promote engagement and enhance retention by signaling to employees that their views matter. And it can turn departing employees into corporate ambassadors for years to come.” (Harvard Business Review)
While exit interviews are a great tool, they occur at the point when an employee has decided to find another opportunity elsewhere and, in most cases, it is too late to figure out why the employee is leaving and do something about it. Stay interviews, on the other hand, can help the organization learn what matters most to their employees and positively impact recruitment, retention, and engagement. Stay interviews are candid conversations with current employees, with the goal of discovering their reasons for working for the company, what is important to them, what they like about their roles, and what they would like to change. Stay interviews are an opportunity to understand what drives employees before they leave, especially the high performers. Leaders who listen well and ask the right questions can build trust and discover what inspires and influences their team, while positively impacting engagement, productivity, and ultimately the bottom line.
Here are some steps to conduct a stay interview to improve retention:
- Determine the survey population
Leaders may conduct stay interviews with all employees or a select a few who are engaged, productive, trusted, and respected. Employees who have been with the organization the longest and are consistently high performers may be willing to share their insights. - Determine the questions to ask
Why do employees choose to remain with the company? What are their preferences when it comes to recognition? What barriers exist for them being able to do their best work? How can their leaders manage teams more effectively? The focus of the interview is to listen and pay close attention to what employees are saying. Questions should be open ended to easily expand the conversation. (More sample questions are included below.) - Determine when, where, and who will conduct the interviews
Stay interviews can be conducted as separate sessions or incorporated into periodic check-ins with individuals. Small groups suggest a sense of intimacy and allow all to be heard. However, if groups are too large, some may not feel comfortable speaking openly. Individual interviews convey the importance of time spent listening and sharing.
Active listening skills are key. Invest time in training and preparing managers or any leaders tasked with conducting the stay interviews. Do not assume that they know how to do so successfully or understand the purpose of conducting the interviews – if not done well, any misstep can erode trust and negatively impact engagement. The interview is not intended to address performance or conduct investigations. - Determine the next steps
Communicate appreciation for the shared insights. Implement any easily remedied suggestions. Keep the lines of communication open. Follow up on any questions or suggestions that could not be addressed in the sessions.
Consider these sample stay interview questions:
- Describe a time, past or present, when you had the opportunity to do your best work.
- What makes you excited to come to work? What makes you dread it?
- What do you do for fun outside of work? (Use a question like this to get to know your employee.)
- Are there any barriers to getting work done around the office?
- How do you prefer to be recognized? How do you recognize others?
- What development opportunities would you like to explore? Which positions or areas are you interested in beyond your current responsibilities?
- What talents, interests, or skills do you have that we could use better?
- How can we work better as a team? How can your leaders manage the team more effectively?
- Why do you choose to remain with this company?
Employees want to know that they matter. When structured well and properly executed, stay interviews can reveal warning signs that indicate key employees may be flight risks, or perhaps simply in need of more support, direction, and training. These are low-cost measures that could mitigate losing the best talent. Turnover can be costly in many ways. Well-implemented stay interviews can be a valuable source of timely information and a worthwhile strategy to gauge overall satisfaction and engagement and ultimately help retain the organization’s top talent. Just remember, they are only as good as the actions taken to improve an organization. Results should be summarized and shared with decision makers on a regular basis to look for opportunities to make the organization a better place to work. For more information on how stay interviews and other strategies are used to attract and retain top talent employees, visit ERI.
