The Stay Interview
In keeping with our mission – to keep you informed about trends in HR and provide business insights that will keep you ahead of the competition — we invite you to consider a developing retention strategy called The Stay Interview.
In her May 7, 2018 article How HR Can Master the Art and Science of Stay Interviews, HR Dive author Pamela DeLoatch and I discussed the emerging corporate strategy of Stay Interviews. The Stay Interview is designed to retain high quality employees by engaging them in conversation about what is going well in their jobs, what struggles they are facing and how the job is helping them to remain fulfilled and motivated. By having the Stay Interview conversation, companies are hoping to avoid having Exit Interviews with their best employees, keeping them engaged with the company mission. Companies know that there is little chance of altering the path of an employee on her way out the door, so let’s focus our energy on learning and addressing the “pain points” before a key employee decides to leave.
What Questions to Ask?
- What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?
- What keeps you working here?
- If you could change something about your job, what would that be?
- What would make your job more satisfying?
- What would you like to learn here?
- What motivates (or demotivates) you?
- What can I do to best support you?
- What might tempt you to leave?
Who Should Conduct your Stay Interview?
Generally, I recommend that next-level managers conduct your stay interviews in most cases. “However,” DeLoatch writes, “the effectiveness of a stay interview relies on being able to be transparent and honest, so if a manager-employee relationship is not good, someone else should handle the interview.” Stay Interviews can also be conducted by an outside consultancy like HR Strategy Group.
As I told Pamela DeLoatch, companies should “design a process that makes sense – get a sense of the culture, why it’s important, what is the turnover rate and how it affects the business.” We’d be delighted to talk with you about the Stay Interview. Give us a call!