It’s a fact that employees will leave jobs at some point. Some of those that leave will have been with a company for less than a year. Stay interviews to improve retention can help with the turnover. The exit interview will pick an employee’s brain to get a better sense of what the company can do better. However, when you do stay interviews to improve retention, employers can pick the brains of employees who are not leaving. These interviews offer opportunities to build trust between employee and manager.
Heighten Awareness of Employees’ Challenges and Interests
One of the primary goals for a stay interview is to heighten awareness of certain things. You can learn what motivates an employee, what work interests them, their proudest achievements, challenges they have, aspects of the business he or she wants to know more about, and what activities he or she would like to be more or less involved in. You can also have some closed-ended questions about the employees so you can learn more about how to utilize their strengths.
Gain Insight into Engagement Level
During these interviews, you want to ask questions about what could be holding an employee back as well as what an employee likes about the job. Questions about how employees want to be recognized for work and, if he or she moved into a different role, what they would miss about the current role can lead to valuable insight.
Ask “Why Do You Stay?”
You don’t need to complicate things and this is the biggest question you can ask an employee. This lets employees lead the conversation so you can take notes and take everything in. Depending on what is discussed, you can be sure to ask any necessary follow-up questions.
Interview High Performers
You want to focus your stay interviews to improve retention on the highest performers. This will make sure that managers spend more time with individuals that will have the greatest impact on the business.
Recap What You Discussed with the Employee
Whoever administers the interview should do a recap of what was discussed to ensure that the employee feels heard. This also makes sure any feedback is accurate. It’s also necessary to end any discussion on a positive note.
Offer New Learning Opportunities
Once you gather all the information from a stay interview, you next need to summarize the top five areas of change that the company can address. New learning opportunities and building autonomy through organizational alignment can help
Call It a Stay Experience
You should be careful about sticking too rigidly to any specific set of questions. If you avoid calling them interviews, it may make it seem less formal. There can be a bad connotation with the word. This meeting should be an informal discussion about what can be done to improve the work experience.
