Your In-Depth 2024 Guide to Stay Interviews (Plus Best Questions to Ask)
Stay interviews are a highly effective tool for improving employee retention and engagement. Surprisingly, many organizations still underutilize them. According to a Gallup survey, 52% of employees who left their jobs voluntarily believed their manager or company could have taken steps to prevent their departure. Stay interviews provide an opportunity to identify those actions and implement solutions.
In this article, we will explore the purpose and best practices of stay interviews. Additionally, we will provide 10 essential stay interview questions and supplemental follow up questions to ask. Let’s dive in!
Contents
What are stay interviews?
The purpose of stay interviews
The difference between a stay interview and a performance review
Stay interview best practices
Tips for conducting stay interviews
10 Stay interview questions (and more!)
What are stay interviews?
A stay interview is a structured discussion between a manager and individual team members. Its purpose is to understand why employees choose to stay with the organization and determine the specific actions needed to increase their engagement and retention.
Compared to formal interactions like exit interviews or performance reviews, the format of a stay interview is relatively informal. It serves as a proactive way to assess what is going well and identify areas for improvement, fostering an open conversation between managers and their team members.
Think of it as a customer retention strategy, but applied to employees. Similar to how companies offer loyalty programs and discounts to keep customers happy, organizations should conduct stay interviews to understand how to create a positive work environment that keeps employees satisfied.
The purpose of stay interviews
1. Boost engagement and retention
Stay interviews primarily serve the purpose of increasing retention and engagement. These interviews, or more specifically, the information gathered from them, can be immensely valuable to managers and HR in improving the organization’s engagement and retention rates.
To illustrate, consider the stay interview data from Company X, where it was found that 6 out of 10 interviewees felt that they were not receiving adequate recognition for their work. Exit interview data from the same company revealed that a lack of recognition played a significant role in employee turnover.
In this scenario, a possible solution could involve implementing a straightforward employee and/or peer recognition program. Such an initiative would yield two key benefits: firstly, it demonstrates to current employees that their voices are being heard and their stay interview feedback is being acted upon, and secondly, it might change the mindset of those who were considering leaving the company.
Consequently, both the company’s engagement and retention rates would see an improvement.
2. Provide reliable information
Stay interviews serve multiple purposes, including the gathering of valuable information directly from employees. While HR professionals and managers may believe they know why people enjoy working for their company, such as an appealing culture, competitive salary, and flexibility, the reality is that employees stay for different reasons. These reasons could include engaging projects, decision-making autonomy, and outstanding employee benefits.
In essence, it is crucial to understand individuals’ motivations for staying by directly asking them. Thus, regularly conducting stay interviews is a wise approach to collect this valuable feedback.
3. Uncover solutions
Stay interviews are not as commonly conducted as employee surveys or exit interviews. According to a survey by NonProfit HR, only 28% of organizations conducted stay interviews, while 72% conducted exit interviews. Leaders might believe that they already have enough data from surveys and exit interviews.
However, the Finnegan Institute, named after its CEO Richard P. Finnegan, author of “The Power of Stay Interviews for Engagement and Retention” and “The Stay Interview,” presents an interesting perspective on this matter.
They suggest that although leaders have data, they may not have solutions. They provide an example of an employee who shared his solution for staying during a stay interview. The employee said, “I have 3 kids under 7. If I can come in a few minutes early on days when one of my kids has soccer or a little league game and then leave a few minutes early to watch them play, I’ll never leave.”
This example illustrates how stay interviews can help uncover needs and solutions that may not be discovered through employee surveys or exit interviews. Overall, the information from stay interviews can provide valuable insights that organizations can use to enhance engagement and retention.
The difference between a stay interview and a performance review
A stay interview and a performance review are two distinct types of employee assessments used by organizations to effectively understand and manage their workforce. Here’s a breakdown of their differences:
Stay interview Performance review A proactive approach taken by employers to engage with current employees and comprehend their motivations, needs, and concerns. A formal evaluation of an employee’s job performance over a specific period. It involves one-on-one conversations between the employee and their manager or HR representative. Typically conducted annually or semi-annually, it assesses the employee’s accomplishments, strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. The primary purpose of a stay interview is to identify factors contributing to employee job satisfaction and reasons for their continued loyalty to the company. The feedback provided during a performance review is crucial for employee development, determining promotions, salary adjustments, and identifying training needs.
Why should performance reviews and stay interviews be held separately
As an HR professional or manager, you may wonder about the appropriate timing for conducting a stay interview. Is it suitable to conduct it alongside the employee’s performance review?
Ideally, it is not recommended to combine them, and here’s the rationale behind this approach.
- Focused attention: Conducting performance reviews and stay interviews at separate times allows the organization to give each process the necessary attention. During a performance review, the focus is solely on the employee’s job-related performance and developmental areas. In contrast, a stay interview concentrates on understanding the employee’s engagement level, satisfaction with their role, work environment, and growth opportunities.
- Reduced bias: By keeping these assessments separate, potential biases that may arise when employee performance is mixed with retention factors can be avoided. A performance review should be objective, based on measurable criteria, while a stay interview can be more open-ended and subjective to explore the employee’s feelings and concerns.
- Improved employee comfort: Conducting stay interviews and performance reviews at different times helps create a more comfortable environment for employees during both processes. Performance reviews can be stressful for some employees, and separating them from stay interviews can alleviate some of that stress.
Stay interview best practices
Based on the top 10 learnings from the Finnegan Institute, here are some best practices to follow when implementing stay interviews:
- Gain executive buy-in: It is crucial for the organization’s leadership to support and prioritize its people strategy. Executives should lead by example and conduct stay interviews themselves, setting the tone for the rest of the organization.
- Quantify the impact: Translate turnover and engagement into tangible financial terms. This approach highlights the direct impact of stay interviews on the organization’s bottom line, which is more persuasive than relying solely on turnover percentages.
- Clarify HR’s role: Although the People Team can provide recommendations and monitor stay interview progress, ultimate accountability for retention and engagement lies with leaders and managers outside of the HR department.
- Set clear goals: Hold leaders and managers accountable for their own retention and engagement goals. This sends a clear message that staying engaged with employees is a priority for the entire organization.
- Utilize researched stay interview questions: Consider asking Finnegan’s 5 researched stay interview questions for comprehensive insights. More details on these questions can be found in the dedicated section on stay interview questions.
- Equip leaders with essential skills: As identified by the Finnegan Institute, there are four key skills that leaders need to effectively conduct stay interviews:
- Active listening
- Note-taking
- Probing for deeper insights
- Taking responsibility for action steps
Leaders can acquire these skills through dedicated stay interview manager training programs, among other resources.
Tips for conducting stay interviews
1. Start with smaller groups: Begin by conducting stay interviews with new hires, high performers, and high potentials. These individuals are at a higher risk of leaving prematurely.
2. Conduct them twice a year: Follow Richard Finnegan’s advice for new hires – schedule the first stay interview at 90 days and the second one at 180 days. For existing employees, conduct stay interviews every six months.
3. Structure the interview: Stay interviews should be structured conversations. Consider creating a stay interview template to ensure consistency across managers and to ask the same set of questions to each employee.
4. Centralize information: Store all the answers gathered during stay interviews in a central and easily accessible location, such as your Talent Management System.
5. Take action: The primary objective of stay interviews is to retain employees. Act on the feedback provided by employees and offer suitable solutions whenever possible.
10 Stay interview questions (and more!)
In this section, we will look at examples of actual stay interview questions. There are 5 main questions that, according to stay interview expert Richard Finnegan, leaders should ask their individual employees every single time.
Instead of just working through a list of questions, however, it’s important to probe the answers to really get a greater understanding of what lies behind each response.
To help you do this as effectively as possible, we’ve split the questions into 5 main topics to cover, with 1 main and 1 follow-up question to ask under each topic.
Topic 1: Evoking positive mental images Main question: 1. When you travel to work each day, what things do you look forward to? Why ask this: It’s good to start the stay interview on a positive note. Asking employees what they look forward to when they get up in the morning – or during their commute – helps them become more conscious about what it is they like about their job. Follow-up question: 2. What do you dread about work every day? Topic 2: Learning and skills development Main question: 3. What are you learning here? Why ask this: When we encourage “learning”, it sends a compelling message that we value personal and organizational growth. By answering questions about their skill development, employees are aware of their progress and understand that they are continually evolving. Follow-up question: 4. Which of your talents are you not using in your current role? Topic 3: Digging into real reason an employee stays Main question: 5. Why do you stay here? Why ask this: This is a question that employees might not be able to answer that quickly. They might give you ‘superficial’ reasons for staying initially, like ‘it pays the bills’ or ‘to pay for my holidays’.
Being able to truly answer this question though requires the manager to dig a little deeper. It also requires the employee to be completely honest with themselves as to why they are staying and this may take a while for them to come to, so take your time in asking, and giving them the space to answer. Follow-up question: 6. What would tempt you to leave the company? Topic 4: The core retention issues Main question: 7. When was the last time you thought about leaving our team? What prompted it? Why ask this: It’s only natural for people to think about leaving at some point. Hearing directly from employees why they considered leaving is extremely valuable for two reasons:
– You may be able to prevent this particular situation from happening in the future and;
– It gives you the opportunity to convince employees to come to you if they are thinking about leaving in the future. Follow-up question: 8. What is the number one thing that I can do to make it better? Topic 5: Feedback on the manager’s style Main question: 9. What can I do to make your experience at work better for you? Why ask this: Building trust is fundamental for a healthy and successful manager-team relationship. Stay interviews offer a valuable opportunity for managers to establish trust with their team members.
During these interviews, encourage employees to provide feedback on their manager’s management style and suggest areas for improvement. How the manager responds to this feedback during the stay interview, as well as the actions they subsequently take based on that feedback, can greatly influence the level of trust the employees have in them. Follow-up question: 10. As a manager, what can I do more or less of?
There are many more follow-up questions you can ask to tease out the best answers from your employees. You can find even more comprehensive questions in our 21 Best Stay Interview Questions to Ask article.
Key takeaway
Stay interviews are an exceptional tool for enhancing retention and engagement within organizations. They provide managers with the opportunity to establish trust with their team members and identify potential reasons for attrition.
Despite their immense benefits, stay interviews are often overlooked in many organizations. As an HR professional, it is crucial to recognize the value of stay interviews and initiate their implementation.
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