Stay Interviews 101

By John Bartley, Director – People and HR Services
In October 2021, TTC team member Jessica Stitz wrote an article about Employee retention during the Great Resignation. In it, in addition to providing 5 ways to retain employees, Jessica recommends conducting stay interviews as a step towards understanding what motivates and engages your employees.
Stay interviews are informal conversations that allow you to chat with employees about what they think about working for you while they’re working for you. The point is to learn how you might keep them before you’re doing an exit interview and they’re walking out the door.
52% of voluntarily exiting employees say that their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving their job.
According to Gallup, while you might assume employee turnover is inevitable, it’s not. A stay interview can allow you to learn what might cause them to leave and change it before it’s too late.
One example in a recent article from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) quoted a 10% increase in retention over the last two years due, in part, to stay interviews.
Stay interviews are an excellent tool, it’s true! I’ve used them and found them beneficial, but I’ve also seen them backfire. If your organization doesn’t have the culture to support a stay interview, I might advise bringing in a third party or using a different tool.
In today’s blog post, I’ll dig into the stay interview and how to use these critical conversations to realize the best possible results.
A stay interview IS:
A stay interview IS NOT:
Without these prerequisite conditions, a stay interview will not strengthen your relationship with your employee. In fact, it might do more harm than good.
With everyone so busy, there’s never a good time, is there? So I’ll tell you about some times to avoid.
That said, don’t put it off. Find the time. Make it happen.
If you’ve never conducted a stay interview before, it might feel awkward. Think of it this way, though: you’re genuinely curious about your employee and what will keep them working for you. If you come from a place of interest, curiosity, and empathy, it’s hard to go wrong.
Be transparent, and introduce what you’re doing before you send the invite. Send them the questions in advance, so they have time to think and process. When you meet, you might want to start the conversation with something like:
“I set up this time with you because you’re a fantastic employee. I want you to be happy working here, and think of it as a place you can grow and develop. So today I want to have a conversation and ask you some questions to help me support that growth the best I can, does that sound ok to you?”
If this sounds too rigid or too formal to you, consider working a couple of stay interview questions into your regular one-on-ones. This also shows that your interest in their development is a year-round commitment.
Stay interviews are a useful engagement tool. But, let’s be honest, they can be time consuming. Maybe it hasn’t been your management style in the past. And what if you’re already struggling with turnover? At that point, it’s time to call in a third party.
Doing this can have multiple advantages. If there is already significant turnover, the likelihood of your employees being honest with you decreases for a variety of reasons. Additionally, the problem might be something you’re doing, and your employees might not be able to tell you that to your face.
Finally, a third party can recommend the appropriate approach for your situation, whether it’s one-on-one interviews, company-wide surveys, focus groups, or any combination of these excellent engagement tools.
And guess what? These are just some of the services Turning the Corner offers to our clients. We’re proud to have helped many companies and leaders reduce turnover, increase trust, psychological safety, develop flexible work policies, and build development programs. To set up a call with one of our HR experts, contact us today.
At Turning the Corner, we believe that meaningful work that we enjoy is one of life’s greatest rewards—it’s why we do what we do! Our mission is to end suffering in the workplace and empower businesses to thrive through various HR services and training opportunities.