Benefits of Stay Interviews
Throughout my experience, a lot of organisations complete exit interviews and in some cases try to convince the exiting employee to remain with the organisation. As Adam Grant (Organisational Psychologist) said at his recent Melbourne event, “exit interviews are too late to start the conversation about why people are leaving.”
While there is a place for capturing exit interview data and sometimes employees are more open and honest when they are leaving, more important is to retain your top talent and not wait until they have resigned to ask them why there weren’t satisfied with their role and have decided to leave. It also promotes a culture of continuous improvement and trust between leader and employee, as they take action to improve the employee experience.
What are Stay Interviews?
Stay interviews are a proactive approach taken by employers to retain their top talent. Stay interviews seek to understand employee’s perspectives, needs and concerns to enhance the employee experience and retain employees, by addressing areas of concern before they become reasons for departure. Unlike employee engagement surveys, stay interviews can provide further information and explanation and allows initiatives to address the root cause of problems.
Stay interviews can become part of your 1-on-1 meetings with your employees and can be a means to understand the employee and their motivations.
Purpose
The primary purpose of stay interviews is to gain insights into the employee's job satisfaction, motivation, and overall experience within the organisation.
It helps employers understand what aspects of the job and workplace contribute to employee engagement and retention.
2. Questions
Stay interview questions are designed to uncover the employee's perceptions about their work, the work environment, career development, and overall job satisfaction.
Examples of questions include:
How would you rate your current wellbeing – out of 10, with comments? There may be external reasons as to why someone’s wellbeing is rated low.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
Are there any challenges or concerns that you would like to discuss?
Do you feel your career goals are being supported and developed here? If not, what can we do to better support you?
3. Action Planning
Similar to what occurs when analysing engagement survey data, the insights gathered from stay interviews are used to develop action plans to address concerns or areas that require improvement.
4. Building Trust
Conducting stay interviews helps build trust between employees and managers/leaders, fostering a culture of open communication.
It also helps to demonstrate that the business values its employees and is committed to creating a positive work environment and continuous improvement.
Overall, stay interviews are a proactive tool for employee engagement and retention, helping businesses to create a workplace where employees feel valued, supported and motivated to stay and contribute to the company’s success.