What Is A Stay Interview?

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It’s becoming more and more evident that holding onto your top performers is key to continued success in business. You’ve gone through all of the appropriate steps and taken the time to ensure you have the right person in that seat; now, how do you keep them there? A stay interview might just be your answer. Keep reading to learn more about stay interviews and how they work.

Key Takeaways

• A stay interview asks employees the question, what would it take to make you stay with our company?

• Stay interviews have many benefits that are far-reaching and can improve engagement and satisfaction.

• A stay interview should be rather informal, and the employee should be encouraged to speak freely.

• Sample stay interview questions can help you customize and tailor your interview.

What Is a Stay Interview?

You’ve heard of job interviews, performance interviews, and exit interviews; it’s time to roll out the stay interview at your company and keep your best employees engaged and vested in the company. A stay interview is similar to an exit interview, but instead of asking why someone is leaving, you ask an employee what it would take to keep them in the company.

The trick is to do the stay interview long before anyone ever considers leaving. If they’ve already toyed with looking at a job with a different company, you might be too late. At this point, the seeds of disappointment or the idea of a greener pasture are already in place. But a well-timed stay interview can strengthen their connection to the company.

Imagine being asked what you would most want to get from your employer. Would you be able to express that, knowing that it might be possible for it to make you feel more recognized and appreciated? Would you work harder? And would you be a better team player? Most people would, and that’s why stay interviews are important.

Why Should I Do a Stay Interview?

A stay interview is a great opportunity for management to connect with employees on a different level. Most often, management is telling employees what to do. Even performance interviews are off-putting and make the employee feel like it’s time to point out what they do wrong. A stay interview is completely different and puts both people on the same footing, if not elevating the employee slightly.

In a stay interview, the employee is made to feel that their opinion matters and that they have great insight on their job, how the company works from their perspective, and the conditions around them. This is because they do have great insight – they’re the ones in the best position to provide this information.

There are many benefits of a stay interview; some of them include:

• Employees feel that their opinion matters and they feel heard

• Strengthened engagement and loyalty

• Changes suggested can benefit everyone in the company

• Gaps in training and management are spotlighted

• Low-cost and minimal effort proactive measure

• Top-performing employees stay and lift up the others

How To Do a Stay Interview

A stay interview isn’t difficult if the manager can get in the right mindset from the beginning. Stay interviews are meant to be more informal than other interviews, and they can put the manager under a microscope. That’s why it’s important to go into one with an open mind and a friendly attitude.

Let the employee know that you’re meeting to discuss their performance or how the manager can be more supportive. You can also look more broadly at the entire company and ask what makes employees stay and what could cause them to leave.

Sculpt your stay interview questions in an open manner, meaning that the respondent is free to say more than yes or no to the question. Be willing to let them lead the interview so they can get out what they really want to say. It might take a little reading between the lines to fully grasp what they’re saying if they’re worried about coming across too negatively.

Always end the interview on a positive note so the individual doesn’t feel bad about sharing what could be negative points regarding management or the company in general. They should walk out feeling as though their statements had a positive impact, not that their job is in jeopardy.

Sample Stay Interview Questions

The following are some samples of stay interview questions. They should be tailored to your specific work environment and sound more conversational. The goal is not to feel like you’re checking a box and getting the interview done; it should feel like a comfortable discussion.

• What is your favorite aspect of your job?

• What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?

• What keeps you working here?

• Is there anything you dislike or even dread about coming to work?

• (If yes to the above question) What can we do to make that better for you?

• What would make your job more satisfying?

• If you personally had the power to change one thing about your job, what would it be?

• What talents do you have that aren’t being used in your role here?

• Are there any areas where you’d like more training or even outside education opportunities?

• What would you like to learn more about within this company?

• How do you like to be recognized?

• What motivates you and/or what brings you down at work?

• How can I (or your manager) support your work efforts more?

• Is there anything I (or your manager) can do less/more to be more effective?

• What might tempt you to leave this job?

• What would make you want to stay with our company?

Remember to thank the employee for their valuable contributions after the interview. Summarizing what they said is a great idea, just to make sure you understand their position and so they know you heard what they said.

Stay Interview FAQ

1. What is a stay interview?

   A stay interview is a conversation between a manager or HR and an employee regarding the employee’s view of their job. Stay interviews are designed to uncover what is going right in a company and what is going wrong for top-performing employees. Ideally, the next step is to try to fix problems so the employee is happier, more engaged, and wants to stay with the company.

2. When are stay interviews done?

   The best time to do a stay interview is annually, about six months after/before annual performance interviews. Stay interviews are not done when someone gives their notice as a way to keep them. If they’ve decided to leave your company, it’s way too late for a stay interview to have an impact.

3. Should everyone in a company have a stay interview?

   No, it often would be too timely and counterproductive to conduct annual stay interviews with every employee. You’ll want to target the top performers, the most valuable contributors, and maybe people you can sense have “checked out” and are ready to move on.

   Stay interviews are about keeping your valuable team members happy. Remember the adage; you can’t please everyone. That is certainly true in business and perhaps you don’t want to please everyone.

   But you want to make your most valuable employees happy, and you want to follow through on the information they provide in the stay interview, if possible. This is why it’s best to narrow the interview down to just a select group.

4. Are stay interviews expensive?

   No, stay interviews are not expensive. Many people think that the one thing everyone will ask for in a stay interview is a raise. Yes, some people are going to want more pay, but not everyone will see that as their driving force to stay employed where they are. Even if the employee asks for a raise, is it more cost-effective to keep that top-performing individual or to try to find someone else?

Author

Kristin Kizer

Kristin Kizer is an award-winning writer, television and documentary producer, and content specialist who has worked on a wide variety of written, broadcast, and electronic publications. A former writer/producer for The Discovery Channel, she is now a freelance writer and delighted to be sharing her talents and time with the wonderful Zippia audience.