Stay Interview: Retaining Top Performers
The interview functions as one of the most common recruitment tools used to assess candidates for employment opportunities. In many ways, the interview serves as a bookend for tenure at most organizations. You interview folks prior to sending them a job offer, and you conduct an exit interview when they announce they are leaving your company. Exit interviews are a valuable source of intel about your agency to address employee concerns and to correct ongoing problems. In other words, it serves as a final check-in with a departing employee.
But take a moment to pause and use your imagination. Think about how beneficial it would be to your organization—and your employees—if you checked in regularly on their perspective and well-being. How might that impact your business?
What is a Stay Interview?
“Stay interview” is another way of saying "employee check-in." Of course, every organization commits to doing performance reviews; but they are usually formal and infrequent conversations. The benefit of a stay interview (and it’s important you call it a “stay interview” with employees) is simple: it is an informal, unstructured conversation where employees can share their candid thoughts and concerns. You want to call it a stay interview and not a check-in to signal the importance of the conversation. There should be no mixed messages. Your employees should know you want to have regular conversations because you value what they bring to the organization, and you want them to stay.
During a stay interview, your goal is to understand the challenges your employees are facing, articulate what motivates them (to stay at your agency), and communicate your vision of future opportunities. The more you can vision cast, the easier it becomes for people to see how they fit in your vision.
Stay Interview Questions
Here are some prompts to get you started for your stay interview. When you ask these questions, remember to dig deeper. Get comfortable asking direct, probing questions so you have a clear understanding of how your employee feels.
Question 1: Why do you stay here?
At the start, you want to know what internal or external forces motivates your employee to continue showing up for work. They may not have articulated this answer to themselves, so give them some time to think. Additionally, this question helps you answer one of the most popular questions candidates ask in interviews: why do people choose to stay at your agency?
Question 2: What do you want to learn?
Chances are good that your agency is flat. If you are unable to provide upward mobility, then put together a plan to advance employees’ skills and make sure they understand the various growth paths at your organization.
Question 3: What drives you in your current role?
Give your employee an opportunity to tell their story and how their current role fits with how they see their career progression. You want to get a good sense of what brings them joy in their current role. Ask for examples so you both are clear on what they value.
Question 4: What should we Start, Stop, Continue?
Find out what they think the agency should start, stop, or continue doing. This is a good way to crowdsource ideas to guide the future direction of the company, and hear opinions on how employees feel about the current direction.
Question 5: When was the last time you thought about leaving the company, and why?
Admittedly, this is a tough question to ask and answer. Very rarely are we ever in a relationship where we pose preemptive questions of this nature. Think about the trust someone must have to provide an honest answer. Knowing the answer to this question gives you an opportunity to improve your employee retention efforts. It is important to know whether the reason they thought about leaving is still a concern. So simply ask them: how important is that issue for you now, on a scale of 1 to 10?
Key Takeaway
The more comfortable you and your management team are with stay interviews, the better you'll become at understanding how to best serve your team. Employees generally appreciate these conversations because it gives them an opportunity to share their ideas and voice their concerns. These conversations provide enough insight to help you develop individualized engagement and retention plans that show you are taking action, according to their needs.
If you want help launching stay interviews, then check out my Agency Coaching service. I work with agency owners like you to improve your ability to ask direct questions and adapt them into employee feedback.