If you are just learning about stay interviews, you can imagine yourself facing a key member of the team in the office and that member just stopped trying to persuade the employee to stay in your office or organization. If there is nothing you can do, you should wait for the employee to leave the interview.

You can use face-to-face interviews to connect with high-performing employees long before they might think to leave the company. Retention strategies are becoming more and more popular among senior employers. The purpose of these interviews is to find out what motivates them to be with you (and what might attract them to go Work for others).

Like having sound recruiting and performance review processes, implementing a stay interview strategy can help you understand what it may take to address turnover among your best employees.

The basics for stay interviews

When planning stay interviews, consider these basic tips:

• Schedule them in advance of time, so personnel understand they’re important.
• Give personnel time to put together their thoughts (which shouldn’t be a hassle if you’ve scheduled the interview in advance of time).
• Be positive that you inform the worker why you’re having the meeting and what you’re going to be speaking about
• Pick a setting in which they’ll be able to relax to specify exactly how they feel about the company, and let them be able to express their emotions and what they desire

You can deal with those in addition to overall performance critiques from a logistical standpoint, however the objective must stay different. Be certain to schedule stay interviews a few months from annual overall performance evaluations, whenever possible, to maintain them separate. With the right stay interview questions, you’ll get a handle on how you can improve employee retention.

Example stay interview questions

Try these stay interview questions to find out what it takes to keep your best employees around. 

Question #1

“What kind of feedback or recognition would you like about your performance that you aren’t currently receiving?” (Insperity Staff, 2021)

This query offers personnel the capacity to vocalize any worries they may also have from a recognition standpoint. Some workwes may also want very little warranty or kudos that they’re doing an amazing job. Others, meanwhile, may also thrive on being recognized while they’ve accomplished a excellent job.

It’s possible, while your organization first started, that your authentic crew didn’t want that affirmation or validation. As your crew grows in size, however, you’ll have quite a few personalities and working styles.

Asking this query pinpoints what every person is seeking out in phrases of recognition and feedback.

Question #2

“What opportunities for self-improvement would you like to have that go beyond your current role?” (Insperity Staff, 2021)

If you can provide them with the opportunity to participate in relevant online courses or attend industry conferences that would be a good question. This is an opportunity for you to express your opinion and request additional training or education related to your role in the organization. This is not an area where you can invest in employees and explore free or very cheap training opportunities.

You will be surprised how much money you can invest without a budget. , Hub Spot offers the online academy offers many free certification courses for sales and marketing professionals. Several other online training portals also offer free or low-cost courses in various professions and industries. At this point in your business trip, you can show what you want to help them with to succeed. Consider allowing employees to use the learning resources available to them so they don’t have to do so. Tighten when it is convenient.

Bottom line: Don't deprive them of the opportunity to improve themselves just because their budget is not high. With a little creativity, you may find many rewarding employee training and development programs to help keep the team running.

“What kinds of flexibility would be helpful to you in balancing your work and home life?”

Nowadays, many companies are very generous with stay-at-home work, paid holidays and flexible working hours to promote work-life balance. This is a highly competitive market, and many people are beginning to expect more.

What can you offer them?

Don't make promises or make fun of things you can't keep. Maybe you work in an organization with less flexible working hours or vacation time (this may have a good reason). When employees say they want to work remotely once a week, don't give them hope, otherwise it will not be possible.

Question #4

What talents, interests or skills do you have that we haven’t made the most of?

Things may evolve rapidly in your organization, and some people cannot reach their full potential. Asking this question can clarify the solution to the problem you are facing and provide employees with a more satisfying job.

For example, you have an employee who has worked in the company for ten years and has to perform many different random tasks every month, which makes him at a loss because when he starts working, this is the only choice. New employees are likely to receive rapid training to reduce the burden on existing employees. Their time and the money you are currently spending on repetitive tasks allows them to focus more on other tasks that can make better use of their talents and stimulate their interest.

Answering the question about whether you are willing to stay for an interview can give you an idea of ​​where employees can help but are not currently helpful.

Question #5

What have you felt good about accomplishing in your job and in your time here?

With this simple question, you can determine that the project they are working on makes them happy or proud, so that you can use this information when assigning future projects and responsibilities.

Happy Employees are often more productive and loyal employees.

Question #6

If you could change one thing about your job, team or company, what would it be?

Employees can take this opportunity to talk to you about their concerns about the rest of their careers. This can show more serious problems that you don't even know about.

 For example, one team requests last-minute work from another team every month. And you don’t know that based on the number of people who provided you with this information during the interview, you can decide to act accordingly. At the very least, it allows respondents to choose to keep the forum to express their concerns.

These are the things you will not speak about at one-on-one performance evaluation meetings. What not to ask in a stay interview

Stay interviews may not feel worth it if you keep asking yes-or-no and closed-ended questions. Avoid asking your employees:

• Are you happy working here?
• Do you make enough money?

Also, you don’t have to ask all employees why they want to stay. Start with employees who have worked with you for a long time and are good at performance evaluation. Try to conduct on-site interviews with these outstanding employees at least once a year and plan them separately from the performance evaluation to keep everyone’s goals different.

The best stay interview questions help your most valuable employees understand:

• You recognize and appreciate their loyalty.
• You care about more than just their performance.
• You’re open to making changes that would bring them more satisfaction.

And they help you discover:

• Warning signs that indicate a key player needs more support or direction
• Ways to keep the employees in which you’ve invested the most time and resources
• Low-cost changes that could reaffirm your employees’ commitment and engagement

Replacing your leading employees can be time-consuming and costly. Stay interviews are a solid strategy to help you retain your business’s top performers.

The best interview questions

• You can help your most valuable employees understand that you recognize and value their loyalty.
• You don't just care about your
• You are willing to accept changes that make them

They can help you identify them:

• Warning signs indicates that major participants need more help or
• The practice where you spend the most time and resources on employee retention
• Cheap changes can increase employee engagement.

Replacing key employees can be time-consuming and expensive. A stay strategy that can help you achieve the best business results.

References

Insperity Staff, 2021. Insperity. [Online]
Available at: https://www.insperity.com/

Morgan, L., 2018. Minisoata Society. [Online]
Available at: Consider stay, skip-level interviews

University of Lowa, n.d. stay-interviews-why-how_0.pdf. [Online]
Available at: https://hr.uiowa.edu/sites/hr.uiowa.edu/files/2020-02/stay-interviews-why-how_0.pdf