‘Stay’ Interviews: Proactive Strategies for High Employee Retention

A stay interview is one that a company performs with current employees. It facilitates the company's understanding of the employee's preferences (or dislikes) regarding their present employer. In essence, stay interviews are helpful feedback tools for gauging employee satisfaction.

Why Take All That Effort?

It’s called being proactive, controlling your challenges before they become challenges. Stay interviews bring in many benefits.

• Reduced Turnover Costs: The Financial Express predicts a 28% global attrition rate by the end of 2024. Hiring and training new hires can be expensive and time-consuming. By proactively addressing workplace and employee issues through stay interviews, you can keep talented individuals from leaving the company, saving both money and time.
• Employee Development: Use stay interviews to create unique growth strategies for employees. This personalized method will help your employees gain skills and achieve their desired career goals at your organization. 
• Increased Job Satisfaction: This is a direct result of employees feeling that their thoughts are valued. This favorable opinion of the job may result in more dedication and loyalty.
  

Stay interviews function as a watchdog for possible issues. If multiple staff members voice comparable worries, you can act quickly to address fundamental problems within the company.

Your How-to Guide

1. Establish trust first.

Rely on your abilities as an inclusive leader to help create the foundation of psychological safety and trust among employees. When trust serves as your safety net, your staff members will feel free to be open and honest in their criticism.

2. Communicate with staff members clearly and honestly.

If you do not state the interview’s agenda beforehand, chances are, the employee will be nervous about it being some “big talk” focused on their negative performance/areas. Therefore, be vulnerable, honest, and open about what you're seeking. Provide your staff with context. Make sure you're outlining "the why" for the stay interview and restating the intended objectives.

A neat procedure utilized by a streaming giant includes scheduling an interview on the dashboard and stating the agenda right next to it. This allows the employee to prepare and collect their thoughts on the intended objective and not waste any time before or during the interview.

3. Give employees room to participate.

Your staff members play a crucial role in creating and preserving a healthy work environment. Assign them control of the experience and be open and honest about your feedback as well. You can, for example, encourage committees where employees voice their ideas for workplace improvement.

4. Actions speak more than words.

After you allow your employees to give you feedback, your first task should be active listening and planning. Planning what, though? Planning how to use the feedback constructively, helping the organization improve, and making the employees feel heard.

For example, suppose an employee suggested implementing a new project management software. The company should initially conduct a trial with a small team to assess its effectiveness and gather feedback. Based on the positive results, they should gradually roll out the software company-wide.

What Else Can You Cover?

Here are some other things you can cover in a stay interview as a complement to the feedback from employees:

• Career Trajectory

You can talk to your employees about their future at the company. This will let them know that you are thinking of their development.

• Work-Life Balance

Bring up work-life balance and ask what you can do to improve it. During stay interviews, discuss flexible work hours, remote job choices, or adapted work schedules that meet employees' demands. Providing a healthy work-life balance has a big impact on keeping employees on board.

• Training and Growth

Recognize employees' desire for growth and learning. Conduct stay interviews to determine their areas of interest and then offer educational alternatives that complement their objectives.

In Conclusion

Stay interviews are an important asset to an organization when it comes to employee retention. They are also useful in increasing job satisfaction and detecting early issues. You can customize the frequency and objectives of your stay interviews according to your organization's goals.