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GATHERING THE DATA
Developing Your Stay Interview Toolkit
Employees stay at organizations for different reasons than they leave, and nearly every organization is unique in the reasons employees stay. Therefore, an effective employee retention strategy includes these types of retention oriented Interviews. Stay interviews should conducted in a manner to understand the workplace conditions that are presently driving retention and potentially driving turnover. When you properly conduct a Stay Interview, it delivers accurate insights to help improve retention by proactively predicting turnover and providing details to guide specific interventions to prevent turnover. Get in touch with us for help with your organizations stay interview questions and process.
What is a Stay Interview?
A stay interview is a structured conversation between a manager or HR representative and an employee who has chosen to remain with the company. Unlike traditional exit interviews conducted when employees leave the company, stay interviews allow employers to address issues before they become deal-breakers.
The primary goal of a stay interview is to gather insights that can help an organization improve its work environment, employee engagement, and retention strategies. By identifying key drivers of job satisfaction, employers can take targeted actions to retain their top talent and create a workplace where employees are happy, motivated, and committed.
Our Data Driven Approach to Stay Interviews
To help our partners identify the real reasons why employees stay we use a high touch, deep dive approach to conducting Stay Interviews.
The key to getting high quality stay data is putting the employee in control of the conversation. Utilizing the Voice of the Employee approach, our Stay Interviews allow interviewees to participate by web or in a live telephonic interview while they control the conversation. There is no better way to learn from someone than to listen to them share their thoughts and stories in their own words. Do not restrict their responses for the sake of convenience. Plus this proven method of conducting stay interviews helps to prevent high employee turnover.
Success Stories: Proving the Power of Stay Interviews
BWSC partnered with Work Institute and discovered employee dissatisfaction stemmed largely from inadequate benefits program. The complications with the program were causing distractions and a lack of productivity, as well as engagement and retention problems.
Work Institute created a current employee survey with probing “why” questions to determine exact reasons for dissatisfaction with the benefits program. The survey provided opportunities to indicate all reasons for discontent, as well as the chance to specify the most important. Work Institute’s impact:
Revealed cost-sharing opportunities of immediate savings of $80,000
This resulted in a revamp of the benefits program with options to better meet the needs of individual employees
Employee dissatisfaction fell to less than 8%
Stay Interview Questions
When conducting stay interviews, ask thoughtful and open-ended questions to encourage employees to share their genuine thoughts and feelings. Here are some sample questions to consider:
- How Do You Feel About the Manager?
- What is Your View on this Organization?
- How Do You Feel About Your Team?
- How Do You Feel About Your Job?
- Do You Feel Like You Have Adequate Growth Opportunities?
- What Can the Organization Do to Enhance Your Workplace Experience?
- Do You Intend to Stay in the Organization?
The relationship between an employee and their supervisor plays a significant role in job satisfaction, enhanced motivation, loyalty, and better engagement. By asking this question, organizations can understand if any issues or concerns exist regarding management styles.
Gauging employees’ perceptions of the overall company culture, values, and mission helps identify areas of alignment or potential misalignment. Employees who feel appreciated and respected will likely view the organization positively.
A positive work environment, collaborative teams, and strong interpersonal relationships can contribute to employee satisfaction. Inquiring about the thoughts of your workforce on the team dynamics can help you assess and address any issues affecting teamwork or collaboration.
This question lets employees express their level of satisfaction with their current job responsibilities, workload, and work-life balance. Gathering feedback on individual roles within the organization can help solve any potential concerns and align employee roles with their skill sets and interests.
Asking employees about growth opportunities helps organizations evaluate whether they provide enough career development options and advancement prospects. Employees who perceive long-term growth potential within the company are more likely to stay committed, engaged, and motivated.
This question allows employees to share their suggestions and ideas on how the company can improve their workplace experience. It encourages them to offer input on areas such as work-life balance, employee benefits, training and development opportunities, recognition programs, or any other initiatives that could enhance job satisfaction.
Assessing an employee’s commitment and intention to stay with the organization is vital. This question lets employers gauge if there are any underlying factors that may prompt an employee to consider leaving in the future, and take proactive measures accordingly.
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Benefits of Outsourcing Your Stay Interviews
Conducting stay interviews can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive process, especially for larger organizations. This is why some companies consider outsourcing, which has the following benefits:
Objectivity:
External interviewers can bring an objective perspective to the process, ensuring that employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts without fear of repercussions.
Expertise:
Professional interviewers often have experience conducting stay interviews and can ask probing questions to uncover valuable insights.
Confidentiality:
Employees may be more candid with an external interviewer, knowing their responses will be kept confidential from their immediate supervisors.
Efficiency:
Outsourcing allows HR and management to focus on other critical tasks while experts handle the interviews and analysis.
Actionable insights:
Professionals skilled in stay interviews can provide actionable recommendations based on employee feedback, enabling organizations to implement effective retention strategies.
Flexibility:
Outsourcing can be tailored to the organization’s needs, whether it’s conducting interviews periodically or in response to specific concerns.
Benchmarking:
External consultants can provide benchmarking data to help organizations compare their employee satisfaction and retention metrics with industry standards.