Given the looming turnover crisis experts are now predicting, it’s more important than ever to keep employees happy. But in order to keep them happy, you have to know what makes them happy. And the only way to know what makes them happy is to ask them.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and since a ‘stay’ interview is a first-hand picture of what your employee is thinking and feeling, it’s worth quite a lot. Given that turnover cost is on average 21% of an employee’s annual salary (source), these interviews are a no-brainer.
Stay interviews provide your organization with actionable intelligence you can use to guide and influence decisions and actions going forward. Let’s cover why and how to use them, including tips on getting the most out of the data they offer.
What is a ‘stay’ interview and why should you use them?
You likely know what an exit interview is. I highly recommend companies conduct exit interviews, and hopefully you already do them with employees who are leaving your organization. Exit interviews are great tools, because when done properly, they can help you learn from your mistakes and prevent future losses.
But by definition, if you’re conducting an exit interview, then you’ve already lost a valuable employee. That’s where stay interviews come in.
A stay interview allows you to spend dedicated time with your current employees. It lets you understand their experiences, both good and bad, ‘on the ground.’ As such, stay interviews give you all that valuable information that exit interviews give you. And hopefully, they do it in such a way that helps you retain your best employees.
Ultimately, the point of stay interviews is to understand why employees are opting to stay with your organization for the time being, and what might possibly tempt them to leave.
This is hugely important, given the ‘turnover tsunami’ that many HR leaders are predicting once the pandemic ends. In fact, according to a new report, more than half of employees are planning to look for a new job soon.
Of course, it’s important to note that turnover may sometimes be the right thing for both you and/or your employee. You may have hired the wrong person, or they may have accepted the wrong job (find my tips on how to hire the right candidate everytime here).
But ultimately, if you’re not focusing on how to keep your top employees, you run a big risk of losing them. And implementing a smart stay interview action plan is a great place to start this focus.
Find more tips on how to keep your top employees from quitting here. But for now, let’s explore how to conduct a successful stay interview and it to improve employee engagement and increase retention.
How to conduct a stay interview
I get it. Conducting interviews is hard, as is coming up with the right questions. I bet interviews are one of your least favorite parts of your job (and you probably like exit interviews even less). So adding yet another interview to your to-do list may be daunting.
Thankfully, interviewing is a skill, and like all skills, you can learn to do it better. That’s why I’ve put together a free interview guidebook, designed to help small business owners (get it here).
No matter what the size of your company, knowing the ins and outs of these interviews and employee retention will give you the competitive edge.
On a macro level, you can prepare for exit interviews like you do all others. That means having a goal which informs your questions, establishing the right questions to ask, and then asking them in a way and in an environment that gets the most honest, actionable answers possible.
On a micro level, here’s how you can help ensure you get the best possible results from your stay interviews.
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Create a welcoming atmosphere
Stay interviews should be relaxed, one-on-one meetings. How casual they are will in part be dictated by your company culture, but try to make sure they’re not too ‘scary.’ Remember, these situations can be stressful, so the more comfortable you’ve able to make the employee, the more honest feedback you’re likely to receive.
Make sure your employee knows how much you value their feedback and that you want them to speak freely. It can also help if they understand why you are conducting these interviews in the first place. In other words, don’t let them think they are being evaluated or that they’re in trouble!
Instead, make sure your employees understand that you want to take their feedback to make their lives and the company better.
Of course, stay interviews work much better if you already have an open, collaborative culture where feedback is welcomed. If this is something you’re struggling with, see my training on empathetic listening and active listening, two critical skills workplace leaders can develop to create more agreeable workspaces.
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Ask the right questions
Like I recommend for all interviews, it’s critical that you conduct your interviews with a clear goal in mind, and clear questions that support that goal.
Some sample questions you might want to ask include:
What do you like/dislike most about your job?
Do you feel you were adequately trained to do your job?
How would you describe your relationship with your manager/supervisor/colleagues?
Are you happy with your salary, benefits and other perks? Are there any other benefits or perks you would like?
What would make you want to look for another job?
What’s the one thing we can do to make you want to stay for the long haul?
Would you recommend working for this company to a friend or family member?
The best stay interview questions will look different for each company. One of the things I enjoy most about my job is helping organizations develop the right interview questions and guidelines to follow to meet their goals. Reach out at info@QuantumAscendance.com if you’d like to learn more.
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Really listen to the answers
You can make the best list of questions in the world, but if you don’t really listen to the answers, they won’t help you. This includes hearing both what the person is saying, and what they’re not saying, too. Don’t forget that people have a hard time opening up to an HR consultant or manager, and their true feelings may take some time to come out.
Your job is to make people feel comfortable, and by doing so, they’ll feel more free to tell you the truth. The general rule is to do 20% of the talking and let the other person do 80%. Make an appointment with the employee in advance and let them know the reason for the meeting so they can give some thought to the topic. Don’t rush the meeting, and try to clarify exactly what they’re saying rather than making guesses about what they might mean.
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Analyze the data
Listening is only half the battle. You also need to understand the information you’re getting. To do that, you need to be able to analyze your data and use it to make the necessary changes in your organization to support your team. Don’t ask the question if you (or leadership) is not prepared to consider making some of the changes.
For example, you may learn that you’re not offering the right learning and development opportunities. Or maybe it hasn’t been communicated well enough and employees aren’t aware that they can take advantage of the opportunity. And if that’s the case, you wouldn’t be alone. In fact, one survey found only 32.6% of workers are pleased with their organization’s educational and job training programs.
But knowing your employees feel this way is different than fixing the problem. So how do you fix it? There are many options. Mentoring programs can be wonderful when managing multiple generations in the workforce. Let an employee shadow another employee and learn how to perform in a new role. Offer to mentor them yourself or assign one of your best leaders to meet with them regularly. Or give them an opportunity to work on a major project, where they can learn from other people while contributing to the overall success of the goals.
Maybe you’ll learn that your employees are struggling to find a sense of purpose and value at work. Heck, maybe you are too! Finding purpose and meaning at work is largely about having a strong company culture and values that are aligned with your mission and vision. It’s about connecting your people with the work that matters to them, and enabling them to fulfill personal development goals and have meaningful relationships with others at the workplace.
Throughout the whole process, remember that the goal of conducting a stay interview is to ensure that your employee feels heard, and is heard.
If you want to retain top employees, you should foster a positive workplace based on trust and respect to make staff feel safe, engaged, productive and creative. Stay interviews, when used correctly, can help you make this a reality.
It’s also why it’s key for bosses to learn and grow these skills by working with a leadership coach. If you’d like to learn more, please reach out for a free consultation.
Business Leadership, Career Management, Personal Development