A stay interview is a planned meeting between an employer and a current employee to assess the employee satisfaction and ask for their feedback.
What Is the Purpose of a Stay Interview?
The purpose of a stay interview is to find ways to increase employee retention and improve the overall employee experience in an organization.
Why Are Stay Interviews Important?
Stay interviews are important to collect information regarding the experience of the employees before they decide to quit an organization. They allow companies to show they value the opinion of their employees and care about their feedback.
What Are the Benefits of Stay Interviews?
The benefits of stay interviews include:
- Building trust
- Recognizing the importance of employees’ opinion
- Understanding why employees want to keep working for an organization
- Finding out issues that could be solved
- Building a strong corporate culture
- Increasing employee satisfaction
- Improving employee retention
- Improving employee engagement
- Reducing conflicts at work
How to Conduct a Stay Interview?
Typically, stay interviews are held by the direct manager of an employee. They are generally two-way communication meetings where employees are encouraged to share their opinion on a variety of subjects.
The steps to conduct stay interviews include:
- Scheduling the meeting with the employees
- Preparing the questions to ask
- Analyzing the collected information
- Following-up with actions and presenting them to the employees
Do Stay Interviews Work?
Typically, stay interviews are a powerful tool to understand the employee experience and the strengths and the weaknesses of an organization.
They normally help improve employee satisfaction and motivation.
When Should Stay Interviews Take Place?
Stay interviews should take place:
- A few months after an employee’s arrival in a company
- Multiple times during the first year of employment
- Every year after the first year of employment
- Anytime an employee seems disengaged
Stay interviews should never be held at the same time as performance reviews.
What Questions Should Be Asked During a Stay Interview?
Examples of questions to ask during a stay interview include:
- What do you like the most/least about your job?
- Are you satisfied with the way your work is recognized?
- Do you think there are enough practices in place to ensure a good work-life balance?
- Do you think your strengths are well used within the organization?
- Are you satisfied by the training opportunities offered?
- Do you feel stressed at work?
- Where do you see yourself professionally in 5 years?
- What did you like about your last position that you don’t have anymore?
- What can we do to make your experience better?
What Are Best Practices for Stay Interviews?
Best practices for stay interviews typically include:
- Organizing meetings with the employees close to each other to gather accurate information
- Choosing a comfortable location to held the meetings
- Making the employees aware of the meeting as soon as possible so they can prepare for it
- Keeping the meeting between 30 and 60 minutes
- Expressing gratitude for the feedback of the employees
- Following up with actions and addressing the concerns expressed by the employees
What Is the Difference Between Stay Interviews and Exit Interviews?
Stay interviews are held before an employee makes the decision to quit. Exit interviews are held when employees have put in their resignation in.
Both types of interviews have the purpose to find out more information about the employee experience.
