If you really want to keep your employees, it’s important to listen to them. One way to do this is to conduct ‘stay’ interviews. According to recent Gallup report, 51% of employees say that neither their manager nor any other leader spoke with them before they left a position. In fact, stay interviews can enable you to identify and address any concerns before you lose good people.
Consider these steps for an effective stay interview:
- Make sure you know the employee, what their job responsibilities are, and what their history is with the organization. Read data from employee surveys or other sources of feedback from staff.
- Make the interviewee comfortable. Make it clear that this is an opportunity for you to improve worker retention and engagement and that they can be open and honest. Don’t judge or react defensively or negatively if they offer opinions or thoughts you disagree with. Conduct the interview in a quiet space with no distractions.
- Ask focused questions. These might include: What kind of feedback would you like to receive from me? What advancement or other opportunities would be most likely to keep you here? What might cause you to look for a job elsewhere? What changes to our culture do you think would be more attractive for employees?
