When people are unsatisfied and disengaged at work, their managers are usually the last person they would ever go to to discuss their career issues. There appears to be an unwritten policy that if you’re thinking of leaving, it is not okay to talk about it. Thus, employers usually find out on the day the employee announces his or her departure, leaving them little opportunity to stop the person from leaving. We had lunch with a prominent CEO the other day. He explained that if people announce they are leaving, he wishes them well in their new job and does nothing to make them stay. After all, they’ve made their decision.
When employees announce their upcoming departure from the organization, HR will typically schedule an exit interview with the person to find out their reasons for leaving. In high turnover environments (where turnover percentages are much higher than industry standards), exit interview information can be beneficial to understand what needs to be done to stop a good portion of employees from walking out the door. What tends to happen, however, is that exit interview information is collected and yet never shared with the managers in the organization. Also, exit interviews are good at gathering feedback to improve the organization, but they do little to retain the exiting employee who has typically already made the decision to leave.
For organizations with standard levels of turnover wishing to have higher levels of employee engagement and retention, a different approach is recommended – the Stay Interview. Stay interviews are held to understand the issues an employee may be facing before he or she has even thought about leaving the organization. This type of interview gives the company a much better opportunity to retain a key employee and correct the offending issue. Contrary to exit interviews, stay interviews are conducted to understand what motivates current employees, what keeps them satisfied, and the reasons why employees wish to continue working for the organization. It’s all about understanding what contributes to a healthy and thriving workplace.
These interviews do not need to be formal; they are really about engaging in a conversation with your people to find out what makes them tick. Some typical questions asked are:
- When you reflect back on your day, what was your favourite part? What was your least favourite?
- What do you do best?
- If you inherited two million dollars and decided to resign, what would you miss the most?
- What would have to happen in the next 12 months to make you stay with our organization?
The questions should be designed to gather feedback on many different aspects of the job, including management, role responsibilities, work environment, and career aspirations. Responses should be pooled and aggregated and then shared with all levels of management to spot trends in the feedback.
Some companies conduct stay interviews at regular intervals and at all levels within the organization, while other companies implement these programs for critical key positions or “at risk” individuals only. Organizations may also use this tool only while undergoing major change or going through a merger.
When managers initiate these kinds of discussions, it makes it okay to talk about the issues. This exercise also demonstrates management’s appreciation for their employees and therefore has a positive, motivating effect. Overall, stay interviews are a much more positive approach to building a better organization and allow leaders to focus on what they are doing right, as opposed to what they are doing wrong.
Louisa Jewell and Tracy Griffin are the co-founders of Why Did You Go, a consulting and coaching firm specializing in employee engagement and retention. Their vision is to improve happiness at work, one workplace at a time. For more information about how stay interviews can help your organization, contact them at info@whydidyougo.com.
