Many employers conduct exit interviews to find out why employees leave, but very few conduct interviews to find out why they stay. However, this information can be incredibly helpful in discovering ways to improve employee retention and job satisfaction, all of which can boost productivity.
Stay interviews occur with your highly valued employees and those who may be at-risk of leaving for another opportunity. Conducting regular stay interviews will help you learn what you can do to reduce turnover and improve employee morale.
Several reasons why stay interviews are a powerful retention tool include:
- Opportunity for immediate action: Exit interviews are reactive. Any changes you make won’t keep that particular employee from leaving. However, a stay interview can help you address any current issues that can be resolved and prevent your good employees from jumping ship.
- Motivate employees: Stay interviews give your workers an opportunity to improve their workplace and their job satisfaction. They typically come out of these meetings stimulated and reenergized. Employees value having their opinions heard and will be encouraged by your interest to work harder and better.
- Personalized Feedback: A stay interview is one-on-one. Instead of a generic survey or broad assessment, this personal meeting is custom tailored to the employee at hand. This means your managers can get extremely detailed feedback that sheds deeper light on what your best employees need to stay happy in their jobs.
Conducting an effective stay interview requires taking some thought and planning. You can develop a powerful stay interview process by asking questions such as:
- What reasons would you have to look for a job elsewhere?
- Do you feel fully utilized in your job position?
- What additional support or tools do you need to be more effective and satisfied in your job?
- Have you actively searched for a job in the past year? If yes, why?
- Do you feel you work in a positive and respectful environment?
- Do you respect the leadership you receive from those in management?
- Do you feel listened to and valued by your supervisors?
- How do you feel you have grown professionally and personally in this position?
- Think about your stress levels over the last 12 months. What work-related issues spiked those stress levels?
Learning what employees need and want to be more productive and more satisfied can direct your time, energy and money on the right things. With the information you receive in an employee stay interview, you can take the pulse of your employees and change your policies to improve morale. You’ll be happy you asked, when you discover what you need to retain your best employees.
Whatever your hiring or retention needs, Pascoe Workforce Solutions is well-positioned to meet your staffing demands with strong talent that will maximize productivity and keep your workplace operating efficiently. Discover the difference a staffing agency can make today!