“To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.”
~ Doug Conant
As the effects of the pandemic continued to creep into the 2021 job market scene, America experienced a 20-year high resignation rate in November, which led to an economic trend known as the Great Resignation.
A record number of 75.5 million resignations were handed in during the said year and employees cited reasons like low pay and limited growth opportunities for quitting their jobs.
Now, more than ever, employers are looking for ways to keep their workers satisfied and happy to increase the employee retention rate and avoid the resource-consuming process of recruiting.
And one of the existing approaches to increasing employee retention rates that have been gaining traction is the stay interviews.
Stay interviews are generally conducted by companies to understand what makes the employees stick around, their growth expectations from the company, etc.
Read on to get more insight into stay interviews and other related questions like the following:
- What is a stay interview?
- Why do we need stay interviews?
- How to conduct stay interviews?
- What are some of the best stay interview questions?
Stay Interview Definition
Stay interviews are conducted by companies to gather valuable feedback from their long-term, top-performing employees to understand what aspects of the company make them stay and give their best.
Stay interviews aim to understand the strong points of the company’s work culture and management style to maintain the same in the future and improve employee satisfaction.
Unlike a conventional interview, stay interviews are more of an informal conversation between a manager and an employee to understand the employee’s perspective on working for the company.
Stay interviews are conducted with current employees of the company and differ from exit interviews which are carried out with employees who have already handed in their resignation letters.
Also Read: What are some good questions that you can ask recruiters during interviews in 2022?
Importance of Stay Interviews
While the long-term goal of stay interviews is to increase the employee retention rate of a company, given below are some other benefits of stay interviews that make it important for any organization:
Boosts Employee Satisfaction and Productivity
With the valuable insight that the stay interviews provide, companies can identify the pain points of their employees and their general grievances.
For instance, if employees feel that their work is not recognized enough or underappreciated, companies can initiate quarterly performance bonus programs to help with the same.
Thereby increasing employee engagement rate and boosting productivity & satisfaction. Studies show that employees are 13% more productive when they are satisfied at work.
Gather Valuable Feedback
Stay interviews shed light on crucial areas of improvement for companies, which otherwise can go unnoticed and affect the company’s long-term growth.
The honest feedback that companies can gather through stay interviews can improve the company’s work culture and management style.
With better workplace reviews from current and past employees, they can attract better talent for their workforce.
For instance, given a choice between two companies with the same package and benefits, a skilled employee is more likely to choose a company with better employee reviews.
Makes the Employees Feel Heard
Studies show that 4 out of 5 employees don’t feel heard at their workplace.
This directly influences their level of engagement at work and their loyalty to the company in the long run.
Therefore, conducting stay interviews, gathering employee feedback, and implementing changes based on it, make the workers feel heard and increase their engagement level at work.
Also Read: How long does a typical job interview last in 2022?
Stay Interviews Best Practices
Since the whole point of stay interviews is to collect feedback, if the employers don’t provide upfront perspectives and opinions, stay interviews can be useless.
Thus, nurturing a casual environment wherein the workers feel comfortable enough to provide honest answers is crucial for conducting successful stay interviews.
The following are some of the best practices to follow for carrying out stay interviews:
- Make stay interviews a separate activity and avoid clubbing it with performance reviews
- Start the interview by explaining its purpose and encouraging the employees to be honest
- Stay interviews must generally be conducted by managers or through anonymous methods like surveys, etc.
- Ask relevant and open-ended questions during stay interviews
- Keep the tone casual and show transparency
- Conduct stay interviews within a short period of time to gather current and accurate feedback
- Set up post-stay interview procedures to execute follow-up actions
- Express gratitude for the employees’ work and thank them for their feedback
Also Read: What are the different types of interviews in 2022?
Best Stay Interview Questions
To make the most out of stay interviews, employers need to ask the right questions to their employees.
Given below are some of the best stay interviews questions that get the job done:
- What aspect of your job do you enjoy the most?
- What do you dread about your work?
- When was the last time you considered leaving the company?
- What type of work situation makes you consider leaving the company?
- Would you recommend our company to job-seeking friends or family? Why (not)?
- What type of offer would tempt you to leave the company?
- What do you feel is the best part about your job?
- Given a chance, what part of your job would you cut out?
- Which of your skills or talents do you feel are being underutilized?
- In your opinion, what would make your job even more satisfying?
- Are you satisfied with the work delegation?
- As your manager, how can I make your work experience better?
- Do you think you get adequate L&D opportunities at work?
- Do you feel valued and recognized in the company?
- How would you like to be recognized for the work you do?
- What are we currently not doing as a company that you feel we should?
- What do you feel we should change or add to our workplace?
- Are you satisfied with our current work policies? If not, what do you think needs to change?
- Do you have enough tools and resources to do your job properly? If not, what are you missing?
- What kinds of flexibility at work would help you balance your work and home life better?
- What are your favorite/top accomplishments in your job and in your time here?
Also Read: What are the most common job interview questions in 2022?
Key Points from the Blog
- Stay interviews are generally conducted by companies to understand what makes the employees stick around, their growth expectations from the company, etc.
- The purpose of stay interviews is to understand the strong points of the company’s work culture and management style to maintain the same in the future and improve employee satisfaction.
- Stay interviews are conducted with current employees of the company and are different from exit interviews which are carried out with employees who have already handed in their resignation letters.
- Stay interviews increase employee retention rate and boosts productivity & engagement.
- Nurturing a casual environment wherein the workers feel comfortable enough to provide honest answers is crucial for conducting successful stay interviews.
- “What do you look forward to most when you come to work every day?”, “What do you dread about your work?”, and “When was the last time you thought about leaving the company?” are some of the best stay interview questions.
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