As previously discussed, stay interviews are conducted to understand what more leaders can do to retain their employees. This, in turn, allows them to make adjustments to work policies and facets of work life so that employees feel more willing to stay with the company for the long term.
At the heart of stay interviews are carefully crafted questions that allow employees to share detailed information that is helpful for managers to comprehend the employees’ work experience.
Taking cues from Richard P. Finnegan, CEO of C-Suite Analytics, who has discussed at length about the stay interview in his books, here’s a guide on what you can cover before you begin crafting your interview questionnaire.
Top stay interview questions to consider
1. What do you look forward to when you travel to work every day?
The first question that captures an employee’s excitement about the job lies in their desire to work at the company each day. This dives into the key motivators about their daily work experience that can span across various aspects, from the colleagues they collaborate with to the intricacies of the job itself.
2. Is there something you dread about working here?
From the first question, you can follow up on what employees find challenging at the workplace. This way, you can point to the problems they face that limit their ability to work at their full potential. Be sure to ask how they overcome the challenges on the day to day too!
3. What do you learn on the job?
Should employees find insufficient growth opportunities, they may look for better ones elsewhere. In fact, 94% of global employees consider professional development a significant factor influencing their decision to stay longer. Identifying such gaps in learning is critical to ensuring that the work environment continuously nurtures employees and supports them in their career advancements. Your employees can also share what they want more exposure in, the knowledge they wish to acquire and how they can put them to practice.
4. How do you learn best?
On the note of growth, it is also essential to understand how best your employees learn. Do they prefer regular external training or are keen to learn from peers working in other departments? Creating the right processes to allow for seamless sharing of knowledge and skills training gives them a conducive environment to upgrade and bring more value to their roles.
5. Why do you want to work here?
This question aims to uncover the macro factors that determine how effective the company has been to retain employees. This will allow you to identify the policies that have worked and relook at those that have not made an impact.
6. When was the last time you thought of resigning?
Employees contemplate leaving a company when there is a strong reason to do so. This can be based on a variety of factors, such as a better opportunity elsewhere, unfair treatment at the workplace or when their values do not align with the company. Capturing these will give you a good snapshot of the common reasons for leaving, and fine-tune your retention strategy appropriately.
7. What can I do to resolve that issue?
Upon listening to what could have potentially led your employees to tender, engage in a meaningful discussion on whether they are still considering the reason at present. Following that, find out what can be done to address the issue. Your employees will also get the chance to speak up about concerns they may find themselves facing should they stay on for the long term. This way, you can understand the complexities of their everyday experience, listen to their ideas and solutions based on their own ground experience, and identify the areas that require improvement.
8. How can I make your job experience better in this company?
While you may have already covered a great deal of the employee experience, you can end the interview by asking how else you can create a better job environment for them. This is the chance for the employees to share other frustrations that they may not have revealed during the stay interview or bring to your attention the minor but important aspects of the role that could be improved to reduce the stresses on the day-to-day.
Crafting your questionnaire
The above questions are simply a guide. You may come up with more questions for your managers to consider that cover the niche aspects of the job experience, such as those of work-life balance, compensation, workplace culture and management ethics. By creating different categories, your managers will be able to identify the key questions to further ask their employees should those aspects be brought up during the interview.
Being well-trained in conducting the stay interviews is also necessary – managers must establish an environment to allow the employees to feel comfortable sharing their responses. In-house training in stay interviews will go a long way in helping managers make an impact.
There’s no better time than to start today!
