The Complete Guide to Stay Interviews and Employee Happiness

A happy employee is a productive employee. But business is busy, and managing each employee's happiness can seem impossible as companies grow. 

The good news is, you don't have to do it alone. Who better to ask about employee happiness and satisfaction than the employees themselves? 

Stay interviews are an effective employee retention strategy that goes straight to the source.

This article will: 

• Explore how to conduct stay interviews and how to follow up.
• Help you understand the importance of stay interviews.
• Explain how stay interviews can improve employee retention and engagement.

🤝 What is a stay interview? 

A stay interview is a proactive discussion conducted by an employer with a current employee to understand the factors that keep the employee working at the organization and identify potential issues that might cause the employee to leave.

The goal of a stay interview is to gauge employee satisfaction, engagement, and commitment, and to gather insights on how the organization can improve its work environment and retain talent. So, we can definitely say that stay interviews are an employee retention best practice.

The term stay interview is a bit of a misnomer. You might assume that the purpose of the stay interview is to get someone considering leaving the company to stay.  This isn't entirely inaccurate.

Stay interviews should be conducted proactively and strategically so you can get ahead of any issues before they cause discontent.

These interviews are open, frank discussions about their favorite and least favorite parts of their job. The goal is to learn about their experience and find ways to improve it for that individual and the rest of the company.

For example, conducting a stay interview for every employee at the 90-day mark creates a strong starting point for an individual's experience in the company. 

How do they feel after their first quarter? 

What do they like? 

What do they dislike? 

This baseline will set the tone for the rest of their career at the company. 

👀 It can, for example, give you insight about the strengths and weaknesses of your onboarding process.

Stay interviews are similar to employee retention surveys in several ways, including overlapping questions and the overall objective. If you know this tactic, stay interviews are only a short leap away.

When should stay interviews take place?

There's no hard-and-fast rule. Including stay interview questions during regularly scheduled performance reviews isn't a bad idea. However, many prefer to keep these discussions separate to reduce meeting times and maintain the desired tone. 

A good rule of thumb is a stay interview per year as a minimum. This is often done on anniversaries for simplicity and to spread them out.

However, you should be prepared to launch stay interviews anytime it seems prudent.

For example, suppose you catch wind of discontent with specific employees. In that case, it's better to conduct a stay interview sooner rather than later.

Other triggers, such as company restructuring, procedure changes, or promotions, may exist. The goal is to keep your finger on the company's pulse so you can identify and address issues before they become problems. It may be too late if you wait until an employee has a foot out the door!

Also, an introductory stay interview is a good idea to set a baseline for new hires. The stay interview can be combined with the first performance review, which many companies already do at the 90-day mark. This also provides fresh opinions about your operation and new ideas for improvement.

What do you discuss in a stay interview?

Exactly what you cover in a stay interview will depend on your company, the subject, and their current role. 

You should customize this interview for each department, position, and person rather than ask a list of cookie-cutter questions.

However, some core concepts are nearly universal for stay interviews. Here are some questions that you can include in almost every case:

• What do you like about your job?
• What do you dislike about your job?
• What have you accomplished in your role?
• What would you like to accomplish? 
• What motivates you?
• Do you feel recognized and valued?
• How can I support you to be your best?

While there are many more questions you might choose to discuss based on the specifics of the interviewee, these ideas cover the pillars of good HR and employee empowerment. 

The answers provided to these questions should arm you with the knowledge you need to keep employees happy by supporting them, recognizing their contributions, and combating the inconveniences that impact their morale. 

Who should do the stay interview? 

Again, this will depend on the structure of your organization and who is being interviewed. 

One of the most essential responsibilities for people operations is ensuring employees are happy and motivated. So people operations specialists are an obvious option.

But not all companies have an HR department suitable to conduct stay interviews for everyone. 

Managers are another good option. An important leadership responsibility is to keep their team happy and know when they aren't.

Stay interviews directly uncover what employees like and dislike about their current situation, equipping management to make improvements.

Who should have a stay interview?

Stay interviews are a great tool for staying abreast of your workforce's contentment, making them a good idea for everyone.

While everyone should have stay interviews, they do not necessarily need them at the same frequency. 

A baseline stay interview after 90 days and revisiting these questions annually is a good minimum. It will help boost employee engagement and arm people operations professionals with the necessary knowledge. 

Employees who change their role or position should receive an additional stay interview. Likewise, check in with more valuable employees more often to ensure they are content.

Last but not least, anyone you anticipate is becoming dissatisfied or considering a change should be given a stay interview to try and change their mind. 

💬 How do you conduct a stay interview?

A stay conversation has much in common with an employee check-in. Many stay interview questions are things you already ask in other meetings. 

But, the difference is that stay interviews focus on the employee's happiness and job satisfaction instead of performance. 

The goal of a stay interview is to ensure that the person is happy in their role, so they have no reason to leave. 

A good place to start is by creating a safe and open environment for discussions and ensuring confidentiality, which might seem obvious to any HR pro. Still, building trust for stay interviews is especially crucial so your subjects speak openly about their positive and negative feelings. 

While it may be tempting to schedule your annual stay interviews on the calendar ahead of time, it is better not to set anything in stone. 

💡 Tip #1: It is okay for stay conversations to happen approximately annually, but scheduling them far out in advance ties your hands if you need to conduct one early due to a change in an employee's status or condition. 

Simply deliver a request for the meeting a week or two in advance and go from there.

During the meeting, you will want to cover the core questions listed earlier and consider questions relevant to that specific individual. 

Here are some examples:

• I heard you moved recently. How do you like the new place? Are you settled in?
• I know your baby's due date is coming up fast. Is there anything we need to plan for?
• How are things going in the new department? Are you happy with the move?
• You are being considered for a promotion; does that interest you?
• Transitioning to a new role can be challenging. Do you need any help?
• I'll be blunt; rumors are you've applied at other companies. Is there any particular reason you are looking to make a change? Is there anything that would make you want to stay?
• We are delighted with your performance and want to ensure you are satisfied with your role. Is there anything we can do to improve your situation?

💡 Tip #2:Being specific and honest is the key to successful stay interviews. 

💡 Tip #3:Highly relevant questions let the subject know you are invested in their situation and working for their benefit. 

💡 Tip #4:Let everyone know that the goal of the meeting is to help them succeed and that anything they are sharing will be kept confidential. 

💼 Tips for managers preparing for stay interviews

Getting started with stay interviews will take some planning and tact. 

You don't want to send the wrong message to your workforce or start opening cans of worms you aren't ready to deal with. 

Here are some tips for managers and human resources experts looking to conduct stay interviews for the first time.

Set expectations

Being invited to a new type of interview with HR can be scary. To avoid unnecessary stress and start on the right foot, give your employees a heads-up about the new process and its purpose. 

Reflect on the role 

As a supervisor, it is important to be mindful of the role and consider any biases or power dynamics that might influence the conversation. It's about creating an environment where employees feel safe and comfortable sharing their thoughts. Stay interviews are all about having open, honest, and engaging discussions. 

Schedule meetings

Along with setting expectations, schedule time for stay interviews in advance. It minimizes disruptions to the standard workflow and will give employees time to think about discussion topics. 

📝 Chose one of the many one-on-one templates from our collection for your next one-on-one meeting.

Prepare questions

You can provide some starter questions and topics of discussion during the expectations and scheduling phases. This way, employees will come ready with ideas to talk about. 

Beyond that, prepare questions you want to discuss. 

You may have a list of universal questions for all employees to have comparable data. Still, you should also have specific ones for each person's unique situation.

Follow-up questions

Be ready with some follow-up questions, encouraging employees to share more and help you to dig deeper into their insights. 

By asking those extra questions, you can uncover valuable information, address concerns effectively, and build stronger connections with the other person. 

Listen intently

Mentally prepare yourself to listen to what your coworkers have to say. What you learn from a stay interview is important. Still, you also want your interviewees to feel heard and valued during the meeting. You can also consider taking notes.

Be honest

You should also mentally prepare for bluntness. Stay interviews only work if everyone is honest. 

🚨 If you can't delve beyond the shallowness of day-to-day conversation, you won't uncover new problems and solutions. Be ready for hard truths and let the interviewee know this is a safe space where they can speak plainly.  

Collect data

Collect data about the employee from your notes and the answers to the questions posed. Any quantifiable responses should be tracked, like asking the interviewee to rate their contentment on a scale of 1-10. 

After a few stay interviews, you can look for trends to see if your workforce is becoming more or less happy. 

Additionally, log any noteworthy discussion for future reference (let employees know you may be quoting them to help solve problems).

Urgency

Based on the information you glean from stay interviews, the next step is to devise a plan to address the most pressing issues. 

For example, if an employee has repeated a complaint from previous meetings, try to address it before the next time. Likewise, if multiple interviewees complained about a similar issue, you should prioritize this highly. 

People operations aim to solve problems raised in stay interviews efficiently and without bias.

Plan to follow-up

Decide on a follow-up procedure. 

Will you have a follow-up meeting after a set amount of time? 

Check-ins via email or by phone? Or should you just wait until the next stay interview? 

Having a plan will help you approach resolving issues on time. 

➡️ Download our stay interview toolkit for an entire framework to help you get started.

✅ What should I do after conducting a stay interview?

Stay interviews can get down to the nitty-gritty. It is important to listen and take notes so you fully understand the problems and can find a solution to them. Your objective is to make suggestions on improving the subject's situation based on the information they share, then act on an agreed-upon plan. 

Collecting feedback after the meeting is always a good idea. You can learn how to improve your stay interviews and ensure that interviewees have a positive experience. 

After the meeting:

• Implement your tactics to solve the problems discussed. Be sure to let the subject know it may take time to implement the solutions, but you will be in touch.
• Follow up after you have worked on the solution to see if things are improving. If you manage to solve their problems, remarkable. If not, use the additional feedback to tweak your strategy and try again. 
• Schedule regular follow-ups. You don't need to wait until your next annual stay interview or an official meeting. A quick check-in over email or a phone call is often enough. It can be as simple as: "Hey, I just wanted to check in and see how things are going. Have you had any further issues with X since our last talk?" More often than not, your support to solve an issue will have a positive impact. 

🤩 How can stay interviews improve employee retention and engagement?

Of over 500 participants who contributed to a survey conducted by Nonprofit HR, only 28% performed stay interviews as a retention tactic. 

Stay interviews were among the least popular retention strategies, only beating out loyalty programs and paid bonuses. 

How are companies almost as scared of a simple conversation as they are of losing money?

However, 72% of organizations conducted exit interviews. 

Attempting to use exit interviews as a retention strategy is like trying to catch your train after it has left the station. You may learn how to prevent future turnover, it is better to conduct more stay interviews and fewer exit interviews.

"Stay interviews will not lead to perfect outcomes, but they will certainly improve engagement and retention in your company." Richard P. Finnegan, The Power of Stay Interviews for Engagement and Retention.

Stay interviews are a valuable tool for building trust and establishing open communication between employees and management. 

Plus, a Gallup analysis from 2021 found that roughly half of employees were looking for new jobs at the peak of the Great Resignation. 

🚨 Over half of the employees that did leave said their organization could have taken action to prevent their departure. 

The evidence is overwhelming that making employees feel heard and acting on their feedback is vital to keeping them content. 

➡️ Collect and act on employee feedback with Zavvy

Zavvy makes stay interviews a cinch. Our stay interview toolkit is your perfect companion to ensure you have everything you need for effective and engaging conversations with your team members. This toolkit is a game-changer!

Stay interviews are only the tip of the iceberg.

Our platform can help you create a workplace where people want to stay and grow. You can select the features you want to use and implement more when ready.

Zavvy's people enablement platform will support your employees and managers with: 

• Employee engagement software to collect feedback and get insights and take targeted action instead of shooting in the dark and drive engagement with laser focus.  
• 10.000+ training courses to offer more growth opportunities to your people (we know how much people want to grow their skills, so this list is ever-growing).
• Employee development software to turn your people into coaches - put your employees in the driver's seat and boost company performance.
• Career paths to foster transparency - employees will know where they stand and where they can head.

📅 Book a demo today to experience the powerful features!