Why Stay Interviews are the Powerful Retention Tool Your Company Should be Utilizing

There are two types of interviews you can expect with a company: as a candidate in the job search process and before moving on to your next opportunity. But what about interviews as an employee?

For employers in today’s tight hiring market, stay interviews are a great opportunity to check in with your most valuable team members, and most importantly, stay on top of what is most important to them in a role. Here are three reasons why your business should implement stay interviews as a powerful retention strategy — and keep your best talent engaged, happy and productive.

1. Get One-on-One Time

Annual reviews focus on the employee’s work performance and typically don’t stray too far from their job function. But in a stay interview, the objective of the meeting is to learn more about the professional as a person. Use this time to ask about their aspirations, goals and how you can support them as company in these endeavors.

2. Creates an Opportunity to Listen to Your People

A common reason employees leave their current company is because they feel unheard — people want to feel valued. An easy solution? Create opportunities to listen to your team. Stay interviews are a great way to have real conversations with your staff on a regular basis, as well as gather important, concrete Intel to address collective issues or concerns as a company. It’s imperative that you not only take time to listen, but make an effort to implement change, if necessary.

3. Learn What’s Working — and What’s Not

Knowledge is power and that’s definitely true for keeping your best people and building strong teams. Use stay interviews as a retention strategy for understanding which aspects of the position contribute to them continuing their tenure at the company, as well as those that could be improved upon. Ask questions like, “what are factors in your current role that you like best and would like to see more of?” and “Are there any ‘triggers’ that might cause you to consider leaving that I should be aware of?” to better gauge what is working for them and what’s not. Once you have this information, compare it to what you’ve learned as a group, and identify if there are any commonalities — both positive and negative.

Check out more retention strategies and tips that can help your company find and retain top talent in any hiring environment, or contact us for your hiring needs!