What is a Stay Interview? 

According to SHRM, a stay interview is an interview conducted with an employee with the aim to learn why the employee continues to work for the employer and what triggers the employee to consider resigning.

Normally, stay interviews are mostly conducted between an HR manager and an employee where they could explore the existing problems of the employee's role and gauge the satisfaction of the employee.

Why is a Stay Interview important? 

According to various HR practitioners:

"Stay interviews acts as a stand-alone retention tool which has ballooned in 2021.”
Brian Kropp, chief of HR research at Gartner

“I think stay interviews can be quite effective as it promotes trust and open communication with employees.”
Scott Bonneau, VP of global talent attraction at Indeed.com

Guide to Stay Interviews

1. Be a good listener

Approaching stay interviews with a mindset of attentive listening is crucial as you would be exploring the experience faced by an employee. Only respond once you have digested the information conveyed by the employee.

2. Desire to learn more

Learning more should not be restricted at the tip of the iceberg, especially when learning about a potential problem faced by an employee. To solve a problem faced by an employee, the desire to learn more about the source of the problem is necessary as it also shows that you care for your employee.

3. Take notes

Information regarding a problem could not be fully absorbed. With this, an assistant is encouraged in a stay interview as they could include minor or important information that may have been missed.

Some examples of stay interview questions: 

• What are you learning here, and what do you want to learn?
• Why do you stay here?
  
• When is the last time you thought about leaving us, and what prompted it?