The Power of Stay Interviews

The competition for employees is at an all-time high, making employee retention a priority for all small and mid-sized business owners. As a business owner or member of an executive team, you’ve spent a lot of time hiring and training your staff; but have you spent enough time proactively creating a strong and positive culture that results in an engaged workforce with high retention rates?

Three actions that are needed to create an engaged workforce are: Hire, Train, and Retain. All three of these variables must be met to be truly effective. Hiring without training is a recipe for disappointment. Hiring and training without retention means a lot of time and money was invested in someone who, upon separation from your company, transfers their newly acquired skills (that they acquired from you) to another company (likely your competition). That’s illogical.

In most businesses, interviews are conducted when a new employee is hired and then an exit interview is conducted when they leave. What most business owners are not taking advantage of, however, is the process of interviewing employees between these two events. Stay Interviews, also referred to as Climate Interviews, are focused upon Train and Retain. These interviews should be conducted at least once per year, but preferably twice per year. They are designed to help you understand why employees stay at your company, what would make their Employee Experience (EX) better, and what might cause them to leave.

Here are some of the benefits business owners experience after implementing a stay interview program:

1. Trust and Employee Loyalty: Stay interviews require supervisors to ask, listen, consider, and follow-up on employee needs and desires. This connection builds trust and loyalty and as a result, employees feel comfortable proactively approaching their managers with concerns in the future, rather than staying silent while they look for another job.

2. More Effective Training Programs: A stay interview can reveal areas in which employees would welcome additional training. By listening to what your employees need, you won’t waste time and money providing training in subjects that are not valued or needed.

3. Energized Employees: Checking in and asking employees to share their opinions and recommendations can go a long way. While every employee suggestion may not be actionable, employees feel heard. Not only may some great ideas result from the meeting, but also leaders have an opportunity to reiterate and reinforce the overall goals of the company. Employees often leave the interview feeling energized and focused on doing their part to help achieve those goals.

Stay Interviews help retain talent, reduce overall employee attrition, and assess employee well-being in the workplace. At De Novo HRC, we will manage the whole Stay Interview process; from initiation, through data collection and analysis, and finally providing companies with recommended actions.