The purpose of a stay interview is simple: to understand the views and opinions of your employees with regards to how they feel about their current work and their level of job satisfaction and to discover what opportunities they may be seeking within the business. They also help the business know what it could be doing to provide better support or consider introducing new initiatives. It’s easy to assume that recent HR trends like ‘bringing your dog to work’ is what your employees want, but it’s much more valuable to ask the questions that will drive real change within your organization when it comes to retaining talent.Â
There Isn’t Just One Way To Run a Stay Interview
Just like your employees’ needs are unique, any approach to a stay interview should be equally personalized. If a 1:1 conversation isn’t the most effective tool for finding out what your employees are looking for, try introducing development talks between leaders and employees, DE&I surveys, weekly pulse checks, and candidate surveys. All of these gather valuable intel to inform and guide future decision-making.
In today’s hybrid work landscape, it is important to develop individual experiences for your employees. Utilizing video conferencing tools and instant messaging services will help employees feel more connected to their coworkers and managers. But regular touchpoints are also of paramount importance, making sure connections are made at the same frequency and to the same depth as those conducted with any employees in the office.
It Has To Be a Consistent Effort
A stay interview is, however, less impactful without ongoing maintenance and effort wrapped around it. It should form part of a larger movement from the leadership team to maintain transparency and associated importance throughout the company. Being aware of the needs of your team, in line with the business, will help each person perform at their best.
The collection of employee data can also be a useful tool in maintaining a regular pulse on employee engagement and wellbeing. Collecting this data not only provides leaders with a benchmark to measure personal progress against, but it can also help guide any changes that employees wish to see in the workplace. In the case of stay interviews, how successfully leaders are executing the changes most important to their people is also important to discuss.
See More: Tips for HR Leaders To Overcome 5 Common Objections When Proposing Change
How the Stay Interview Process Aids the Talent Management Lifecycle
Stay interviews can, very importantly, help identify any skills gaps in your workplace as much as they can present opportunities for employees to discuss gigs within the business.Â
There are a fewtalent lifecycle management platforms that enable businesses to be confident in their HR data and their ability to eliminate pre-existing bias in recruitment processes to evaluate such opportunities based on skill and potential, not resumes and legacy processes, giving organizations the insights and predictability they need to make better decisions about every candidate and worker across their business.Â
By utilizing AI to aggregate employee data in this way, employers can more easily determine where opportunities for upskilling current employees are versus the need to make an outside hire and can tailor career plans accordingly.
The Short of It
Start with the question: “How do you want to create an environment that people want to be a part of?â€
Ultimately, your employees don’t want to miss opportunities to grow personally or professionally. The reasons why people have been leaving places of work are not the same reasons why people will be leaving in the future. Fostering connections — a stay interview, survey or conversation — is invaluable as businesses work to build their future workforces.
Do you conduct a stay interview when an employee leaves? What benefits have you seen? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .