We have all heard of Exit Interviews. While not obligatory, they do help in understanding why an employee would leave the company. The goal is to identify changes that could be made to make the workplace healthier and result in fewer people leaving in the future. The challenge is instead of providing helpful suggestions, many times the person leaving uses this as an opportunity to take aim at coworkers and superiors with cheap shots that are not constructive.
A Better Tool
A tool that many companies are beginning to use is the Stay Interview. This is a meeting with employees who consistently exceed goals and get along well with their coworkers. Why wait until someone is leaving to discover valuable information about the company when you can find out the reasons the best employees decide daily to keep coming to work? Your retention will increase by the changes you make from your discovery process. Your people will feel more valued and special as well.
Questions
Here are a few questions to consider using in a Stay Interview:
What do you enjoy about working here?
How have you grown from working here…what have you learned?
How would you like to grow in the future…how can we help?
What could use some improvement…how can we be better?
What do we need to stop doing to be better?
What do we need to start doing to be better?
Is there anyone being overlooked that needs some recognition?
How would you describe the culture here?
If you were to ever leave what would be the main reasons why?
These questions can lead to a robust discussion and could uncover some valuable areas for improvement from people who would not speak up otherwise. Consider doing these as part of annual reviews as well as at the 90-day mark with new additions. What do you have to lose?
