Stay Interviews - A Tool to Retain Your Talent
A key business challenge for all local governments is how to better retain our employee talent. Many local government agencies are overwhelmed by staff churn and ongoing vacancies.
A key tool to retain and re-recruit talent is a “stay interview.” A stay interview is a one-on-one interview between a manager and a valued employee. The purpose of the interview is to learn what would keep the employee working with you and elicit what would entice the employee to leave you.
A stay interview is typically led by a manager or supervisor with an individual team member. Once the interview is conducted, the manager, supervisor or the organization would respond in some positive way to what was heard in the interview. The stay interview is usually conducted once per year.
In addition to responding in some way to the specific needs of the employee and increasing the probability that the person stays with the organization, the stay interview demonstrates that the supervisor and the organization care about the employee.
It is recommended that stay interviews are conducted away from the manager’s office, perhaps at a café or on a walk.
Here are some typical stay interview questions that elicit key information from the employee:
What do you like most about your work?
In your work here, where do you find meaning and purpose?
What keeps you here?
What would entice you away?
What do you want to learn this year?
What makes for a great day at work?
What do you wish you had more time to do?
What brings you down on the job?
Is there anything you'd like to change about your job to make it more meaningful or rewarding?
Do you feel recognized for your accomplishments?
What strengths or talents do you have that aren't being used?
What is your greatest challenge or roadblock?
What part of working here strikes you as ridiculous?
How can I or the organization help you reach your career goals?
What support do you need to be more effective?
What are things you are doing that you would like to stop doing or delegate to others?
If you could wave a magic wand, what changes would you make in the work environment?
What threatens your peace of mind, your health, or personal fulfillment?
What can we do to ensure we keep you with us?
After exploring the needs, desires, expectations, and career aspirations of the employee, the organization is encouraged to summarize the responses without identifying the individual employees. Actions in response to the stay interviews can be related to the. . .
Individual employee
Team or work group
Division or department
Organization as a whole
For an article describing stay interviews, click here.
For a case study on how a management team used stay interviews to retain staff and reset the organizational culture, click here.
Stay interviews create organizational “stickiness.”
For more information on the Cal-ICMA Talent Initiative, contact:
Nancy Hetrick, Chair, Cal-ICMA Talent Development Team at nhetrick@raftelis.com
Frank Benest, Member, Cal-ICMA Talent Development Team at frank@frankbenest.com