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15 Stay Interview Questions to Better Employee Retention

Most companies still practice the exit interview: the surprising art of asking departing employees why they’ve chosen to leave. Not that this helps much—those employees already have one foot out the door! So while you may be able to get some semi-honest feedback on workplace conditions and employee satisfaction, you might have been able to prevent these employees from leaving in the first place if you had practiced the stay interview.

In a stay interview, managers learn what employees love about the company and why they choose to continue working there. Insight is also gained as to how employees could be kept happy, or what might cause them to move on. But what sort of questions should you ask?

You’ll be looking at three types of questions: what causes employees to stay, what might increase employee loyalty and retention, and what might cause employees to leave.

What do you like most/least about working for this company?
What do you like most/least about your position?
Do you feel customer service is our top priority?
How would you rate the company as an employer, on a scale of 1-10?
Do you feel valued?
What talents, interest, or skills are you not exercising in your current role?
What additional types of feedback would you like about your performance?
How do you like to be recognized?
How can the company improve your work-life balance?
Is there something more you would like to be learning here?
What could I do more or less of, as your manager?
How can I better support you, as your manager?
What bothers you most about your job right now?
What would make you look for a job at a different company?

Those are just a few questions designed to find what’s wrong before employees pack up their desks. Stay interviews uncover what employees like and want from the company, which helps focus efforts and dollars where they’re most effective. Taking the company’s pulse on a regular basis will keep the company and its employees happy and healthy!

For more about the stay interview, check out the YES! Your Human Resources Solution article, “Wait, Don’t Go! – The ‘Stay Interview.’”

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