Improving Employee Retention & Engagement through Stay Interviews

Turnover today is rampant because employees can be choosy with:
» The lowest unemployment rate in 48 years
» For the first time in the U.S., there are more job openings than eligible candidates
» Over half of U.S. employees say it is ‘somewhat likely’ or ‘very likely’ they can find a job as 
  good as the one they have
» 50% of employees & 60% of millennials considering new employment opportunities
» The average tenure for employees in their 20’s being less than 18 months

And turnover is expensive with the cost of replacing a:
» $10-hour employee over $3,000
» $30-50,000 job over $8,000
» replacing a $100,000 often over $200,000

However, engaged employees when compared to unengaged employees have:
» 65% less turnover in low-turnover organizations
» and 25% lower turnover in high-turnover organizations

Stay interviews are an important means of re-recruiting your workforce – because what attracts your employees is often different from what will keep them. Stay interviews tend to improve engagement and productivity - as well as retention. In this webinar, you will learn how to prepare for, conduct & follow through on stay interviews.

It is easy to make the business case for retaining your organization’s talent because turnover is both rampant and expensive And to make matters worse – the most talented employees:

• Have more opportunities available to them
• Are the most expensive to replace?
• Are the quickest to leave if they are unengaged?
• May take top performers with them
• May take customers with them

Stay Interviews have become a very popular and effective means of reducing turnover with supervisors meeting individually with their direct reports to learn why they are staying or might leave and what the supervisor can do to improve each employee's work experience. To know how to encourage employees to stay, we have to ask only they know. Exit Interviews are too late.

The Objective of a Stay Interview
 » Making employees feel valued & improving engagement, productivity & retention
 » Reinforcing good relationships, forging new ones & helping repair those that are strained
 » Re-recruiting talent, causing employees to feel valued & enhancing the relationship between an employee & his/her manager

What Stay Interviews Are
 » Employee/supervisor meetings to uncover what is important to each employee
 » Means of learning why employees stay might leave & what their supervisor can do to improve their work experience

Why Stay Interviews Are Not
 » Performance appraisals
 » Conducted only when problems arise
 » Personal development
 » Causal, random discussions

Initiating a Stay Interview Program
 » Who should conduct the interviews & why
 » Training managers & leaders
 » Setting retention goals

Scheduling & Conducting Stay Interviews
 » Frequency & length of each interview
 » Preparing for an interview
 » The most effective stay interview questions
 » How to probe for candid responses
 » Handling employee responses for which you don’t have an immediate answer

Following Through on Your Stay Interviews
 » Creating & documenting action plans
 » Sharing accountability for the follow-through
 » Following up on the action plans
 » Forecasting future turnover

Employee retention and engagement are crucial for organizational success. High turnover and disengagement can lead to significant costs and negatively impact productivity and morale. To address this, many organizations use "stay interviews"—structured conversations that help identify what keeps employees motivated and committed. Unlike exit interviews, stay interviews focus on improving the employee experience before they consider leaving. By regularly conducting these interviews, organizations can gain valuable insights, build trust, increase engagement, and reduce turnover, ultimately leading to a more motivated and productive workforce.