How stay interviews can help stop the Great Resignation

The Great Resignation has shown no sign of stopping as the most recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey found a record-breaking 4.5 million workers quit their job in November. There is no “quick fix” for improving retention as needed areas of improvement change company to company and even from employee to employee. In fact, top reasons employees are leaving their jobs include burnout (40%), their company going through organizational changes (34%), lack of flexibility (20%), instances of discrimination (20%), and contributions not being valued (20%).

As an HR or company leader, this growing list of reasons for turnovers can be overwhelming as it can be difficult to pinpoint where HR should focus their efforts. However, a best practice called “stay interviews” is gaining popularity and becoming more crucial to embed in HR programs as it enables leaders to learn where the business can improve long before employees decide to leave. Stay interviews have a similar format to exit interviews, and typically occur between a member of the HR department and an employee. The goal is to gauge a staff member’s honest opinions on the employee experience. The main differentiator is the purpose of these interviews—to understand why employees who are continuing to work with the company stay and what they feel could be better or change in the future.

Why conduct stay interviews?

The first wave of the Great Resignation started in April 2021, when four million workers quit their job. Since then, many employers have been at a loss trying to understand why their company initiatives are unsuccessful in moving the needle on retention. However, stay interviews can help employers understand where meaningful changes are needed.

They obtain a true gauge of employee sentiment.

The only way to truly understand how workers feel about their employee experience is to ask them. Currently, many organizations use company-wide surveys to gauge this information and although they are helpful in obtaining an overarching view on sentiment, they typically miss the mark on digging more specifically into the “why.”

During a candid conversation with an employee, HR leaders are able to ask follow-up questions, let employees tell them what they want to discuss, and dig deeper into the employee experience. Amid the Great Resignation, leaders can use this stay interview format to hear firsthand why employees are happy, different benefits programs they are leveraging, and how they feel about their work-life balance, etc. getting insight on both areas of success and improvement.

Stay interviews show employees they are valued

Stay interviews can also be an important tool during the Great Resignation as they show employees their opinions are valued and heard. In fact, 74% of employees report they are more effective at their job when they are listened to. Aside from gathering important insight from staff, stay interviews allow employees the opportunity to reflect on their experience and often share opinions they’ve been holding onto but do not feel comfortable expressing to their colleagues or managers. For both employees and employers, this serves as a safe space to collect information that helps to ensure workers are happy, supported, and engaged at the company.

Stay interviews must be inclusive and result in company change

Just interviewing a few employees about their work experience will not drive the needed impact to increase retention. To gain meaningful information from employees, it is important stay interviews include a range of employees across different departments, backgrounds, roles, and tenure. This gives managers a variety of insight that creates a more well-rounded view into the company and ensures all departments and levels of employees are heard.

However, conducting stay interviews is just one part of the retention puzzle. The success of stay interviews come down to the actions employers take from the information they gather. Once leaders complete stay interviews, it is important they take employee feedback and areas of improvement into consideration to enact change. Data shows that 90% of workers are more likely to stay at an employer that puts feedback into action because today’s workforce wants to see that their employer values their opinions. As the Great Resignation is expected to continue throughout 2022, all employers must evaluate the state of their workforce. Stay interviews can allow them to better understand employee feedback, make employees feel valued, and create the changes needed to improve the employee experience.

Sarah Britton is senior manager of employee operations at Lever.