Stay Interviews: Part of your inclusion toolkit

Congratulations! You’ve made great progress with your inclusive recruitment initiative, and you’ve attracted new, diverse thinkers into your organisation. Now how are you planning to keep them?

There are numerous retention initiatives available to organisations and you’re probably aware of many of them, such as anonymous employee engagement surveys, affinity groups and training in diversity, equity and inclusion. But have you heard of the ‘stay interview’?

When I first read about it, I was impressed with how elegantly simple the concept is and amazed that it isn’t commonplace. For those who haven’t heard of a stay interview, let me give you a quick summary.

What is a stay interview and how do they work?

The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) says they “are conducted to help managers understand why employees stay and what might cause them to leave.”

Who should conduct the stay interview?

The employee’s line manager.

What should I ask in a stay interview?

There are five key question areas recommended by the Finnegan Institute:

1.???? What do you look forward to when you come to work?

2.???? What are you learning?

3.???? What’s keeping you in this organisation and why?

4.???? What might make you consider leaving the organisation and why?

5.???? What can I do to improve your experience at work?

How often should I do one?

For a new starter, two to four times in the first year moving to one to two times a year thereafter.

Why should you implement stay interviews?

According to SHRM, stay interviews are a great way to improve employee engagement and retention: they help build trust between line manager and employee; the employee hears that their line manager cares about them and wants them to stay and grow with the company; the line managers take more responsibility for retention.

What if you already do this?

Managers who favour a coaching management style may naturally be covering many of these question areas in regular one-to-one meetings, but this is not true for all line managers. Stay interviews fill that gap.

The stay interview has the potential to be a powerful retention and engagement tool, but there are some potential pitfalls:

• The point of the exercise is to demonstrate that you are listening to your employee, so ensure you act on the feedback provided in the in meeting.
• The name ‘stay interview’ may be off-putting. Other terms used include: retention interview; retention conversation; engagement interview. Find one that works for you.
• When the initiative is first introduced, some employees may feel that their commitment or loyalty is being questioned.
• It may not be possible to resolve the issues raised in the meeting.
• If the employee does not get along with their line-manager, then they may not be open or honest in the meeting.
• The wrong person does the interview e.g., an HR manager.
• The interviews are not conducted regularly.

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In November’s edition we discussed diverse recruitment practices and how they aren’t a silver bullet but just one part of your supply chain diversity, equity and inclusion framework. Retention initiatives form another part of that framework with stay interviews offering a targeted way to ensure your diverse employees feel valued. In return, you get higher engagement and better retention. It’s a win-win. The good news for line managers is that you don’t have to wait for stay interviews to catch on with your company, you can research and implement them today.

What are you waiting for?

This edition of the Supply Chain 50/50 newsletter was written by Melanie Salter, Director of Supply Chain Research at boom! Global Network .