Want Your Best Employees to Never Quit? Ask Them 5 Easy Questions

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Want to do something that will launch you into the?Future of Leadership? Get rid of your exit interviews and replace them with "stay interviews."

If you're new to this concept, unlike the exit interview, managers are using stay interviews to get fresh insight into improving the?work environment?or their own?leadership skills?to retain those valued employees today--not after they have emotionally disconnected and stopped caring.

Fair warning: Stay interviews are only as effective as people's willingness to demonstrate transparency. The whole premise is based on honest two-way conversations between manager and employee, where each side gets to listen, ask questions, and agree to follow up on ideas and action plans.

One 400-employee tech company implemented stay interviews right after a reduction in their workforce. Their HR director told me, "The information collected by stay interviews is more actionable than secondary source information because it's specific and forward-facing."

The stay interview builds trust with employees, who feel valued because leaders are sending the message that they see them as important and want to get a feel for what's working and not working for them. And then doing something about it.

5 'Must Ask' Questions

Make the stay interview questions simple and informal when meeting with direct reports one-on-one. To get you going and acclimated to the process, try these five questions to ensure winning back unhappy employees who are key to your operation's success.

1. "What do you like about your job?"

This question sets a positive tone to assess their work satisfaction and helps a manager clue into what parts of the job employees like and want to experience more of.

2. "Describe a good day of work you had recently?"

Tap into their memories to extract clear and specific examples of positive experiences they've had. Leaders should be asking this question to learn everything they can about replicating the experience so that every day looks more like it.

3. "Do you feel your skills are being used to the fullest?"

The best-case scenario here is discovering that the employee has skills the company or leader never knew about, which is a win-win: The employee wins by using personal strengths that raise personal motivation and engagement; the leader wins by offering new opportunities to tap into those strengths, which releases discretionary effort that will benefit the company, project, or team.

4. "Do you feel you get properly recognized for doing good work?"

A leader will gauge frustration levels by courageously asking this question?and?openly accepting the response and, if it's negative, brainstorming solutions together. As Gallup has observed in its extensive research, praise and recognition for accomplishments?have been repeatedly linked to higher employee retention.?How regularly are we talking? Praise should be given?once per week.

5. "Do you feel like you are treated with respect?"

Leaders should ask this question to determine the health of the team. Is there blame traveling in different directions, and are people pointing fingers at each other? Are there silos, heavy politics, stonewalling, or people being thrown under the bus? These toxic behaviors suggest a total lack of mutual respect as a cultural value. Studies show respect is a key driver in overall employee engagement, and its absence as a contributor to employees leaving.

What's your take? Any questions you would here? Share them in the comments and let's learn from one another.

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About Marcel Schwantes

Marcel Schwantes ?is a globally-recognized leadership authority, executive coach, international speaker,?podcast host , and?syndicated columnist ?with a worldwide following. He teaches emerging leaders the skills to build great work cultures where people flourish and businesses grow.