Master the Stay Interview: 15 Stay Interview Questions to Ask (and Ones to Avoid)
No boss wants to get an unexpected letter of resignation from their star performer. But if they're not having honest conversations with their employees, they're at risk of this happening time and time again.
The fact is, if you don't listen to concerns about your employee experience, your retention rate is going to suffer. Thankfully, there's a solution - stay interviews.
Power is shifting to the hands of employees, and their expectations are rising. As a result, stay interviews are gaining popularity as companies fight to keep talent during the global labor shortage. Using them wisely should be a key part of your talent retention strategy.
Find out which questions to ask and which to avoid in this guide.
👩💼 What's a stay interview?
A stay interview is a talk between managers and employees that aims to find out what makes the employee want to stay with the company, and what might make them want to leave.
They're usually informal conversations with open-ended questions that employees can use to give honest opinions about working life.
💡 Tip: Stay interviews aren't designed to make the employee stay. They're not meetings where you propose changes to the work environment or an employee's contract.
Instead, they're information-gathering exercises that should be performed periodically by HR and management to understand how people are feeling and get an idea of potential turnover risks.
One alternative to staying interviews is the retention survey is a feedback form that employees can answer, ranking their experience.
HR managers can then use the quantifiable scores to see turnover risks rising and falling over time.
It's a helpful idea in some circumstances, but we don't think it's personal enough to replace a proper conversation. And it won't give you the nuanced insight you get from a stay interview.
👨🏻💼 Why should you conduct a stay interview?
Stay interviews are opportunities for you to get feedback from your employees about what's working well and what could be improved. They're also chances for you to show your employees that you're interested in their happiness and satisfaction at work.
Crucially, they are a method of understanding your risk of high employee turnover. If done well, stay interviews can shine a light on simmering frustrations you might not have noticed that are stopping employees from imagining a future with you.
Stay interviews can be an integral part of your employee retention strategy.
They're best when paired with a broader strategy that fosters a healthy company culture, invests in training and development, and provides fair compensation.
Stay interviews are also your opportunity to convince someone to stay at the company if they consider going elsewhere. According to Sabina Nawaz, an executive coach for Fortune 500 leaders, they're not just an optional luxury – they're essential:
"Especially right now in the face of the 'Great Resignation,' every conversation you have with an employee is a re-recruitment conversation."
Richard Finnegan, an HR expert, reported some eye-opening findings about how useful these conversations can be. By doing stay interviews:
- A retirement community raised retention for its employees in their first 180 days by 100%.
- A call center decreased turnover among employees by 20%
❓ The 15 best stay interview questions to ask your employees
You don't want to be left not knowing what to do when all your employees want to leave. Instead, the best way to stay ahead is to conduct regular interviews.
Here are the best questions to get the most insight from your workers.
1) What would be an ideal day at work for you?
This question helps you get an idea of their motivations for coming to work.
- What drives them?
- What makes them want to come in and work hard?
- Would they rather coast along with a more manageable project load?
- What do they want from coming to work (other than a paycheck)?
2) What about your job makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?
This question tells you about the person's motivation and attitude towards the job.
The question could also follow up by asking: Are any specific factors contributing to your emotional state before starting your workday?
You gain valuable insights about employee performance, engagement, and overall satisfaction.
💡 Tip: The answers will help you to make informed decisions and develop strategies to enhance employee well-being and productivity.
3) What do you think about during your commute?
This one offers room for creativity but also gives a chance for an honest appraisal of their experience at work. If they dread coming to work and think about how tough the day will be, that's a bad sign.
4) Do you think that you're properly recognized for your achievements?
Recognition is one of the most essential factors in work satisfaction – you must let people know you notice their work and celebrate their achievement.
If not, this is their chance to let you know if they're not feeling the love. Otherwise, feeling under-appreciated is a flight risk.
5) To what extent are you able to achieve work-life balance here?
Everyone has a different definition of work-life balance and what it means. But letting the employee tell you how they feel about it will help you understand whether you're pushing them too far.
Some are happy to work long hours and put most of their energy into work. Others have busy family lives or want a clear line between work and leisure. Whichever they prefer, you must match what works for them.
6) What's caused you stress or anxiety recently?
Long-term stress and anxiety can lead to burnout – another threat to retention – so it's essential to identify and prevent it early.
This question is deliberately open. It doesn't specify the workplace or their personal lives.
💡 Tip: If an employee struggles with stress, offer sympathy and understanding, and if possible, provide appropriate assistance.
7) Is there something new you want to learn this year?
HR gains some valuable insights by finding out what new things employees want to learn and how they prefer to learn. It helps to figure out any skill gaps and wishes the people have.
You can also follow up and ask: How do you learn best? By doing? By observing? By attending training?
💡 Tip: Knowing how employees learn best makes learning more fun and effective in the organization.
8) When was the last time you thought about leaving the company?
If they've considered leaving the company in the last few months, it's something to take seriously.
An obvious follow-up would be, "What made you want to leave?"
If a particular issue prompts it - it's time to act.
9) What would you like to be doing if you were here in five years?
This is an excellent way to determine whether you're aligned on career progression.
- Are they expecting more than you can offer?
- Do they have a clear path to achieving a new role?
- Or do their ambitions not lie within your company?
The stay interview is an excellent opportunity to find out.
10) If you could change something about working here, what would it be?
This is one of the most helpful questions you can ask. Even though you might think you know what needs changing, you don't hold the only perspective.
Some of the most valuable suggestions can come from people who aren't in charge – so let them talk.
11) What do you think is the worst thing about working here?
This question seems direct, but it's important to ask it. And if employees have genuine concerns, they should be able to open up and let you know what's bothering them.
Whether it's the office facilities, corporate culture, lack of opportunity, or something else – hearing the answer to this from multiple employees is sure to highlight some addressable problems.
12) Which other companies in this industry do you admire?
If the employee has friends in the industry, they'll probably be well informed on how others do things. If the employee knows a competitor has an attractive well-being policy, they might tell you they'd like the same in your company.
You can follow up by asking, "What should we do that they do?"
13) Do you feel supported to do your best work?
There are many moving elements that can enable employees to be their best selves at work. From having access to the right tools, to being in a cooperative work environment, to getting constructive feedback and growth opportunities.
Use this question to understand if there’s anything else you can do to help your people.
Maybe the workload is too high, or the tasks aren't briefed in enough detail.
It could be their equipment or desk setup is restricting their abilities, or you might not be investing enough in their growth.
Find out what they are missing, and make sure to give it to them asap.
14) Have you ever thought about leaving the team? If so, when and what prompted it?
You can ask your employees if they have ever considered leaving the team due to a specific concern, such as leadership or conflicts between the coworkers.
Try to understand the underlying issues, and come up with solutions to improve team cohesion and collaboration. For example, you can organize some team-building workshops, leadership training courses and collaboration skill development.
15) Do you ever think, "I love my job"? If so, when was the last time you said it? What were the circumstances surrounding that?
The answer will reveal why the person wants to be a part of your organization and which part of their role they enjoy the most.
This knowledge helps you create a great work environment that supports those positive experiences and keeps them engaged.
🙅♀️ Questions to avoid in a stay interview
While it does depend on the employment laws in your country, in most Western nations, there are certain things you shouldn't ask about, such as:
- sex, gender identity, sexual orientation;
- age, race, religion, or ethnic heritage;
- health or disability status;
- pregnancy or marital status and family plans.
You should also avoid irrelevant or intrusive questions that make the employee uncomfortable or make them suspect you've got an ulterior motive. Some examples include:
- When are you planning on retiring? It's best not to pry into their retirement plans as it may seem intrusive.
- Are you happy with your current salary/benefits package? Avoid delving into their satisfaction with compensation to maintain a positive and non-confrontational atmosphere.
- Have any other companies approached you? This question might make them question your motives and can lead to an uncomfortable situation.
📈 Play the long game and elevate employee retention with Zavvy
Making your company a great place to work isn't an overnight project.
You can't undertake it in a few days. You need to embed it throughout each stage of the employee life cycle.
At Zavvy, we know that all your people processes across the employee life cycle can impact retention. So we aim to help you create a stellar experience for your people throughout their entire time with your organization – from recruitment to onboarding to employee growth.
With Zavvy's one-on-one meeting software, you can set up and run stay interviews with a few clicks. You will have a single source of truth on what keeps your employees engaged with your company.
But how about those that are flight risks? What are you going to do to address their challenges?
Zavvy will support your managers and employees with:
- Development plans to motivate and inspire growth.
- Career paths to foster transparency - employees will know where they stand and where they can head.
- 10.000+ training courses to offer more growth opportunities to your people (we know how much people want to grow their skills, so this list is ever-growing).
- Meaningful feedback cycles to build accountability, trust, and performance.
📅 Book a demo to experience these powerful features.
❓ FAQs
🚪 Is a stay interview the same as an exit interview?
No, a stay interview and an exit interview are not the same. They're the opposite, although some of the questions might be similar.
An exit interview takes place when someone's made the choice to leave and has made it official. It's part of the employee offboarding process.
It's a chance for them to vent their frustrations (if they have any), explain some of the factors that influenced them to leave, and give feedback on how the company can improve in employees' eyes.
A stay interview, in contrast, seeks to gain similar insights before the employee decides to leave.
In exit interviews, some people will avoid being brutally honest out of politeness and an unwillingness to burn bridges. Others might not hold back when asked what they think. It depends a lot on their personality, job role, place in the corporate hierarchy, and the company's current culture.
💬 How many questions should a stay interview have?
There's no official number of how many questions a stay interview should have. But you should aim to make the employee as comfortable as possible. Give them enough time to get settled into the conversation and open up without dragging it on longer than you need to.
As a rule of thumb, 10-15 questions should cover the main topics you need to know about. But allow for some flexibility with timing because open questions like these can go in many different directions.
🏢 How do you motivate people to stay at a company?
The company should be a great company to work for to motivate people. That's it. Easy, right?
That's the simple answer, but you probably want something more useful. So we'd recommend you take the strategic approach that would involve:
- Collecting feedback.
- Calculating your turnover and retention.
- Systematically planning your actions to improve the situation.
- Ensuring that you're offering opportunities for career mobility, too. (42% of employees looking for new jobs 'do not believe their talents and abilities are not used effectively.')
- Ensuring that your compensation and promotion policies are competitive. (After three years, there's a 70% chance that someone who received a promotion will still be within the company.)