What is a stay-interview and why is it practiced in the IT industry? Unfortunately, according to statistics, less than a quarter of employees are not going to change their jobs. The remaining 3/4 either openly declare their intention to quit or covertly look for a “better place.
Stay-interviews or Retention interviews – targeted interviews that reveal the “quota of possible departure” of an employee and allow to keep him or her by active motivation – help to fight such a negative trend. The employer’s actions are always based on an analysis of the data obtained during the interview:
- opinion about the company as a whole;
- wishes for changes;
- The reasons for leaving.
How does stay-interviewing work to retain valuable employees?
Retention interviews are designed primarily for key specialists. To encourage them to change their mind about quitting, it is necessary not only to remove provoking factors but also to fundamentally revise the attitude towards valuable to the company “fugitives”.
To do this during the retention interview, find out the critical aspects:
- what is psychologically annoying;
- what prevents them from working;
- what circumstances encourage them to quit?
The essence of stay-interviews and the difference from exit-interviews
In contrast to an exit interview, a stay interview is actively focused on retaining a staff member. This is by no means a “soul-searching conversation”, but a logically structured personal communication with an employee, directly finding out his or her “loyalty points” and the reasons for dissatisfaction.
Based on the information obtained during the conversation, the employer’s weaknesses are revealed:
current working conditions (degree of workload, appropriateness of qualifications, unfair distribution of tasks);
individual attitude of the respondent towards his/her functions, salary, and other factors of job performance;
team microclimate (conflicts, non-statutory relations, etc.).
The problems revealed by Stay-interviews should be eliminated – or it should be clearly explained why the negative circumstances cannot be corrected and what kind of compromise of the parties is allowed in such a case.
When can a retention interview not work?
Stay-interviews help when the decision to quit has just taken shape has not had time to grow into confidence, and the company has the resources to correct its personnel policy.
A company that knows how to use criticism to its advantage will be able to draw the right conclusions from an “unsuccessful Stay-interview” and direct them toward staff recovery.
