You’ve probably heard the labor market term the “great quit” – reflecting the record number of employees leaving their jobs in the wake of the global pandemic. The phrase was coined by accident by Texas A&M professor of management Anthony Klotz, a leading withdrawal researcher. In early 2021, Bloomberg published an article on how to quit a job without cutting ties, and that’s when Klotz used the phrase that has been widely repeated in the media. The expression is just because over 47 million people quit their job in the United States in 2021.
Many workers are reassessing what they actually get out of their job — or more accurately — what they aren’t. Some employees report that they don’t feel valued, aren’t recognized for their hard work, or don’t share a sense of purpose or community with their peers or employer. Organizations witnessing this phenomenon are recognizing the need to invest in employee experience and engagement programs to retain current employees and mitigate future attrition. Because unemployment rates have dropped to record lows, employers trying to retain their top talent have realized that employee retention and satisfaction must be a top priority.
Employees rarely quit in a vacuum and often leave telltale signs along the way. Employers who can identify risks early enough can proactively implement solutions to mitigate attrition risks. If employers do not resolve issues in time, high turnover can have a high price for organizations. It can erode community, culture, productivity, etc., which ultimately impacts how customers perceive the organization. Exit interviews can help employers understand why people are leaving. But the search shows that if you want hold back people, it is essential to check in with them BEFORE they show any signs that they are ready to quit.
Labor market research confirms that the Great Quit is likely the result, at least in part, of employers not paying attention to their most valuable asset: their EMPLOYEES! I believe the most effective way to achieve this is for employers to treat their employees the same way they treat their customers or potential customers. Many employers are scrambling to hire workers and offering all sorts of signing bonuses to attract often mediocre applicants. However, they neglect to provide attractive pay raises or bonuses to their existing employees who have stayed, endured and worked hard through the tough times. More importantly, employers are not investing as much in understanding why their current employees are choosing to stay and what they can do to keep them in their jobs.
Many employers have forgotten that the return on investment for hiring and training the right employee is directly dependent on a solid retention plan. And retention practices aren’t just about providing industry-level compensation or benefits, but rather about a workplace that treats its employees like people first. Especially in the last two years. One of the best and underused tools that employers can leverage to retain their workforce and improve the employee experience is to conduct periodic “stay” interviews.
Many employers end up losing valuable employees for avoidable reasons. For the vast majority of employees, it’s not just about the money offered or an end-of-year bonus, but rather other intangibles, such as an inclusive workforce. , that the organization’s values align with their own values, the organization understands and promotes a healthy work-life balance, whether the employer has environmental, social and governance programs, whether the skills of the employee are used in a meaningful way, etc. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how the organization is meeting these needs – or if not. Stay interviews can be a great tool to help create a positive employee experience.
So what is a “stay interview”?
A stay interview can be as simple as brief one-on-one conversations with your employees about what drives them to stay and what might actually drive them to leave. The goal is to provide a structure and a formal process for checking in with your employees. This is different from engagement surveys, as these tend to be anonymous and usually provide systemic trends via aggregate data rather than individualized data.
Stay interviews are similar to the exit interview – the formal process by which employers seek explanations of why someone left and what could have been Finished to avoid it – but here the goal is to figure out how to keep doing the “good” things and work to eliminate the “bad” things. It might not always deter someone from leaving, but it will likely improve a manager’s understanding of what his teams like and dislike, which should help them retain valuable new recruits.
In a recent episode of Adam Grant’s “Work Life” podcast, he said the “stay interview” could be the way to avoid the “turnover contagion” plaguing employers today. He further states that “the purpose of a stay interview is to show people that you are invested in them and to learn what you can do to improve their work and the organization.”
Although there are no clear rules on how to conduct a perfect stay interview, data-based recommendations tend to agree that the following suggestions are a good place to start:
- Communication on the progress of the residence interview – The intention of the meeting should be clearly articulated to ALL employees so that each employee feels free to speak openly, without fear of negative repercussions. Explain to employees the purpose of the interview and ask for their active participation.
- Who should lead the meetings – Many employees will feel more comfortable providing constructive criticism to someone other than their direct or superior supervisor. A neutral party, such as a consultant, or a possible human resources representative could be selected. Interviewers should be coached to ensure their tone and mandate is positive and to avoid becoming defensive if they receive constructive feedback from employees.
- Individual meetings – Schedule a private one-on-one meeting with each employee, usually at the team or department level. Employees should be given constructive questions such as:
- I would like to have a better idea of what excites/interests/motivates you to stay with us.
- What do you enjoy most about working here? Less?
- What would make a long-term career with us attractive to you?
- What could improve your work or what suggestions do you have to further motivate the team?
- Periodically schedule residency interviews —This is not a “one and done” event. Data shows that conducting residency interviews improves overall communication within an organization. Few things are more important to effective management than the ability to create open communication channels and frank and meaningful dialogue with employees. Most work problems, like most relationship problems, are caused by an inability to understand others. There is no better antidote to this than effective communication. This means you don’t just do one residency interview; you should make it part of your employee experience process and schedule them annually or semi-annually.
- All team members need to be scheduled – No employer wants to give the impression that they only care about certain employees, and employees who are not surveyed would feel like their opinion is not valued. All team members must be scheduled and interviewed.
- Act on data — Be sure to measure and track feedback as well as results and actions. The information collected will be useless unless you are determined to law above. So be thoughtful and clearly define ways to record, measure and act on the information you collect. Research shows that employees are more likely resign if managers are unwilling to make the suggested changes. So, after digesting the findings of your stay interview, make an effort to strengthen what works, change what doesn’t, and assess whether your changes are having an impact. This will require you to prioritize some of the requests or comments. You certainly can’t go all out, and that’s okay.
As you redouble your efforts to increase the diversity of your workforce, now may be the time to also implement retention interviews, not only for your new hires, but especially for your current employees. As the culture of our workforce changes, live interviews can help you get a sense of where your organization is today, so you know where to go next.
