This employee retention speaker and employee retention expert believes in being proactive with employee retention rather than waiting for talent to be out the door before taking any action. Unfortunately, that is not the way most organizations handle employee turnover…they react! That’s where stay interviews come in. the key to stay interviews is you have to get the employee you are speaking with to open up. This employee recruitment expert has found the best way to do that is to ask, “Aside from money…why do you stay here?” I like asking it this way because often times when you ask people they always seem to answer “money.” By precluding money, you hear the things you can do something about besides just shelling out money.
The other component that I find very effective is not to do a formal interview sitting in your office. Get out into the facility or on a call. Don’t give them advance notice, just pick up the phone and ask. Being more informal tends to generate more honesty. When you ask this question in the employee’s environment rather than yours, people feel more at ease and will give you more honest answers. You need to be prepared and think on your feet to ask follow up questions. That is a tradeoff you have to make to get the more informal candor.
This employee retention author will ask these questions of employees when taking a tour. After you ask, the key is to shut up. I’ve found often the HR Leader taking a tour will tend to get a bit defensive about some of the responses and start to engage in a debate. That’s not what you are trying to do. All you are doing at this point is gathering intel so you know what you have to work on.
When I do this type of stay interviews, I may ask only 2-3 people maximum. My reason for this is I want to take the time I need so I can absorb it. I also dovetail this with the time I’m taking a “stroll” through the facility thus killing two birds with one stone. This is simple stuff. It’s just not easy. The time to do something is NOW…not when a bunch of people walk out the door.
Is your organization desperate to retain people? If you are an HR Leader, General Manager or an owner of an organization, call me to get a free copy of my Employee Retention Self-Audit. You can then find out how the C.R.A.P approach can reduce your employee turnover by 40-80%.
