Stay interviews are a proactive tool for employee retention. They focus on listening and fostering open dialogue between managers and employees to strengthen engagement, boost morale, and address potential concerns before they lead to turnover.
What Is a Stay Interview?
A stay interview is a structured (or semi-structured) one-on-one conversation between a manager (or leader) and an employee aimed at understanding what motivates the employee to stay, and what might push them to leave.
Unlike an exit interview, which is retrospective, the stay interview is proactive: it seeks insight while the employee is still engaged. Instead of an evaluation or performance review, it is a listening session focused on the employee’s experience, aspirations, obstacles, and ideas for improvement.
Essentially, it’s a dialogue aimed at identifying the key factors that drive an employee’s satisfaction and keep them invested in their role over time.
Why Stay Interviews Are Important
Stay interviews are strategically valuable because they give leaders a real-time view of employee sentiment. Benefits include:
- Improving retention: By uncovering reasons employees choose to stay, organizations can reinforce and expand on these factors, reducing the risk of turnover.
- Stronger manager–employee relationship and trust: When employees feel heard and see action, their psychological safety and trust with their direct manager improve.
- Better resource allocation: Instead of guessing what employees want, managers receive direct feedback on what would make the most significant difference in job satisfaction, engagement, and retention.
- Lower turnover costs: Turnover is expensive due to recruiting, training, and lost productivity. Staying ahead of departures can reduce those costs.
- Continuous engagement loop: Stay interviews complement other retention strategies—such as career pathing, training, and performance management—by giving real data about what employees care about.
These conversations are especially effective because they occur before dissatisfaction escalates. Acting on feedback soon after the interview demonstrates sincerity and reinforces the value of employee contributions, which supports a healthier workplace culture.
11 Best Practices to Conduct an Effective Stay Interview
To make stay interviews effective, careful design and execution are required. Below are the best practices to follow:
1. Separate them from performance reviews
Combining stay interviews with performance reviews risks making them feel like evaluations rather than open listening sessions. Instead, schedule stay interviews at different times in the year.
2. Determine a frequency and be consistent
There are multiple options for how often to conduct these interviews. Many organizations conduct annual stay interviews for all employees. Some do them biannually or more often for high-risk populations (e.g., new hires, high performers). Conducting interviews with all employees within a compressed “window” (e.g., over a few weeks) helps identify patterns and enables more timely action.
3. Communicate the program and expectations to employees
Let employees know ahead of time the purpose of stay interviews, emphasizing what they’re not (not performance reviews), and how the feedback will be used.
4. Maintain confidentiality and be fair
Be clear about what will and will not be held confidential (some issues may require escalation). Don’t penalize or reward based on what employees reveal.
5. Prepare for the interview
A great stay interview starts with you—your mindset, preparation, and follow-through.
Before the meeting:
- Review the employee’s recent work and wins.
- Clarify your goal: to listen and learn, not evaluate.
- Prepare 4–6 open questions (start with what or how).
6. Create a safe, psychologically secure environment
If employees don’t feel safe being candid, you will get surface answers. Use a private, quiet space, maintain an open posture, and adopt a non-judgmental tone. Be transparent about purpose and reassure the employee that you want their honest feedback.
7. Ask open-ended, well-crafted questions
Avoid yes/no questions. Use prompts like “Tell me more,” “Give me an example,” or “Why is that important to you?” Tailor questions to the employee’s role, tenure, and interests.
8. Listen more than you talk
The manager’s role is primarily to listen, empathize, and probe. When employees speak freely, they often reveal deeper motivations, rather than just obvious complaints. Don’t interrupt; only ask follow-up questions when the employee finishes their thought.
9. Capture and centralize insights
Store notes and insights (confidentially) in a central system (e.g., HRIS, talent management system) to allow trend analysis and cross-team comparisons.
10. Take action and close the loop
Nothing kills credibility faster than soliciting feedback and then taking no action. Prioritize change ideas, commit to a realistic timeline, and follow up. Acknowledge where you can’t act immediately, but explain your constraints.
11. Seek patterns and systemic themes
Single feedback items are helpful, but recurring themes across multiple employees, e.g. work- life balance, recognition, and resource constraints, are especially valuable to address systemically.
10 Great Stay Interview Questions to Ask
Choosing the right questions is essential to gaining insights that matter. Here are examples managers can adapt:
- What aspects of your work here make you most excited to come in each day?
- What challenges or frustrations have you experienced lately, and how can we address them?
- How do you feel about your work-life balance, and what could improve it?
- Do you feel recognized for your contributions? How might recognition be improved?
- What professional development opportunities would you like to see offered?
- Can you describe a “good day” at work recently and what made it enjoyable?
- What does your dream role look like, and how can we help you move toward it?
- Is there anything you valued in past roles that you wish we had here?
- How do you feel about our company culture and your place within it?
- What can I do as your manager to make your experience better?
Conclusion
Stay interviews are an essential tool for proactive retention and engagement. They create a structured opportunity for employees to share their values and needs, providing managers with the insights needed to address issues before they lead to turnover.
The actual impact of a stay interview comes when leaders not only listen but also act thoughtfully on the feedback, demonstrating respect for employee input and dedication to continuous improvement. When implemented consistently, stay interviews strengthen relationships, enhance workplace culture, and position organizations to retain their best talent for the long term.
INTOO’s career development programming can help strengthen managers’ skills, enabling them to empower their employees and improve retention. We also offer career coaching, workshops, and training programs for all job levels to help them achieve their individual goals while improving engagement for your organization. Contact us today to learn more.
INTOO staff writers come from diverse backgrounds and have extensive experience writing about topics that matter to the HR and business communities, including outplacement, layoffs, career development, internal mobility, candidate experience, succession planning, talent acquisition, and more.
