3 reasons why Stay Interviews are not success

stay interview imageAll employee engagement experts propose that Stay Interviews are better retention tool than Exit Interviews. If you invest in employees when they are part of your organization, you win their confidence in your culture and process. But once they are gone, they are gone… exit interviews can contribute to process improvement (if at all the suggestions are implemented) but do not often help in retaining employees. The focus of Stay Interviews is to find out employees expectations, problems and motivational factors to keep them engaged on job. Organizations and HR pros who have realized the significance of Stay Interviews practice it as a periodic activity to build better workplace relationships. But can Stay interviews also fail to bring about the desired outcome? Yes, when…

Employees do not trust you

A stay Interview is an open and honest discussion between employee and his supervisor or manager. With conflict at workplace(Manager, peers, HR) being the most common reason for employee dissatisfaction, employees often feel insecure to discuss work, results and expectations with a manager (or HR) they do not trust . A Manager or supervisor is instrumental in employee retention and unless he shares cordial relationship with his team, understanding true employee thoughts and outlook is difficult.

Employees do not see results

Employees expect things at work to change for better and meet at least some of their expectations as a result of stay interview discussions. When employees do not see organization responding to their concerns, they might lose interest in the process. Unless it is established as a successful organizational process, employees might not participate in stay interviews with complete cooperation, understanding and faith.

You make it a performance discussion

Stay interview is a good opportunity to discuss work, results, ideas and growth plans with employees but it is not a performance review. It is more about understanding what factors at work influence employees performance, what are their expectations, what they like about the job, improvement ideas, growth plans and lot more. You might not agree to everything they have to say but you can give them an opportunity to express themselves.

With stay Interviews, organizations demonstrate their concern and involvement in existing employees. It is a way to show employee that their personal growth and progress is also taken care of. Empathetic listening, in-time response and ongoing support make a stay interview process successful.

meetuMeetu Khanduja is an HR professional with extensive experience of working with IT/ITES industry. She holds an MBA (HR) and PDG (Intellectual Property Rights) from Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. She has been working with Artech Infosystems as Outsourcing HR consultant with specific involvement in Employee Engagement & Retention, Talent Management and HR outsourcing functions. She enjoys volunteering for social and environmental causes. She shares her experience and views on HR on her blog at HRdictionary. Connect with her onLinkedInFacebook & on twitter at @hrdictionary.

 

1 Comment

  1. venks1209 says:

    Very true. Stay interviews should be in an atmosphere of trust and transparency, else they become a meaningless exercise.

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