Employers roll out 'stay' interviews as record number of Americans walk off the job
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Americans are walking away from their jobs in record numbers as remote work has uncoupled jobs from geography, and droves of employees are re-evaluating the relationships they have with their employers.
To keep workers happy and on the job, more companies are turning to "stay interviews," one-on-one meetings with top performers to give those key people the chance to talk about what works, and what doesn't work, about their current jobs.
"This has become an extremely popular topic ... to try and help retain employees as much as possible," said Robyn Hopper, a human resources knowledge adviser for the Society for Human Resource Management. Managers who conduct stay interviews are coached to ask workers open-ended questions about what they like most about their jobs, what they dislike and under what events or circumstances they might leave.
The idea, Hopper said, is to ask questions similar to what employees might be asked in exit interviews — but before they actually quit. "It gives employees more of a voice as far as the good, the bad and the ugly," she said.
The idea is to ask questions similar to what employees might be asked in exit interviews, but before they actually quit.
Scott Bonneau, the vice president of global talent attraction at Indeed.com, said: "With the labor market conditions the way they are, it's very much a buyer's market for talent. Employers, particularly in certain sectors, are seeing people leave at a faster rate. I think stay interviews can be quite effective. ... It promotes and fosters trust and open communication."
Sometimes workers switch jobs in pursuit of higher salaries, but recruiters say a significant factor is the higher expectations of job candidates today when it comes to feeling seen and supported by their bosses. "People don't leave companies. People leave managers," said Dave Carvajal, the CEO of Dave Partners, a tech industry recruiting firm.
"People's desire for how they work has changed. The leadership skills and training required have also changed significantly ... and a lot aren't listening to their people," Carvajal said.
Other departures are spurred by chances to have more flexible hours, remote work or professional development opportunities. "It can be difficult for employers to keep up with the demands of the market," Bonneau said. "Stay interviews are ways for employers to hear directly from employees."
While experts say stay interviews can be a valuable tool to retain top employees, there is one big caveat: Bosses have to actually follow through on the feedback they solicit.
"At the end of the day, you can promise the best things in the world, but if you can't execute and deliver, people will tend to look elsewhere," said Thomas Wu, who recently took a job as the director of finance at an NFT startup.
Wu speaks from experience. At his old job, he said, the CEO would regularly check in to ask about challenges and concerns but didn't follow up and actually solve the problems.
"The feedback was heard, but execution was slower than I hoped," Wu said. He said the disconnect was one of the reasons he left. The experience also impressed on him the importance of both soliciting feedback and addressing concerns employees have raised with him in his new role.
"Any input and feedback is really appreciated," he said, adding that fierce competition in the tech sector makes keeping workers happy a top priority. "I would say definitely I'm more cognizant of how people would react, especially with this frothy market — money is being thrown around in the startup world. Our team's culture is the biggest driver. Everybody loves working here."
Carvajal said small businesses, which struggle to compete with huge companies in salaries and benefits, have more at stake and tend to use processes like stay interviews more frequently. "They can't afford to lose talent, so that cultural aspect is so much stronger and so much more important," he said.
Dale Winston, the chairwoman and CEO of the executive recruiting firm Battalia Winston, said the topics covered in stay interviews might have, in pre-pandemic workplaces, taken place informally over coffee or lunch. "I think the fact that people are working remotely, there's less chit-chat at the coffee-maker," she said.
As people work remotely, stay interviews can be an important way to facilitate that kind of communication. Winston added, however, that while it is positive to create a formal structure to address such issues in the absence of casual, organic interactions, companies run a risk of making the process too rigid — or too infrequent.
"These are questions that, in my view, should be asked on a regular basis," she said. "Implementing this on an annual basis isn't necessarily going to solve the problem."
These are questions that ... should be asked on a regular basis. Implementing this on an annual basis isn't necessarily going to solve the problem.
Bonneau said: "With many industries having gone fully remote, you're missing out on some of the human element ... but this can be an opportunity to hit the reset button."
Because one stumbling block is that workers may be reluctant to raise concerns or talk about issues with their current jobs, the onus is on managers to set clear expectations in advance of meetings and ask direct, specific questions about employees' satisfaction, Bonneau said. "If there's mistrust between leaders and employees, this could be particularly challenging," he said.
Bonneau added, however, that workers who want to stay with their current employers should be honest about their perspectives if they are asked to participate in stay interviews.
"If there are things you've wanted to get off your chest or things you would really like to see changed ... if your employer is going to the trouble of doing this in good faith, this is your opportunity to say those things," he said.
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My favorite neighbors are moving. The husband was miserable at his job. After the original owner passed away, the company was bought by a corporation, and the atmosphere changed. He considered the original owner to be like a third grandfather, and he ran the business with a focus on knowing his workers and telling them their families came first. Not so with corporate.
He made great money. He had been promoted pretty quickly before corporate took over, and retained that position. But now, he has no input. He has the responsibilities of upper management, and the salary, but nobody cares what he thinks, or even thinks to include him in most meetings. He started taking his guitar to work and playing it through the few meetings he did sit. Sounds like a good deal - get paid big bucks to do not much of anything. But he was miserable, so when a headhunter came looking for employees, he jumped at the chance to change jobs.
That is the sometimes very impersonal way of American Big Business in todays atmosphere.... It doesn't matter how the business got there, when the corporations take over it is nothing about anything but making money...
Capitalism is great, but it can be very emotionally destructive to the very people it employs....
Corporations have no heart, they used to, but not anymore...
A sea change is taking place in America's workplace, and IMO it isn't going to go back to the old normal. My nephew recently quit his job as CFO of a medium-sized company and took a new position as CFO of a start-up. He told me his main reason for quitting a very lucrative position was that the corporation didn't listen to what he was telling them regarding his goals in life which it seems were quite different than the corporate goals.
Could that possibly be why many took early retirement recently as an adjunct to covid? Corporations historically have been heartless when it comes to the bottom line, they don't start out that way, but it is what they become...
I'm retiring early because i'm tired of trying to find good people who want to work and want to do a good job. I've been turning work away for years now because of that. This started long before COVID.
THAT well intentioned worker has more or less gone the way of the dodo bird
We have had quite an exit lately where I work and management just scratches their head and wonders how they can stop the bleeding.
Well...maybe start doing these "stay interviews". A few years back I told my boss I had an interview somewhere else and all he could say to me was remember how well we work together. He didn't want to lose me but he didn't want to make any kind of effort at keeping me. I didn't get the job so now there will be no effort in trying to keep me. Doesn't matter...I'm retiring in less than 4 years so I will just keep my head down and plod on
My company's management believes if a person leaves it's their fault, they're the problem, they were the ones who had the problem. They have definite group think in the worst possible way. Even if they look in the mirror they can only see that it's someone else's fault, not their own, for taking early retirement, quitting. So I don't think a "stay" interview would work in my case.
Most times employees don't leave becasue of a bad job, they leave because of a bad boss / management / leader.
I agree. Bad leadership can lose a lot of good employees!
Interesting topic.
When I was the Industrial Relations Director of a subsidiary of Hunt Foods and the Labor Relations Director of a subsidiary of Westinghouse Elec. in the '70's, I developed an exit interview for our departing workers to find out what the issues/concerns of the exiting employees were in an attempt to monitor/enhance our workplace environment and modify/adjust our management styles.
The "needed" changes were discussed at our Board meetings and our retention went from 82% to 98% in three years.
Corporate loved it and adopted the program. But, again, this was in the 70's when people/management/corporate actually cared/listened.
Ah yes, the days of the Defined Pension/Benefit plans ..... i do miss them