Now, `stay interviews' is a trend

Changing times in HR

HR is now looking at the `pull' rather than the `push' factor among employees. In other words, companies are
realising that information on what makes employees stick to a job is as vital as why they quit. At Bangalore-
based Symphony Services, for instance, the HR department conducts `stay interviews' regularly to get `top of
the mind positives of the company' from employees.

Says Mr C. Mahalingam, Senior Vice-President, HR, Symphony Services, "We kicked off this concept about 15
months ago and are creating an employee engagement model based on employee feedback."

While exit interviews are more of a post-mortem exercise, stay interviews give valuables that help in
strengthening our systems, he says.

The concept is based on the Hawthorne Effect, which states that people who are given attention are a
motivated lot. "Lend people an ear and they feel good about being heard," explains Mr Mahalingam.

Dr Pallabh Bandyopadhyay, Chief People Officer, Scandent Solutions, agrees that stay interviews are becoming a
trend and that they are used to reinforce good HR practices within the company.

"One of the methodologies used here is appreciative inquiry which is usually done by consulting firms."

Dr Bandyopadhyay says this exercise creates a positive energy for change. Some companies are also looking at
reverse mentoring where juniors advise senior employees on building company culture, according to him.

Though the concept is not new to HR managers, not many are actually experimenting with it, says Mr
Mahalingam. At Philips Software, for instance, the exercise, called `Celebrating the positives,' was a one-time
affair where 20 per cent of the employees were asked their opinion. "At Symphony, we're trying to make it an
on-going process," he says.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/manager/2006/11/20/stories/2006112001051000.htm

~ Knowledge Increases By Sharing. So, Pass It On. ~ Vishal Nagda ~

Stay Interviews

Worried a key member of your team could leave? Hold a stay interview and hope you’ll never need to do an
exit interview.

Stay interviews can help head off an employee’s decision to quit a job. By holding a one-on-one meeting with
your employee, you can explore their feelings about their position and uncover what might make them stay.
You can use a stay interview with a disgruntled employee – but a stay interview can also help you keep on top
of the needs of a seemingly happy employee. In fact, a stay interview may aid in preventing that employee
from ever becoming disgruntled.

Take your prize employee to a neutral setting, like a coffee shop or restaurant. Take some time to get to know
them better. Then ask questions about how they feel about their job and career path.
Stay interview questions could include:

• What do you like about your work?

• What would keep you here?
• What makes for a great day at work?
• What do you want to learn this year?
• Is there anything you’d like to change about your job?
• How about your team or department?
• Am I using your talents? Fully?
• That would make your job more satisfying and rewarding?
• Do you feel supported in your career goals?
• Do you feel we recognize you? What kind of recognition do you like?

Don’t be afraid of what your employee might say. Sure, you can’t always meet your employee’s requests. But
you can validate their feelings, express your support and assure them you’ll do what you can to explore
options. Avoid saying you can’t meet their needs in your initial meeting – for some employees, that’s enough to
prompt a job search. Instead, commit to reviewing their feedback and give them a timeline for further
discussion. Sometimes, just listening and working to discover solutions are what your employee really needs.

Source: http://www.bcjobs.ca/re/hr-centre/interview-techniques/human-resource-advice/stay-interviews

~ Knowledge Increases By Sharing. So, Pass It On. ~ Vishal Nagda ~

Stay Interviews - Because the Exit Interview Is Too Late
Don’t wait for exit interviews to find out why people are leaving. Quiz your top performers in stay interviews
to pre-empt their leaving.

Rather than conducting exit interviews with departing stars, stop guessing what keeps your star performers
happy and use "stay interviews" to prevent them from leaving in the first place. Don’t assume they all want the
same things, such as more pay or promotions.

Ask employees, "What will keep you with our company? What might entice you to leave?" Listen actively to the
answers you receive. Are employees staying for a chance to learn and grow, for a promotion and a big title, or
for some other reason?

Don’t wait for a formal career discussion. Take your treasured employees to lunch or coffee, for the express
purpose of asking these important questions.

Asking has many positive side effects. The people you ask feel valued and important, which often engenders
stronger loyalty and commitment to the organization. In other words, just asking the question is a retention
strategy.

Beyond listening, you need to respond, and what you say is critical. Responses like "that’s unrealistic"
immediately halt the dialogue and might even cause your employees to launch a job search.

Some managers hesitate to raise this issue for fear they won’t be able to deliver on the employees’ requests. If
that is the case, be frank. But also commit to investigating other possibilities. There is at least one thing your
talented employee wants that you can give.

You may want to begin with some popular questions for stay interviews from Workforce.com:

• What about your job makes you jump out of bed in the morning?
• What makes you hit the snooze button?
• If you were to win the lottery and resign, what would you miss the most?
• What one thing that if changed in your current role would make you consider moving on?
• If you had a magic wand, what would be the one thing you would change about your department?
• If you had to go back to a position in your past and stay for an extended period of time, which one
would it be and why?
• What makes for a great day?
• What can we do to make your job more satisfying?
• What can we do to support your career goals?
• Do you get enough recognition?
• What will keep you here? What might entice you away?
• What do you want to learn this year? How might you learn it?

Source: http://www.irishjobs.ie/ForumWW/WWIndividualArticle.aspx?ForumTypeID=2719

~ Knowledge Increases By Sharing. So, Pass It On. ~ Vishal Nagda ~

"Stay" interviews identify early problems
While the key to better personal health may lie in healthy diet and exercise, the secret to better health for
business organisations may be in frequent workplace "health checks".

Chandler MacLeod's executive general manager, David Reynolds, says Australian businesses should proactively
undertake workplace check-ups in the form of "stay interviews" in order to identify and address potential issues
before they affect workplace morale and potential loss of staff.

"While many businesses conduct exit interviews when staff resign, very few think to conduct a stay interview,"
Reynolds says.

"The main benefit is that you're able to identify issues and problems at an early stage before they've reached
crisis point and are causing high staff turnover."

In this staff-shortage climate, Reynolds says companies can ill afford to "hide their heads in the sand"- with stay
interviews providing a safe environment to air concerns.

"If there is not a proper place for issues to come to the surface, then this is going to bubble along with a
negative impact on morale and productivity and eventuate in a decision to leave," Brisbane-based Reynolds
says.

Chandler MacLeod research has shown stay interviews provide a snapshot of employee satisfaction, identify
potential issues before they occur and reduce the risk of employees resigning.

The process typically involves participants taking part in an online survey, which is followed up by an in-depth
face-to-face interview with a cross sample of people from different levels of the organisation.

Reynolds says interviewing a cross-section of the staff regularly will help employers pick up on any trends and,
should any of those be of concern, means more work can be done to avert problems.

He says employers need to go into the process with no preconceived ideas and with an open mind about where
the research might lead.

Typically, the interviews cover the employee's role, their relationship with the manager and immediate work
colleagues and what, if anything, is holding them back from performing at a higher level.

Reynolds says that, having conducted the interviews, it is vital that employees see their concerns being acted
upon.

"If an organisation spends time speaking to employees but then doesn't take it to that next step and action
workplace changes, it destroys all credibility," Reynolds says.

"To ensure the ongoing support of staff, the process must have visibility and transparency and deliver real
benefits to the organisation and staff alike."

He says genuine action speaks volumes and demonstrates to staff how highly they are valued and, in turn, acts
as a retention strategy.

"Losing knowledgeable and trained staff in this market is incredibly costly in terms of the intellectual property
they take with them, the cost of re-hiring and the impact on productivity because of low morale," he says.

By Josephine Gillespie, The Daily Telegraph, July 11, 2007.

Source: http://www.careerone.com.au/jobs/job-search/stay-interviews-identify-early-problems

~ Knowledge Increases By Sharing. So, Pass It On. ~ Vishal Nagda ~

" Stay interviews" more useful than exit interviews
While exit interviews were largely a reactive process, Reynolds maintained they were still relevant.

"Certainly, there is still value in conducting exit interviews and there is room for both types of surveys. The two
serve different yet complementary purposes, with stay interviews proactively focusing on the individual and
staff retention and exit interviews focusing on the organisation and the issues causing staff turnover," he said.

Key elements

• To be effective, stay interviews should:

• provide a snap shot of employee satisfaction levels;
• identify any issues or potential problems as they occur;
• potentially identify employees who are 'at risk' of resigning and address the issues to prevent their
departure;
• determine whether the organisation is delivering on its promises to employees;
• identify any areas that are preventing employees performing to the best of their ability;
• provide another mechanism for feedback, which employees value; and
• provide valuable insight to help proactively address issues affecting staff morale and retention.

Employers should use simple and direct questions in stay interviews, and they should be conducted among a
sample group that represents a cross-section of the company.

Ideally, the participants represent about 20 per cent of total staff from different areas of the business and
varying levels of seniority. The interview can include an initial online survey, followed up by a brief face-to-
face meeting, which should take no more than 45 minutes per person.

The questions in a stay interview should address the following topics:

• the employee's immediate manager;

• the employee's team/colleagues;
• the employee's ability to deal with customers and deliver the required level of service;
• the workplace culture;
• resources and technology;
• knowledge sharing;
• career development;
• improvements to the organisation;
• the reason the employee was attracted to the job initially, and does it still apply today; and
• whether the employee feels the employer's promises are being delivered.

Follow-up crucial to employers' credibility

Reynolds urged employers to ensure they carried out sufficient follow-up after the stay interviews or risk
damaging their employer brand.

"If an organisation spends time speaking with employees, but then doesn't take it that next step and action
workplace changes, it destroys all credibility," he said.

Employers should identify common issues and trends within the organisation, as well as personal or individual
issues affecting employees, he said.

Source: http://www.markerconsulting.com/articles/133/2/quotStay-interviewsquot-more-useful-than-exit-
interviews/Page2.html

~ Knowledge Increases By Sharing. So, Pass It On. ~ Vishal Nagda ~

Stay Interviews
A stay interview is one of the tools for HR professionals as they manage the shift from a tactical to strategic
approach. Tracking and reporting turnover rates and causes after the fact is a tactical approach whereas
alerting managers in advance about which employees are likely to quit and recommending effective retention
tools is a strategic approach.

Designed and administered properly, stay interviews can provide warning signals and help to identify issues and
problems at an early stage. Conducted with new hires, the stay interview may allow an employer to discover
workplace issues particularly visible to novices before they too “go native” in the new company. However,
prerequisites for success include:
• Conducting interviews on a regular basis,
• Asking open-ended questions, and
• in similar fashion to the “suggestion-box”, creating an action plan and implementing it in a timely manner.

When analyzing stay interviews, it is important to isolate the results of high-performers, especially those in key
positions or “at risk” individuals. You must also analyze your low performers to find out what keeps them in
your company!

On another hand, stay interviews allow employees to evaluate the employer’s performance and communicate
what is important for them to maintain a high quality work life. It should be expected that this feedback loop
will become more and more critical as employees shift to Free Agents (professionals who invest their human
capital with the expectation of getting a return on their investment in the form of new experiences that can be
added to their work portfolio).

Here are some of the superb suggested questions for a 'stay' interview:

1. What do you like about our organisation?

2. What motivates you in the workplace?
3. What motivates you as an individual?
4. What would you change about this company?
5. What are your ambitions?
6. What career plan do you have in mind for yourself?
7. What can we do to make your life easier here?
8. How was your last month - what was the high point and what was the low point?
9. What would you do differently here?
10. What could we do to allow you to perform your job better?
11. Are you happy with my performance as a manager?
12. How do you feel about your work?
13. Let us discuss your goals and set them together
14. I would like a moment of your time. I would like to get some feedback on how you feel about the
business, your role and where the business is going
15. I would like some feedback on how you feel about the environment, your peers and the professional
recognition your receive as well as about our product and clients
16. How can we challenge you professionally?
17. I would like to have a chat to you about how it is all going. I am interested to hear if you are happy and
if there is anything we can do for you.
18. We would like to know where you see yourself going
19. If you were in my shoes, what would you be doing with the organisation

Bear in mind that if you do have these discussions, there needs to be follow-up or some form of action. If
people see no change, they will not trust having further conversations with you.

Source: http://breakpointhr.blogspot.com/2008/01/stay-interviews.html

~ Knowledge Increases By Sharing. So, Pass It On. ~ Vishal Nagda ~