Stay interviews are here

Aishwarya Bansal had a tough time working as a designer with an IT services firm. Her manager played politics, work hours stretched beyond the official nine hours on most days, and she was given ‘work-from-home’ on weekends, against company rules. 

Approaching the senior management, HR officials or leadership team was out of the question, since her company, albeit an IT firm, still adhered to a legacy structure with firm hierarchies in place. With none to talk to, she finally quit. 

But as part of the exit process, she had to undertake an ‘exit interview’, a mammoth hour-long discussion on what went wrong with her in the organisation, what can be improved and so on. “I told the HR that had there been scope for such a discussion while I worked in the company, chances of my resignation would have probably been lesser. I would have felt the organisation is interested in understanding my issues and finding solutions to the same,” says Bansal.

Her story rings true for several employees who quit on grounds of difficult managers, team politics, lack of mentorship, lack of growth opportunities, and transparent channels of communications.

While it’s important to understand why employees leave, it is equally important to understand why employees stay, feel experts. “Unlike a job performance review or an exit interview, the stay interview is an opportunity for managers to ask talent…what can we do to make you stay?”, says James Agrawal, managing director of BTI Executive Search. 

Experts point out that organisations stand to benefit in multiple ways by conducting structured stay interviews. 

Amogh Deshmukh, managing director of DDI India states that stay interviews are a sound method for companies to know the pulse of the team. “If done in the right manner, one can map the attrition risks and start planning for the same proactively,’’ explains Deshmukh.

According to Agrawal, stay interviews allow organisations to see what issues are most important to employees, discover what makes employees engaged and motivated.  According to Aditya Narayan Mishra, chief executive of CIEL HR Services, stay interviews are significantly more important than exit interviews because a manager can take corrective steps to retain performers as soon as signs of dissatisfaction are noticed. 

“Attrition is often due to a communication gap between the employee and the boss on factors like targets, metrics and priorities. Stay interviews help align expectations on both sides and iron out wrinkles,” says Mishra.

According to Agrawal, over 35-40% employees on an average tend to stay longer, “those who otherwise would have looked out and moved on.’’ 

Stemming attrition is crucial for companies, as they spend anywhere up to an entire year’s cost-to-company to find a replacement and make the candidate job ready. 

The team culture also stands to benefit by a stay interview, says Deshmukh, “as it builds an environment of openness and transparency in the team. Every manager can identify at least one or two employees in each team who are potential attrition threat. This is because the conversation is candid and there is a great level of trust.”

Furthermore, individual employees gain most through stay interviews. This employee engagement tool allows an employee to feel valued and important to the organisational entity, thereby enhancing productivity. 

“Since stay interview is a one-on-one informal conversation, it lets an employee discuss what is working with them, what changes need to be made to keep them happy, etc. When employees know their feedback is being heard and worked upon, it increases their comfort to work in a congenial environment,” says Agrawal. 

STAY ON

• 30-40% Rise in the productivity of employees who are part of stay interviews
   
• Teams with a stable employee base tend to outperform teams with frequently changing members
   
• Organisations stand to benefit in multiple ways by conducting structured stay interviews
   
• The team culture also stands to benefit