You’ve heard of exit interviews, but what about stay interviews? Let’s break down what stay interviews are, tips for conducting them, and how these conversations can benefit your farm or agribusiness.
What Are Stay Interviews?
Stay interviews are one-on-one, proactive conversations between a manager and current employee to gather feedback about the organization to help make improvements. The goal of a stay interview is to better understand the strong and weak points in your organization so you can make changes that help reduce employee turnover.
In a competitive job market, retaining current employees and attracting the right talent is crucial to your ag organization’s success. When done correctly, stay interviews can help significantly strengthen your retention, engagement, culture, and overall employer brand.
Who Should Be Involved in Stay Interviews?
Stay interviews should focus on longer-tenured, high-performing employees and be led by their direct manager.
Conducting stay interviews with those who have been with your ag organization long-term is most effective, as they know the ins and outs of your company plus are more likely to give open and honest feedback. A stay interview can help you learn what has caused your long-term employees to stay loyal to your organization, plus what could be improved.
Be sure to schedule stay interviews in advance and tell employees what they can expect. A stay interview shouldn’t be dropped on an employee’s lap during a regular one-on-one meeting or discussion without notice.
Tips for Conducting a Stay Interview
1. Listen to understand
In an exit interview, the employee should do most of the talking, not the manager. Ask your questions, but be sure not to rush the employee, and allow them to answer without interruption.
Remember, your job is to gather feedback and take notes during this interview. Resist the urge to combat or rebuttal against anything the employee says. Don’t respond with “in the moment” fixes or be defensive when negative feedback is shared. Try to listen, be open-minded, and non-reactive. The more comfortable the employee feels, the more likely they will be to openly share their feedback.
2. Ask follow-up questions
If you ask a question and feel you need more clarification, don’t be afraid to ask follow-up questions. Now is the time to collect this crucial information, so don’t hold back on asking the employee to elaborate. The more information you can walk away with from the stay interview, the better. Here is an example of an appropriate follow up question during a stay interview:
Manager Question: “What do you look forward to most when you come to work each day?”
Employee Response: “I really enjoy collaborating with my team. We work well together, and I feel like my input is valued.”
Manager Follow-Up Question: “That’s great to hear. Can you tell me more about what makes your team dynamic work so well?”.
3. Make an action plan
It’s your responsibility as a manager to take what you learned and apply it to better your organization. Stay interviews without any action defeats the entire purpose.
After you’ve collected feedback, come back to that employee or the entire team with the new initiatives you will be working towards as a company. Make sure the initiatives and plan of action are in writing to help keep everyone accountable. Revisit these initiatives often to measure your progress.
Stay Interview Questions to Ask
Here are some sample questions you could ask during a stay interview:
- What makes you excited to come to work each day?
- What do you enjoy most about your role? Least?
- How do you feel about the company’s culture and values?
- What areas could we help you gain more knowledge, or what skills would you like to improve?
- Do you feel recognized for your contributions? How do you prefer to be recognized?
- How do you feel about the communication and collaboration within our team?
- How can I improve as a manager?
- How can I better support you in your role to help you succeed?
- Do you feel you have a healthy work-life balance?
- What makes you stay at this company?
- What do you think we do well as an organization?
- If you were the manager, what’s one thing you would do to improve our team or workplace?
Conclusion
Stay interviews can be a powerful tool for your ag business to make improvements, whether small or big. They allow employees to be heard and allow you to take action where necessary. Utilizing feedback from stay interviews can help your ag organization boost retention, strengthen your culture, engage employees, and attract better talent when hiring in the future.
For more hiring tips in agriculture, visit our employer resource library.
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