Exit interviews are becoming common. They may help a company realise what corrective measures are necessary to retain talent.
But, isn’t it better to wake up to the situation before it’s too late? Why should it take a skilled employee to leave, for a company to get wiser?
That’s where stay interviews come in. Stay interviews are a relatively underused retention tool, but things are looking up. More and more companies are now warming up to it.
Now, the basics. What are stay interviews? They are a continuous process of enquiry that enables the management to find out how engaged and happy their valuable employees are, thereby pre-empting the possibility of them leaving the organisation. It is a proactive step and is not to be confused with trying to retain an employee who has decided to leave.
A stay interview may help a company find out the factors that have made an employee stay in the organisation for the duration he/she has and reinforce those factors.
“Around 2000-06, when there was a boom in ITeS sector, retaining talent was harder. With many opportunities beckoning them, employees in the sector changed jobs frequently. This forced companies to assess the level of employee engagement across their workforce. Based on this assessment, employees were marked in amber and red (those likely to leave). Yet, most companies were not sure of the action that needed to be taken to ensure all the reds changed to amber. Over a period of time, some companies evolved action plans to improve employee engagement and retention. Stay interviews were part of these action plans,” says Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO, CIEL HR Services.
The idea is to connect with employees to understand their needs and address their concerns.
This kind of feedback system can also help managers convey to an employee how important he/she is for the success of the organisation.
“The ideal situation is to have an early warning system where the manager is informed about the drop in the engagement level of an employee so that he/she can intervene, take remedial action and ensure the employee does not leave,” says Aditya.
Companies such as HSBC, RPG Group and Hexaware Techonologies have been conducting stay interviews, especially for their top performers.
“Managers need to recognise that this is a conversation that needs to be held to retain the critical employee. While there is no set structure to this conversation, managers should cover a few main areas: the meaningfulness of the work that the employee is doing; the organisation’s current state; clarity on future roles and career paths. Most managers don’t plan for such conversation.
“Planning this interaction in advance can help the manager prepare better and be more effective in retaining a critical employee,” says Amogh Deshmukh, member, Key Leadership Team, DDI India.
In today’s workforce, where communication and transparency are critical, such open conversations and regular engagement with employees can go a long way in retaining talent.
