Shazam! (Shout out to Shaq!)

The comments I received back from my 80s, pop-culture, music-inspired, Thought Partner 3 Techniques to Improve Your Meetings, were so fun to read! I’m thrilled to know that even if the content didn’t grab you, the “musical scavenger hunt through the best decade ever” got you up and groovin’. I love it when you hit reply and send your thoughts to me; they filter in like periodic shots of adrenaline throughout the day. Keep them coming or start today! 😉

Rounding out this final week in March, as we continue to look at creative ways to make meetings more effective, our last topic focuses on shifting the data collection from exit interviews to stay interviews. Most companies feel exit interviews are important, however, exit interviews simply investigate why people leave. Stay interviews explore what motivates people to stay.

Wouldn’t you like to know how to motivate people to stay? It’s certainly more cost-effective to keep your people rooted than watch them walk out the door. 

Conducting stay interviews doesn’t have to be another “initiative” either. Blend them into your 1:1 meetings and even in your team meetings.

Here’s a blueprint:

1. Start with your high-performers 
2. Put it on the agenda 
3. Ask the same questions – repetition allows you to see patterns
4. Follow up on what you hear

“But, Stacy, what do I ask?” Great question. Choose a few of these:

  • What makes you feel valued here?
  • How much of your week are you working within your strengths?
  • What are your career aspirations? 
  • What would you like to learn?
  • If you wanted to rate working here a 10, what would need to happen to make that score a reality?
  • If you were to recruit for us, what words would you use?
  • Are we honoring the expectations you had when you first came to work here?
  • If you ran the company, what would you do more of? What would you do less of?
  • What’s different about working here, compared to other places you’ve been?
  • What skill or talent don’t we know that you have?

Stay interviews allow you to gain real-time, actionable data from those equipped to provide it, they give practical insights into ways to engage and retain your top talent, and they bake in standard practice to ensure you’re developing your stay action plan.

We all know that people leave and move on to other chapters in their lives and that’s certainly okay. However, stay interviews may help you say “if you leave, don’t leave now” just a little less.