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Staying ahead with stay interviews (View Comments)
Unnati Narang
Posted On Wednesday, December 09, 2009 at 11:42:15 AM
While HR heads have had to play the executioner many times during the recent downturn, the trends are now looking up. With greater focus on retention, companies are now looking at a competitive advantage in terms of employing the best talent in the market and ensuring engagement. Vikram Kallianpur, Director, HR, Virtusa foresees this shift from exit interviews to stay interviews to continue. “Given with the increased demand for talented employees post the recession, in the limited skill market, stay interviews have picked up pace and place in the retention strategy of the human resource departments of many organisations. Stay interviews are more than ever the need of the hour. As compared to ‘Exit interview’ that provide the reasons of leaving or resigning from a position, stay interviews present reasons that aid in preventing employees to leave the organisation, provide a snapshot of employee satisfaction, identification of potential issues before they occur and reduce the risk of employees resigning. These interviews give a chance to employees to know that their ideas and feedback are valued by the organisation,” says Kallianpur.
Companies invest huge amounts in training and developing their employees while imparting the right skills for the job. In times of highly mobile workforce, stay interviews have become a necessity for organisations to keep their employees happy. As Kallianpur continues, “Stay interviews work as a great tool in the hands of the ‘People Managers’ to be proactive and prevent the potential loss of talent. They create a win-win situation for both the organisation and the employees. Organisations can target the grey areas in their policies and practices before the worst happens and a key employee resignation occurs.”
On similar lines, Mona Cheriyan, Director, Human Resources, ASK Group explains, “The key benefit is the possibility of converting a possible exit into a ‘stay’. If the employee is thinking of a move due to some emotional, spur of the moment decision then a chat or a counseling session helps put things in perspective and makes the employee rethink the move. The stay discussion helps you understand the current culture and significantly increases retention through engagement. It also builds trust between the HR and the employees – employees find it comfortable to discuss their issues and concerns whether related to their role, environment or supervisor in a forum which results in immediate action.”
In addition to retaining employees, a stay interview if properly conducted can be a useful tool of control, especially in terms of revisiting corporate policy towards employees in a transparent manner while leaving ample scope for corrections. Critical to the success of a stay interview is active and honest participation of the employees. Mona continues, “The key to a successful stay interview is to build rapport with the employees and create an environment of trust. It is important also to maintain confidentiality while ensuring that any actions required are taken without any fallout to the employee raising a concern. The success of stay interviews depends on the way the interview is conducted and actions arising out of the interview. Ideally these should be conducted at least once a year.”
However, it is best to retain the informal and unstructured nature of these interviews so as to elicit honest responses from employees. Questions should be very direct. The employer should not try to put the employee in a tight spot. As Vikram Kallianpur rightly observes, “The more the HR is able to create an atmosphere of positivity and trust, the more successful the interview will be!”
A few tips for conducting a successful stay interview are:
1. The person taking the interview must be trained to take Stay interviews. He/she must be a good listener and receptive to ideas.
2. Questions should be direct, for example what do you like about your work or how can we make the job more satisfying, etc.
3. Ensure a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere conducive to an open conversation
4. The interviewees should consist of cross sectional employees to get unbiased results
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