Beyond “Why Did You Stay?”

For a decade now, we’ve collected managers’ favorite stay interview questions. Here are the top 13.

Stay Interview Questions

1. What about your job makes you jump out of bed in the morning?

2. What makes you hit the snooze button?

3. If you were to win the lottery and resign, what would you miss the most about your job?

4. What one change in your current role would make you consider leaving this job?

5. If you had a magic wand, what would be the one thing you would change about this department, team, organization?

6. As your manager, what could I do a little more of or a little less of?

7. If you had to go back to a position in your past and stay for an extended period of time, which one would it be and why?

8. What do you need to learn to work at your best?

9. What makes for a great day?

10. What can we do to make your job more satisfying?

11. What can we do to support your career goals?

12. Do you get enough recognition? How do you like to be recognized?

13. What do you want to learn this year?

Let these ideas serve as catalysts for your own thinking. Create a list of your favorite questions. Ask them of your talented people. And ask again, listen carefully, and customize your retention efforts.

Bottom Line

Stop guessing what will keep your stars happy and on your team. Gather your courage and conduct stay interviews with the employees you want to keep. Set aside time to start the dialogue. Don’t guess and don’t assume they all want the same thing (like pay or promotion). Schedule another meeting if they need to think about it for a while.

To simply ask may be the most important strategy in this book. Not only will asking make your talented people feel valued, but their answers will provide the information you need to customize strategies to keep each of them.

It doesn’t matter so much where, when, or how you ask—just ASK!