One-on-Ones

Employee stay interview template

Understand what keeps each member of your team engaged, satisfied, and committed to their role at your company.

This image is a screenshot of Officevibe's Stay interview template. It shows a preview of the template's content.

Why are stay interviews important?

Stay interviews are an important part of understanding the individual satisfaction and commitment levels of each of your employees. They help you uncover what really drives each team member’s engagement, and what they might feel is missing — before they seek it out elsewhere. With this knowledge, you can amplify what drives their engagement, and increase the retention of your top talent.

When should stay interviews be conducted?

Ideally, managers should be having these one-on-one conversations with their direct reports every 3-6 months. By having stay interviews regularly, you stay on top of what makes your team and company a great place to work, and what might sway employees to leave.

It’s great to have stay interviews on a regular basis, but you also want to conduct them during specific organizational or team events, such as:

Your company is experiencing high turnover.
There’s a big change in the business direction or strategy.
There’s a major event in your industry and talent is in high demand.
Employee engagement scores are low on your team.
A colleague has recently left your team.

These are key moments when you want to touch base individually with the people on your team and get a sense of what’s keeping them committed, so you can continue doing what’s working.

Why use a stay interview template?

Using a template helps you make sure you cover the same talking points with every employee. You can even tell your employees that you’re conducting the same stay interview with everyone. People might feel more comfortable answering honestly when they know their peers will be asked the same questions.

When you ask everyone the same stay interview questions, it makes it easier to spot common themes when you go over your notes later. If people are citing the same reasons for loving their jobs, you’ll pinpoint your team’s greatest strengths. If there are common themes around challenges or blockers, you’ll know where to immediately direct your attention.

Stay interview questions for employees

Here are a few of the stay interview questions from the template:

What factors have had a positive impact on your experience here so far?
What motivates you about your work, our team and our organization?
What could tempt you to look elsewhere (or be open to offers)?
Which other jobs (here or elsewhere) look attractive to you, and why?
How do you feel about how we embody our role and responsibilities as your employer?

Beyond these questions (and more), the template includes follow-up questions and notes to guide you through the stay interview process. You’ll have real-time tips on how to approach the conversation, so you’re sure to be prepared.

Stay interview action plan template

The greatest purpose of a stay interview is getting employee insights you can act on. As part of our stay interview toolkit, we wanted to include some pointers on how you can build an action plan following an employee stay interview. Follow these steps to implement the feedback you get from employees:

Ask follow-up questions during your stay interview to dig deeper into your employee’s responses.
Take notes about what your employee shares with you. At the end of your meeting, repeat back some of the key points you heard them share.
Pinpoint one key driver of satisfaction and one area of friction you can focus on together.
Discuss how you can amplify what’s driving their satisfaction, and set some action items to address the friction area.
Follow through and follow up in a few weeks or months, once you’ve put your plan into action.