Why bother? The business case for stay interviews
Your calendar is already a wall of back-to-back meetings. We get it. The last thing you need is another one.
But what if one 20-minute conversation could prevent a dozen future emergency meetings?
That's the whole point. Forget reacting to yesterday's problems. This is your chance to get ahead of tomorrow's. You finally stop mopping up spills and actually fix the leak for good.
→ It’s an early-warning system for problems
You can't fix a problem you don’t know exists. A stay interview is how you find the real issues before they turn into a two-weeks' notice.
- What you usually hear: "Everything's fine."
- What you'll hear in a stay interview: "Well, the new reporting software is pretty slow, which is frustrating. It adds about an hour of admin time to my week."
→ It shows you value the person, not just their output
Trust is built in small, direct conversations. This is one of them. The simple act of asking for advice shows respect.
- What a disengaged employee hears: Your silence. They assume you don't care about their day-to-day struggles.
- What an engaged employee hears: "What can I do to make things better for you?
→ It turns vague feedback into a concrete action plan
Generic questions get generic answers. Good stay interview questions force specifics, giving you a clear to-do list.
- Vague feedback: "Things could be more efficient."
- Concrete feedback: "Approvals for POs under $500 take three days because they have to go through legal. If we had a pre-approved vendor list, I could get materials the same day."
→ It’s the cheapest insurance policy you can buy
Let's do the math. Replacing a senior engineer can easily cost over $50,000 in recruiting fees, lost productivity, and training time for a new hire.
- The cost of losing them: $50,000+ and a 3-month project delay.
- The cost of a stay interview: 20 minutes of your time.
The 20-minute framework: a ready-to-use scenario
The whole point of this framework is to get past the usual small talk and get to the good stuff—real feedback you can actually use. Here’s how to do it without the awkwardness.
Step 1: The invitation (Keep it relaxed)
The subject line of your meeting invite sets the tone before you even speak. A formal title like "Employee Feedback Session" will get you formal, guarded answers.
Instead, keep it casual. Go with a simple "Catch-up" or "Quick Chat."
“Hey [Name] – got a moment for a quick, informal chat next week? I want to hear what’s on your mind about your role, what’s going well, and any ideas you have. Quick heads-up: this is 100% not a performance review, just a chance for me to listen.”
Step 2: The opening (2 minutes)
Make sure they know it's not an interrogation.
Try saying something like this:
“Thanks for carving out the time. Just to say it again, this isn't a performance review at all. My only goal here is to listen—to understand what you're enjoying and what we could be doing to make your work here even better. The more honest you are, the more it helps me and the team.”
Step 3: The conversation (15 minutes)
This is the core of the meeting. Don't just fire off the questions below like a checklist. Ask one, and then be quiet. Let there be silence. The most valuable insights often come after a pause.
Your goal is to talk for 20% of the time and listen for 80%. Take notes on their exact words, not your interpretation of them.
Step 4: Wrap up (3 minutes)
Prove you were listening by summarizing the key takeaways and making a clear promise to follow up. This step is non-negotiable.
Here’s a script for the close:
“This was incredibly useful, thank you for being so open. I've got a lot of notes here, especially on your ideas about the workflow and the software feedback. I’m going to digest this and will get back to you by [e.g., Friday] with some concrete next steps, even if it's just an update. I really appreciate your honesty.”
The 10 core stay interview questions
These questions are open-ended and go from positive to constructive.
- What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?
- What are you learning here, and what do you want to be learning?
- Why do you stay with us?
- What was the last time you thought about leaving? What made you think about it?
- What would make your job easier or more efficient?
- Do you feel like you get recognized for your work?
- What gives you energy at work? What drains you?
- What does our team need to do more of? Or less of?
- What could I, as your manager, do differently to better support you?
- If you had a magic wand, what is the one thing you would change about your role, the team, or the company?
Manager’s cheat sheet: template & rules of engagement
Don't lose these notes in a random doc. Use a simple, structured format to capture what matters.
Stay interview notes template
| Question | Employee's key points (Use direct quotes) | Actionable insight | Follow-up action & owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Look forward to? | "Honestly, I get the most energy from the complex stuff, like that last-minute security audit we had. It felt like a real puzzle to solve." | His core motivator is high-stakes problem-solving. He's at risk of getting bored with routine tasks. | Flag him for a lead role on the upcoming Q4 SOC 2 audit. (Owner: manager) |
| Make job easier? | "My laptop, for sure. It takes forever to run reports, and I can feel it slowing me down every single day. It's a genuine bottleneck." | Outdated tech is killing his productivity and causing daily frustration. A quick, high-impact fix. | Submit an IT ticket for a performance check & upgrade. (Owner: manager, by EOD) |
| Manager support? | "The monthly meetings are good for big picture stuff, but a quick 15-minute sync each week would be amazing, just to make sure we're on the same page." | She's asking for a more frequent, informal feedback loop to stay aligned and clear roadblocks faster. | Set up a recurring 15-min "Weekly Sync" in the calendar. (Owner: manager) |
The rules: what to promise vs. what NOT to promise
This is where managers mess up. To build trust, you need to be clear about what you can and can't do.
What to promise:
- Privacy: “What we talk about stays here unless you say it’s okay to share something (without using your name).”
- Listening: “I’m here to listen and learn.”
- Follow-up: “I’ll look at my notes and get back to you by [date], even if I can’t do everything you suggest.”
What NOT to promise:
- Instant fixes: Don’t say, “I’ll fix that right away.” You might not be able to. Instead, start with, “Thanks for telling me. I’ll look into it.”
- More money or a promotion: Stay interviews aren’t for talking about pay. If it comes up, just say you’ll talk about it at the regular review.
- Solving everything: Be real. “That’s a tough one because it’s part of how our whole company works. I can’t fix it overnight. But I’ll be sure your concerns are known.”
From talk to action: using the info
A single stay interview is useful. Fifty are awesome – only if you keep the info organized.
This is where spreadsheets and email threads fail you at scale. If the info is all over the place, you can’t see the patterns that show big risks. Is the whole development team mad about the same bad software? Are managers in one area not giving enough recognition?
This is where a real HR platform stops being a nice-to-have and becomes your command center. With HarmonyHR, you can:
- Centralize intelligence. Every note from every stay interview lives securely in the employee's profile. Just one, auditable source of truth.
- Turn promises into action. A manager mentioned a follow-up? Create and assign a task for it right there. Now it’s tracked, and accountability is built-in.
- Finally, see the big picture. Spot the patterns that matter. Are three engineers complaining about slow laptops? Is the marketing team feeling undervalued? You can turn these whispers into clear, data-backed priorities.
Stay interviews give you raw intelligence. A platform like HarmonyHR is what turns that intelligence into a retention strategy that actually works.
Ready to make your team stronger?
You've done the interviews. Now, make them count.
HarmonyHR is built to fix exactly that. It's less of a database and more of a system for keeping your promises. It connects the conversation to an action, and the actions to a pattern your leaders can finally see.
This is how you build a company people don't want to leave. Let us show you what that looks like.