Reduce Employee Turnover with These Three Questions

Can you remember a time when a valued member of your team told you they were leaving? When they share the reason why, you think, "I wish I had known that six months ago!" If you had known, you could have done something to retain an essential member of your team.

In a tight labor market, reducing unwanted employee turnover is critical to ensuring you have high-quality talent. SHRM estimates that replacing an employee costs companies at least one-third of the employee's salary, which can get expensive for high-demand roles.

That is why progressive companies are using "stay conversations" to understand the employee experience at a deeper level. Stay conversations are like an exit interview, but instead of waiting to do it when someone leaves, you have this conversation periodically with employees. These conversations typically uncover more meaningful insights than traditional feedback by getting to the root of why people would stay and why people would go.

If you want to put stay conversations into practice in your organization, here are three questions you can start asking your employees today.

Why did you decide to join the company?  

Understanding why someone joined the company, even if it was ten years ago, can uncover a deeper connection to the company. They might have joined because of an individual, or it could be because of the company's mission. In any case, it gives you clues into what's meaningful to the employee about working at your company and what they value.

Imagine you're in an exit interview next week. What would you say was your reason for leaving?

This question gets to the heart of any discontent that may exist. Instead of asking for general feedback on the company, which could result in, "I wish we had more social events," you end up with deeper answers. For example, you may get answers like, "I don't trust my manager because they make promises to me and don't keep them." This type of response is difficult to produce through traditional feedback channels because it requires the employee to be more vulnerable. 

Imagine you're here in five years, and you're thriving. What is true about the company?

This question is a great one to end on because it's positive in nature. It redirects the conversation to a vision of the future. In some cases, the employee will share a similar theme they shared in the previous question. But sometimes, it uncovers something entirely different. For example, perhaps the employee would leave because they distrust their manager. But achieving a level of mastery in their craft is why they would stay for many years to come. Both of these insights are useful as you design the employee experience.

Ready to take action to reduce unwanted turnover? Need support navigating these invaluable conversations? We can help!