Start with the "stay interview."
The war for talent continues to beleaguer employers from coast to coast forcing everyone, from companies big and small to multinationals, not-for-profits and social service agencies, find creative ways to retain and attract qualified and engaged people to join in their successes.
Becoming an employer of choice is a lot easier than you think. In fact, you might already be one.
"People need to be reminded why you're a good place to work," says Krista Uggerslev, assistant professor at the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba. "You need to let people know why you're an employer of choice."
But before you start advertising your message, you need to decide and, in a lot of cases, find out, what it is you want to tell people. One way to do that is with the "stay" interview.
Relatively new to the human resource management field, stay interviews involve talking to your current employees about why they choose to stay with your company rather than look for work elsewhere. Because if you can find out why they're staying, it's easier to tell potential talent why you're a great place to work.
Stay interviews can be informal and shouldn't be part of other retention strategies, such as performance reviews. Let them be conversational in nature, but make sure you keep it focused; stay interviews aren't an opportunity for employees to air their grievances. Ask direct questions and find out what makes your team "jump out of bed in the morning." Find out their personal and professional goals and what you can do to support their efforts.
One cautionary note about stay interviews is in identifying things your employees aren't happy about. If someone has a valid issue about the organization, you need to address the issue or risk losing that employee because of reduced morale.
Conducting stay interviews is an affordable and effective way to find out what your strengths are while making the members of your team feel valued and increase their loyalty to the company. As Debbie O'Halloran of WorkWise puts it, have the stay interview "because the exit interview is too late."
Ask the Questions, Listen to the Answers
Stay interviews are easy, affordable and make employees feel like they're contributing to the success of their organizations in more ways than just showing up to work every day.
If you're considering adopting the stay interview as part of your retention strategy, consider the following questions courtesy of workforce.com:
* What about your job makes you jump out of bed in the morning?
* What makes you hit the snooze button?
* If you were to win the lottery and resign, what would you miss the most?
* What is one thing that, if changed in your current role, would make you consider moving on?
* If you had a magic wand, what would be the one thing you would change about your department?
* 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?
* What makes for a great day?
* What can we do to make your job more satisfying?
* What can we do to support your career goals?
* Do you get enough recognition?
* What will keep you here? What might entice you away?
* What do you want to learn this year? How might you learn it?
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