Ask the Experts: Stay Interviews, Job Listings, Childcare

Our CEO asked if we should be doing stay interviews. What are they? How do we do them? 

A stay interview is a simple, planned conversation with a current employee that explores why they have chosen to stay at your organization and what might cause them to leave. They often provide the sort of information you’d obtain from an exit interview, but with the benefit of allowing you to address concerns before an employee decides to quit. These conversations are a low-cost way to improve retention and engagement. 

For stay interviews to be effective, employees need to feel safe sharing critical feedback. They need to know that they can trust you and that you’ll listen to what they have to say and strive to make improvements based on what you learn. Some of this trust building will take time. When first getting started with these interviews, it’s helpful to reassure employees that the answers they give won’t affect their performance reviews or result in any kind of retaliation. 

Schedule these interviews in advance, letting your employees know why you’re interviewing them. Explain that the goal is to listen and, when possible, act on feedback. 

Decide what questions you want to ask. Use open-ended questions, such as “What keeps you here?” “What would make your job easier?” or “What could cause you to look elsewhere?” 

Should we include detailed travel duties and working hours in our job description, or should we keep it more general? 

A position requiring a high volume of business travel or unusual work hours should have that level of detail included in the job description. Without it, you’ll attract a lot of candidates that ultimately won’t be able to take the position, wasting both your time and theirs. 

The most important aspect of an effective job description is that it accurately reflects the actual work you need done. This helps ensure the company is attracting appropriate candidates for the position, both the employee and employer are aligned in their expectations, and the employee clearly understands and has agreed to the requirements necessary to successfully complete the job. 

Can we require remote employees to have childcare? 

You can, but we don’t recommend it. For one thing, it often isn’t necessary. Many employees are able to perform perfectly well while also supervising children in the home. Imposing this requirement (and a huge financial burden) won’t solve any problems, but it might encourage remote employees to start looking for a new job.  

Even in cases where supervising children does negatively affect job performance, mandating childcare as a solution could be seen as crossing a line into your employees’ personal lives. Instead, we recommend setting clear expectations for attendance, availability, performance, and productivity. You can then discipline employees who don’t meet these expectations without giving the impression that you’re micromanaging their personal lives. 

Article and interview responses sourced from New Jersey Business Magazine.