Retention starts before employees think about leaving. A stay interview is a structured 1:1 conversation—typically 30 to 45 minutes—where managers ask what keeps someone engaged, what frustrates them, and what might cause them to look elsewhere. Unlike exit interviews, which happen when it's too late, stay interviews give you a roadmap to action while top talent is still in the room. Research by Work Institute shows that 78% of turnover is preventable when organizations act on clear signals; stay interviews surface those signals before they become resignation letters.

Definition & scope

A stay interview is a proactive retention conversation between a manager and a high-performing or at-risk employee. Its purpose is to understand what drives engagement, identify frustrations before they escalate, and create a shared plan to address concerns. Unlike engagement surveys or performance reviews, stay interviews focus solely on retention and career satisfaction. They're typically held annually or when an employee signals discontent. The insights feed directly into talent planning, compensation reviews, and organizational changes.

Scoring & thresholds

Stay interviews are qualitative, not quantitative. There's no aggregate score like an engagement survey. Instead, listen for intensity and specificity. When someone says "I don't see a path forward," that's a red flag. When they say "I love the team but the workload is crushing me," you have a clear action item. If you do include a short Likert item—for example, "On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely are you to still be here in 12 months?"—treat any answer below 4 as urgent. A score of 3 or lower means the employee is already mentally halfway out the door. Flag those conversations for immediate follow-up.

Some teams use a simplified Net Promoter–style question: "How likely are you to recommend this company as a great place to work?" Scores of 0–6 signal detractors, 7–8 are passive, 9–10 are promoters. If a high performer scores you 6 or below, expect them to leave unless you act fast. Track these numbers quarterly to spot trends, but remember the real value is in the open-ended answers. Numbers tell you there's a problem; conversation tells you what to fix.

Decision thresholds should trigger action, not just documentation. If someone mentions burnout, schedule a workload review within one week. If they can't name their next role, draft a development plan within two weeks. If they'd take a recruiter call, escalate to HR and leadership within 72 hours. Speed matters because inaction confirms their doubts.

Follow-up & responsibilities

Every stay interview must end with at least one committed action and a clear owner. Document what the employee said, what you promised, and when you'll check in again. Use a simple tracker—team name, employee name, date, themes, actions, status. Share summaries with HR so patterns across teams become visible. For example, if three engineers mention poor tooling, that's a budget conversation for the CTO, not just a note in each 1:1.

Managers own the conversation and the immediate follow-up. If the issue is workload, the manager redistributes tasks or hires support. If it's career growth, the manager connects the employee with mentors, projects, or learning resources. If it's compensation or policy, the manager escalates to HR or finance with a clear recommendation and timeline. HR's role is to track themes, spot systemic risks, and drive changes that one manager can't fix alone—things like remote-work policy, promotion cycles, or company-wide recognition programs.

Response times signal respect. Acknowledge concerns in the meeting, summarize actions in writing within 24 hours, and deliver on promises within the agreed window. If you can't fix something immediately, explain why and offer an interim step. For example, if a promotion isn't possible this quarter, create a skill-building plan and commit to revisit in the next cycle. Employees tolerate constraints; they don't tolerate silence.

Sample follow-up cadence

If multiple employees raise the same issue, hold a team-level retrospective within 21 days. For instance, if "unclear priorities" comes up in three interviews, run a strategy session to align on goals and communicate decisions transparently. Systemic problems need systemic fixes, not individual band-aids.

Fairness & bias checks

Stay interviews surface real concerns, but only if employees trust the process. Bias creeps in when managers hold interviews more often for favorites, dismiss concerns from underrepresented groups, or fail to act on feedback from remote or part-time staff. To ensure fairness, schedule interviews on a fixed cadence for everyone—annually at minimum, more often for high performers or those showing signs of disengagement. Don't wait for someone to ask.

Compare themes by team, location, tenure, role level, and demographic group. If women report lack of recognition more often than men, that's a culture problem. If remote employees feel left out of career conversations, that's a visibility problem. If junior staff see no growth path while senior staff feel supported, you're creating a two-tier organization. Aggregate anonymized data quarterly and share trends with leadership. Use these patterns to drive policy changes, not just individual fixes.

Managers should not be the sole interpreters of stay interview data. HR or People Ops should review notes to catch patterns a single manager might miss or downplay. For example, a manager who hears "workload is tough but manageable" from three people may not escalate, but HR seeing the same phrase across five teams knows it's a burnout risk. Calibration sessions help ensure consistent follow-up and reduce the risk that one manager's blind spots leave flight risks unaddressed.

Bias mitigation checklist

If an employee belongs to an underrepresented group and raises concerns about inclusion or bias, escalate immediately. Don't treat it as "just their perspective." Investigate, involve HR or DEI leads, and act. Ignoring these signals damages retention and exposes the organization to legal and reputational risk.

Examples & use cases

Case 1: Software engineer considering external offer

During a routine stay interview, a senior engineer mentioned feeling stuck. She loved the product and team but couldn't name her next role. When asked if she'd take a recruiter call, she paused and said "probably." The manager escalated to HR within 48 hours. Together they drafted a personalized career ladder with two paths—technical leadership or people management—and assigned her a mentor in each track. Within 30 days she chose the technical path, led a new architecture initiative, and declined an external offer six months later. The company saved an estimated $120K in replacement costs and kept critical domain knowledge in-house.

Case 2: Customer success team facing burnout

Three stay interviews in one quarter revealed the same theme: unsustainable workload. The CS team handled 40% more accounts after a restructure, but no one had formally flagged the issue. The manager compiled the feedback and presented it to leadership with data—average hours worked, ticket backlog, and projected churn risk. Within two weeks the company approved two contractor hires and redistributed high-touch accounts. Workload stabilized, and follow-up interviews three months later showed renewed engagement. One team member who had been passively job-hunting stayed and later became a team lead.

Case 3: Remote employee feeling invisible

A marketing specialist working remotely said she felt disconnected from the team and unsure if her work mattered. She rarely received feedback and wasn't invited to strategy discussions. Her manager realized he defaulted to asking in-office staff for input. He committed to three changes: weekly 1:1s with a structured agenda, inviting her to all planning meetings via video, and highlighting her wins in team updates. Within 60 days her engagement scores rose, and she led a campaign that drove 25% more qualified leads. She later referred two candidates who became strong hires.

Implementation & updates

Start with a pilot. Choose one team or department, train the manager on how to ask open-ended questions and listen without defensiveness, and run 5–10 interviews. Review the notes together with HR to identify themes, test your follow-up process, and refine the question set. Once the pilot proves value, roll out to additional teams quarterly until the entire organization is covered. Document what works—question phrasing, note templates, action-tracking tools—and share those assets with every new manager.

Train managers on the difference between a stay interview and a performance review. Stay interviews are about retention and satisfaction; performance reviews are about results and development. Mixing the two creates confusion and reduces honesty. Make it clear that stay interview feedback will not be used against employees in performance ratings or promotion decisions. If someone says "I'm frustrated with my workload," that's a signal to help them, not evidence that they can't handle the job.

Use talent management software or a simple shared tracker to log interviews, actions, and status. At a minimum, track: employee name, interview date, key themes, committed actions, owner, due date, and completion status. Review this data monthly with leadership to spot trends and hold managers accountable. If a manager hasn't acted on three commitments in 30 days, that's a coaching issue.

Metrics to track

Review and update your question set annually. As the business evolves, so do employee concerns. Add questions about remote work, AI tools, or new policies as they become relevant. Retire questions that no longer generate useful insight. Survey your managers: which questions led to the best conversations? Which felt awkward or redundant? Use that feedback to keep the process lean and effective.

A talent platform like Sprad Growth can help automate survey sends, reminders, and follow-up tasks. For example, Atlas AI can draft 1:1 agendas based on stay interview themes and surface patterns across teams. This reduces administrative overhead and lets managers focus on the conversation, not the paperwork.

Conclusion

Stay interviews shift retention from reactive to proactive. They help you understand what keeps top performers engaged, what frustrates them, and what might push them to leave—while there's still time to act. The process is simple: ask open-ended questions, listen without defensiveness, document themes, and commit to visible follow-up within two weeks. Over time, you'll spot patterns that reveal systemic issues—unclear career paths, unsustainable workloads, lack of recognition—and turn them into targeted organizational changes.

Three insights stand out. First, speed matters. Employees judge you by how quickly you act on what they share. A 14-day turnaround on a promised action signals respect; radio silence confirms their worst fears. Second, fairness requires tracking. Compare interview frequency, follow-up rates, and action completion across teams and groups to ensure no one is left behind. Third, stay interviews are only as good as your willingness to change. If you collect feedback and do nothing, you've made the problem worse.

To get started, select a pilot team, draft a question set from the examples above, train the manager on active listening, and conduct 5–10 interviews. Use a simple tracker to log themes and actions. Review results with HR or a director to identify patterns and test your follow-up process. Once you've refined the approach, expand to additional teams each quarter. Measure interview completion rate, action delivery speed, and voluntary turnover to prove ROI. Integrate stay interview insights into your broader talent development strategy so retention becomes a predictable outcome, not a lucky accident.

FAQ

How often should we conduct stay interviews?

Run stay interviews at least once per year for every employee. For high performers, critical roles, or teams with recent turnover, consider twice per year or after major organizational changes. Quarterly check-ins work well for fast-growing startups or roles with high stress. Avoid interviewing more than once every three months unless there's a specific trigger—like a failed promotion, a team restructure, or signs of disengagement. Too frequent can feel intrusive; too rare means you miss early warnings.

What if an employee says they'd leave for more money?

Don't dismiss it or promise an immediate raise you can't deliver. Ask follow-up questions: Is it the absolute number, or do they feel undervalued? Would career growth or more autonomy change the equation? Document the concern and escalate to HR and finance within one week. Run a market comp analysis and compare the employee's pay to internal peers and external benchmarks. If they're underpaid, fix it off-cycle if possible or commit to a clear adjustment in the next review. If comp is fair but they feel unappreciated, address recognition and career development. Ignoring a pay concern never works—people vote with their feet.

How do we handle tough feedback about a manager?

If an employee raises concerns about their direct manager during a stay interview, involve HR or a skip-level leader immediately. Don't let the same manager handle the follow-up—that creates a conflict of interest and discourages honesty in future interviews. Investigate the feedback, look for patterns across multiple employees, and provide coaching or training for the manager. If the issue is serious—bullying, bias, retaliation—escalate to HR for a formal review. Protecting employees who speak up is non-negotiable. If you don't act, everyone learns that stay interviews are performative.

Can we automate or scale stay interviews for large teams?

Yes, but don't replace the human conversation. Use performance management tools to schedule interviews, send reminders, and track action items. Platforms like Sprad can aggregate themes across teams and surface patterns in real time. However, the interview itself must remain a live 1:1 with a manager or HR partner. Automated surveys lack the depth and trust needed to uncover real retention risks. If you have 500 employees, train 50 managers and stagger interviews over three months. Scale through process and tooling, not by cutting corners on the conversation.

What if the employee says everything is fine, but we sense otherwise?

If answers feel guarded or overly positive, trust is missing. Revisit the purpose at the start: "This conversation is about making your experience better, not evaluating your performance. Honest feedback helps us improve." Give examples of changes that resulted from past stay interviews to show you act on input. If they still won't open up, respect their boundary but check in again in three months. Watch for indirect signals—declining participation in meetings, reduced output, shortened responses in Slack. If disengagement persists, involve HR for a neutral third-party conversation. Sometimes employees need to hear that it's safe to speak up from someone other than their direct manager.