Stay interview script builder: ask before they go.
Tick what you have noticed and, if you know, what matters most to them. You get a script for a 30 to 45-minute stay conversation, ready to print.
Tick the risk signals you have noticed and up to three areas that matter most to the person, and print a stay interview script with questions, timings and a stay plan. Nothing is stored or sent.
How to use the script
A stay interview is a short, structured one-to-one in which a manager asks someone what keeps them, what might take them away and what could change. The script follows that order. It opens with what keeps them, because that is easier to answer and tells you what to protect. It then turns to what you have noticed, and to the parts of work that matter most to them, and it closes with a stay plan you follow up within two weeks.
The first five “what have you noticed” options are the moments when leaving is most likely: the end of the first year, a missed promotion, a change of manager or team, a return from long leave and a restructure. The other four are signs worth asking about: heavy workload, skills in demand elsewhere, a drop in involvement and stalled development. Choose the ones that apply, but do not lead with them. If something you noticed is not an issue for the person, move on.
The fourteen areas come from the model behind our Drivers questionnaire, from cooperation and development to communications. Asking how each one is now, on a scale where 5 is just OK, and how much it matters, separates the urgent from the merely imperfect. An area that matters a lot and scores low is where to act first.
You will not need every question. Choose the ones that fit, and write down what the person says in their own words. The full method, including who to talk to, who should ask and the pitfalls, is in Stay interviews: ask people why they stay, before they leave. If the conversation turns into something harder, the Conversations Companion helps you prepare.
Built from great{with}talent’s stay interview guide and the fourteen-area model behind our Drivers engagement questionnaire. For independent exit questionnaires during the notice period, see LastOpinion; for engagement surveys, WinningFormula.
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