Retain Your Best People with These Five Questions

Some of you may be familiar with the term exit interview. This is when you sit down, have a conversation with a team member who has chosen to leave your organization and ask them a few questions about how the business could improve. I'm not a big fan of this strategy. If someone has chosen to leave, there is perhaps one question I ask them; “What would have you stay?”

However, most of the time it's a great separation. They go their way and you get an opportunity to hire someone else. I believe the most important questions to be asking your team right now is what we call the “Stay Interview”.

What I mean by this is, instead of an exit interview, ask them a series of questions that will ideally have them stay. Put yourself in an employee’s position. Although it is rare in the trade/construction industry for employers to sit down with employees and ask the following questions, it can be incredibly powerful.

Firstly, you are allocating time to spend with this team player. They will feel acknowledged. Now listen and pay attention to how they respond to the following questions, in no particular order:

1. What do you need to do your best work?

2. What is most important to you in your career/life?

3. What would make this your greatest job ever?

4. What's one thing that you think could make this company even better than it is right now?

5. What is one personal goal that you'd like to accomplish over the next 6 to 12 months, and how can I, or how can we as a company, help you fulfil on this?

Yes, you may be asking unorthodox questions, but are you showing insight and interest in your employees?

In our current environment, retaining your key people is more important than who you are hiring moving forward. This is because, the things you put in place to keep your best people, are the very things that are important when promoting to attract great people moving forward.

So, my suggestion to you, is over the next 30 days: sit down with all your key people, depending on the size of your team, ask the questions above and listen to the end. Then act and do what you can to support your people, to show up, to do their best work, and win in their roles.

If you'd like some support, let us know and all the best.

Written by Jon Mailer

CEO Of PROTRADE United