 "Stop the revolving door")
Don't wait for that exit interview to figure out why your valued employee has decided to quit. If you want to stop the intellectual capital flight, give your high-risk employees an early hearing. Human resources experts vouch for stay interviews as a tool to build employee engagement, improve productivity and mitigate the impact of frequent employee churn.
If exit interviews give managers an insight into the reasons why employees are leaving an organisation, more often than not, the insight gleaned comes too late to facilitate course correction. On the contrary, stay interviews help managers keep a finger on the pulse of the organisation and enables HR to take preventive actions and stop key talent from moving out. Says Pallavi Jha, MD, Dale Carnegie Training India, "Stay interviews are an opportunity to reinforce the benefits of being part of that particular organisation, reminding the employee why it is advantageous for her to stay on in the company."
A number of corporations are deploying stay interviews to hold back star performers who might be looking for lucrative opportunities outside the organisation. According to Shikha Taneja, senior director HR at ShopClues, "HR managers need to engage adequately with employees and identify red flags through stay interviews. Spotting early signs of employee disengagement goes a long way in taking corrective measures to retain key talent."
At the e-commerce firm, stay interviews are a regular exercise with rigorous one-to-one interaction with employees. The process involves documenting feedback, scaling up the issue to the reporting manager and engaging dissatisfied employee in a meaningful conversation ensuring that employee fears and apprehensions are adequately addressed.
For many organisations stay interviews also serve as a key tool to ensure that they have a ready bench of capable leaders. "Stay interviews provide the dual impact of both understanding and assimilating employee aspirations and marrying them with the organisational capability requirement," explains Kishore Poduri, head, HR, DBS Bank India.
The bank undertakes structured conversations for key staff on a quarterly basis. The conversations include a career summary and consolidation of career aspirations as well as interventions to bridge developmental gaps. These inputs are consolidated into an individual plan. To increase the efficacy of the conversations, an individual plan serves as a ready reckoner for the employee as well as the manager to track and measure the progress against the agreed career path.
At Kaya Limited the HR team conducts "skip level" sessions between employees and their senior bosses. In any case, as part of their predictive attrition sessions, the supervisor and HR managers sit together every month to discuss key resources. "These processes help in driving engagement, retention and development. This helps us to maintain a healthy stay rate across the organisation and build on our talent retention initiatives," says Ruhie Pande, VP and head, HR and training, Kaya. On its part, Shriram Properties carries out "skip level" meetings and one-on-one interactions as part of stay interviews. Sridhar Rajendran, HR head, Shriram Properties, says, "Such initiatives help us in reviewing company policies by taking into account what peers are doing and gauging the sentiments of employees."
In the services sector, where attrition is a big issue and talent is scarce, stay interviews are becoming de rigueur. The Park, New Delhi, conducts stay interviews every six months and links them with the performance appraisal system. Stay interviews cover critical team members whose performances have been above average across all levels and grades. According to Salman Azam Qureshi, regional director, HR, The Park, New Delhi, to get the best results from stay interviews it is necessary to ask the right questions. A few of the critical questions include "how well do you get along with your reporting manager", "do you receive appreciation on doing a good job" and "how strongly you feel about growth opportunity in the organisation".
Shatrunjay Krishna, director, rewards, talent and communication, Willis Towers Watson, says the interviewer should also ask questions relating to the employee's personal life which can range from commuting challenges to adequacy of rewards to any personal assistance that might be required. "There are circumstances where employees face genuine personal challenges and organisations can provide flexibility and support to accommodate them." This also ensures a stay interview is sincere and authentic.
Besides asking the right questions, it is equally important for employers to ensure that stay interviews are a regular feature. Nishith Upadhyaya, head, advisory services, SHRM India, cautions that waiting till the last moment to conduct a stay interview is useless. Indeed, organisations should train managers to carry out regular face-to-face conversations. "This is important for getting a performance conversation right since typically many managers find it nerve-racking to have a structured conversation on providing feedback, setting expectations, and monitoring progress on development aspects."
The benefits of stay interviews notwithstanding, the entire exercise can prove counter-productive if adequate checks and balances are not in place. Employers can guard against this by focusing only on key talent, keeping the process transparent and putting a deadline to the duration of stay interviews. Kiranmai Dutt Pendyala, corporate VP, HR, AMD Greater Asia and EMEA, suggests, "The interviews should cover the top 20 per cent talent in the organisation; they should be conducted by relevant managers and executives, and typically, target mid to senior level employees."
Further, building accountability also helps increasing the efficacy of stay interviews. At VirtusaPolaris, each HR partner has an attrition target. If they don't do stay interviews effectively and fail to create an early warning attrition tracker, the situation is reviewed and reactive measures are taken. "This is one check that enhances the commitment and accountability of HR partners to conduct stay interviews effectively," says Murali Padmanabhan, senior VP and India head, talent management, VirtusaPolaris. He adds, "We also get periodic feedback from managers to find out whether these interviews are happening regularly. We carry random checks with employees to find out if they know their HR partner and understand the kind of discussions they are having."
Rajesh Tripathi, VP and head, HR, Gujarat Heavy Chemicals, says drawing up an exhaustive list of acceptable retention actions that a manager can deploy will go a long way in streamlining the process and ensure stay interviews are an effective tool. Most importantly, for the exercise to work, there should be trust between the parties. "So, the HR must take the onus to make sure the feedback from the interview are converted into action points so that trust is maintained and the organisation receives real value from conducting such interviews," sums up Sriram Vaidhyanathan, chief human resource officer, Bankbazaar.com.
Lastly, HR or line managers must put themselves in the employees' shoes. Don't advice. Don't recommend. Don't argue. Just show you care. Let employees feel that you are listening to them with concern and with intent to help.
Getting it right: Ishita Mehta
To retain key performers, it is important for organisations to keep the engagement levels of employees high. This is essential to building trust. Here are three steps to ensure stay interviews continue to be a rewarding experience for both the employer and the employee:
- Companies need to accept that all employees may not be transparent and pour their hearts out in the first interaction. If they are saying they are happy or they don't have a problem, give them some time to open up and check again
- Companies should not aim to get every employee to stay back. Employees who are key contributors and star performers should be spoken to and encouraged to stay back
- If the person wants to move for salary hike, companies should avoid making an effort to get her to stay back. They will always find a counter offer
HR head, CoCubes Technologies
