Business professor tells HRD it could unlock the answer to retaining staff
While exit interviews offer hindsight on how a business could improve to keep staff, Australia’s peak industry association is championing a different approach to boost employee engagement and build trust and transparency.
The Australian Industry (Ai) Group say ‘stay interviews’ – aptly named as a way of speaking with workers to keep them in the organisation – offer a proactive way to understand what motivates employees.
“A stay interview is a structured, one-on-one conversation between a manager and an employee. The goal? To explore what keeps the employee engaged, what challenges they’re facing, and how the organisation can better support their growth and satisfaction,” the group say.
“Unlike performance reviews, which focus on evaluating past work, stay interviews are about listening and learning. They’re not about metrics or KPIs - they’re about understanding the human side of work.”
Georgina Pacor of the Ai Group told HRD the process surfaces concern early, strengthens engagement and allows valuable insight into cultural strengths and challenges.
HRD spoke with Professor Kohyar Kiazad of the Department of Management at Monash Business School, who echoed the Ai Group’s point-of-view of focusing on the positives of why someone loves their job instead of the reasons for leaving.
“There are push and pull factors that influence retention and turnover differentially – so if we’re focused on keeping staff, then it’s important to understand what is causing employees to stay, so we can enhance those practices.
“Research shows connections with colleagues and having a strong sense of fit with the company are reasons why people tend to stay in a job – it’s not necessarily good pay or benefits that contributes to retention, interestingly,” Kiazad added.
Factors including monetary compensation can create what Kiazad described as “passive stayers,” which can be damaging to productivity and engagement.
“There are different types of stayers – enthusiastic and then people who stay for reasons like good pay, benefits, comfortable work. The latter mindset doesn’t typically lead to high performance. Managers need to have a good understanding on the type of stayers they’re talking with.”
This can be done in a number of ways, Kiazad outlined, such as transitioning them into a more engaged or enthusiastic job – by giving them more opportunities, or allowing job rotation that could offer more exciting, challenging projects.
“Stay interviews could be really helpful for that,” Kiazad told HRD, “because it’s about keeping those who want to be there – it’s not a one-way thing, managers need to know how they can help keep their workers engaged. An interview like this could unlock the key to that.”
So, how can managers help facilitate staff retention within a workforce, beyond simply ‘being a good manager’? Kiazad said this an be done by utilising data through stay interviews to better influence practice.
“Managers need to do more than just make sure their workers are happy – but need to make key decisions and actions to facilitate changes where it may be needed. It’s important to understand what things work well can help management implement practices that keep employees in the job who may otherwise had considered leaving.”
“A lot of my research looks at job embeddedness – which is responsibility of managers and HR leaders to make sure workers are engrained in work culture,” Kiazad said. “This can be done through ensuring positive social and instrumental links with colleagues. It’s about being a good fit and having a purpose. It’s more than just being content,” he concluded.
