Stay interview questions that lead to a useful next conversation.

Explain the purpose and the follow-up

Invite the employee with a clear purpose and tell them who will hear the feedback, how notes will be handled and how any proposed action will be decided. Share the broad topics in advance. Give them a way to request another appropriate contact if they prefer to discuss something outside the manager relationship.

NIH’s stay interview guide recommends holding the conversation separately from formal performance discussions. Agree a time when you can listen without rushing to the next task. Before starting, be clear about what you can change yourself and what requires another owner’s agreement.

Questions 1 and 2. Understand what is working

1. Think about a recent day when the work felt worthwhile. What were you doing, and what helped it go well?

2. Which part of the role would you most want us to preserve if the team or workload changed?

Use the answers to understand the conditions behind the good experience. Ask which responsibility, colleague support or opportunity made the difference. A useful follow-up is, “When do you have access to that, and when is it harder?” Keep the employee’s own explanation visible. An activity they enjoy may matter for reasons a manager would not otherwise see.

Questions 3 and 4. Explore a practical friction point

3. Walk me through a recent moment when the work was harder than it needed to be. What happened and what did you need at that point?

4. If we could improve one part of your working week, which change would be most useful to discuss first?

Ask about the process around the event before proposing a fix. If the concern is a late handoff, establish what was available, what the employee tried and who could act. The employee can choose how much to share. Use the appropriate established channel if a matter needs handling by another authorized person.

Questions 5 and 6. Discuss support and development

5. What would you like more opportunity to learn or do, and where could we start within the work we have?

6. When you need a decision, help or feedback, how easy is it to reach someone who can give it?

Explore a concrete opportunity and the support it would require. Ask when the employee last sought feedback and what happened. OPM’s development guidance treats planning as a continuing partnership with agreed goals and activities. Capture the proposed opportunity, any eligibility or operational questions to check and who will return with an answer.

Questions 7 and 8. Set a useful next step

7. Is there anything about your experience here that I have not asked about and that you would like us to consider?

8. Of the things we discussed, which should we work on first, and when would a follow-up be useful?

Give the employee time to add context or correct your understanding. If they choose to discuss a reason they might leave, ask what they want you to understand about that reason. You can agree a next conversation without promising a particular role, arrangement or outcome. Restate the proposed action in plain language and check whether it reflects the concern.

Separate a request, a check and a commitment

Use three statuses in your action record. A request is something the employee would like considered. A check is work needed to establish what is possible. A commitment is an action an accountable owner has agreed to deliver. Put a date beside the next update for each status.

NHS Employers’ retention guidance includes recording agreed actions and revisiting progress. For your worksheet, write the action so the employee knows what will actually happen. “Manager will confirm who approves the development request by Friday” is reviewable. “We will find you a better opportunity” leaves the scope and owner uncertain.

A fictional conversation about schedule changes

An employee says late changes make it difficult to plan their week. The manager asks for a recent example and learns that the notice reached the employee after a shift had already changed. They agree to check the notification route with scheduling. The employee also asks whether a regular pattern could be considered.

The record has two lines. One is an accepted action to check the notification route, with an owner and an update date. The other is a request that needs the appropriate decision process. At follow-up, the manager explains the result of each line and asks whether the original concern was understood accurately.

Use themes carefully across interviews

Tell employees in advance whether broader themes will be reviewed. Share only what the agreed audience needs. A distinctive role, schedule or incident can identify someone even when a name is removed, so consider how much detail belongs in a team-level summary.

Keep an employee’s individual action record with the people responsible for it. Review common process issues through the appropriate organizational channel and retain missing or conflicting perspectives. The number of interviews completed shows activity. A more useful check is whether agreed actions were delivered, employees received an answer and recurring work issues reached someone able to act.