The Stay Interview Template That Stops Turnover Before It Starts [30+ Questions + Action Plan]

Most organizations wait until an employee resigns to ask why they're leaving. By then, it's too late, the decision is made, the replacement search has begun, and the cost of turnover is already climbing. But what if you flipped the script and asked the right questions while people still wanted to stay? 

That's the power of stay interviews. Instead of diagnosing problems through exit interviews, stay interviews help you understand what keeps your best people engaged, motivated, and committed before they start browsing job boards.   

In this guide, you'll find a complete stay interview template with 39 ready-to-use questions, proven strategies for conducting meaningful conversations, and practical ways to turn feedback into retention wins. 

What are stay interviews? 

Stay interviews give you a proactive way to learn what employees value most about working with you and where the experience could be stronger. If retaining top talent is the goal, it makes sense to ask them directly what motivates them to stay. These conversations also offer a safe space for employees to express what support, growth, and recognition they need to thrive. 

Thinking about introducing stay interviews in your organization? Here are four practical tips to help you get started, all of which are included in our stay interview template.  

Why should you conduct stay interviews? 

People don’t wake up one day and suddenly quit — it’s a gradual loss of connection. Stay interviews make sure you understand what they need long before they reach that point. 

1. Creates space for honest feedback and a clearer picture of reality 

Turnover today is often driven by a lack of connection or recognition, not just pay. Showing genuine interest in how employees feel reminds them why they chose your organization. Go deeper than quick answers to understand what motivates them, what causes friction, and how they see their role in the company’s goals. When stay interviews uncover real opportunities and concerns, you can address issues early and reduce the need for exit interviews later. 

2. Strengthens communication and relationships between employees and managers 

Stay interviews create space for open, two-way conversations that go beyond task updates and performance check-ins. When managers regularly ask employees how they feel, what motivates them, and where they need support, it builds trust and makes employees feel valued as individuals. 

 Over time, this consistent communication deepens the relationship, encourages honest feedback, and helps managers better understand and guide their teams.

3. Reduces significant costs associated with turnover and disengagement 

Employee burnout directly translates into business losses: higher turnover, declining productivity, and reduced profitability. In a recent Harris Poll, one-third of hiring managers expect turnover to rise in 2024. 

By retaining talent and keeping people fully engaged in their work, stay interviews help organizations avoid unnecessary churn and the financial strain that comes with replacing top performers. 

What is a stay interview template? 

A stay interview template is a structured guide that helps managers hold consistent and meaningful conversations with employees about what keeps them engaged and what might cause them to leave.  

It includes key questions, space for notes, and clear prompts to capture insights that can turn feedback into action. By using a template, organizations ensure every interview follows the same approach and leads to improvements that strengthen retention. 

Stay interview template to level up your employee retention strategy 

Great stay interviews start with great questions. When you ask the right things, you uncover what truly motivates people to stay and what might quietly be pushing them away. To make it easier for you to run meaningful conversations, we’ve compiled 29 stay interview questions along with why each one matters. 

To keep everything clear and actionable, the questions are grouped into five practical categories: 

Let’s dive in: 

Stay interview questions about the employee 

1. What do you look forward to most when you come to work every day? 

2. What do you dread about work every day? 

3. When was the last time you thought about leaving the company? 

4. What situation made you think of leaving? 

5. Would you recommend our company to job-seeking friends? Why or why not? 

6. What would tempt you to leave the company? 

Stay interview questions about the job 

7. What’s the best part of your role, and how could we help you do more of that? 

8. What part of your job would you eliminate if you could? 

9. Which of your strengths or talents feel underused today? 

10. What would make your job even more satisfying? 

11. How do you prefer to be challenged in your work? 

12. Can you share a recent moment where you felt truly proud of your contribution? 

13. Are you getting clear goals and expectations? 

14. What could your manager do more of or less of? 

15. How do you feel about your learning and development opportunities here? 

Stay interview questions about the company culture 

16. Do you feel valued and recognized at work? 

17. How do you like to be recognized for your work? 

18. How do you prefer to receive feedback? 

19. What should we start doing (or stop doing) as a company? 

20. How well does our culture support your mental health and wellbeing? 

Stay interview questions about the work environment 

21. What would improve your work environment or make your day-to-day experience better? 

22. Are you satisfied with our work-from-home or flexible work policy? What could be improved? 

23. How do you feel about your work-life balance, and how could we support you better? 

24. Which workplace policy feels outdated or unnecessary, and what change would you recommend? 

Stay interview questions about the technology 

25. Do you have the right tools and resources to do your job well? What’s missing? 

26. How satisfied are you with our communication tools for remote work? 

27. Which tools or systems should we consider replacing — and why? 

Questions around building connections 

28. What do you love about your job?  

29. Is there anything you dislike about your job?  

30. What motivates (or demotivates) you? Do you feel valued and recognized for the work you do? 

Questions around manager feedback 

31. What is one thing your manager does well to support you in your role?  

32. Are there any recent situations you wish your manager handled differently?  

33. Is there anything you are seeing or experiencing on your team that others in the company are not? 

Questions around company feedback  

34. If an external recruiter were to contact you, what is the one thing that would entice you to think about exploring an opportunity at a different company (leveling, compensation, skillsets, etc.)?  

35. What brought you to this organization? What keeps you at our company? 

36. What is something that you’re proudest of when it comes to working at our company?  

37. What is the best quality about working here? Is there anything we could do better? 

Questions to wrap up the stay interview 

38. Is there anything else we didn’t cover that you’d like to discuss? 

39. How can we make these conversations more effective or comfortable for you in the future? 

How to conduct effective stay interviews? 

A poorly executed stay interview can feel like a formality. A well-designed one can transform retention. These four steps will help you get it right: 

1. Choose interviewees strategically 

Start small instead of interviewing everyone at once. If you're new to the organization, begin with a smaller group to build trust and learn what employees value. If you already have tenure, structure the process around key milestones or focus on high-turnover teams first. Prioritizing wisely ensures meaningful conversations that reinforce trust and retention. 

2. Ask the right questions 

Unlike performance reviews, which are typically handled by managers, stay interviews should be a direct conversation between HR and the employee. The objective isn’t to assess performance—it’s to explore their feelings about the company and uncover what is driving retention. 

Ask a mix of questions that reveal what’s working well and what might be improved. Thoughtful questions help illuminate both opportunities and potential risks.

3. Identify trends 

Collecting feedback is only the first step. Acting on it is what truly makes an impact. After interviews, work with HR to analyze responses, find patterns, and prioritize what matters most to employees. If flexibility is a key reason people stay, protect it. If a specific team shows signs of burnout, support that leader early to prevent turnover. Spot trends early. Solve problems earlier.  

4. Take action to build a culture of trust 

By initiating open conversations about retention, HR reinforces a culture where employees feel heard and valued. This encourages ongoing feedback rather than silence until resignation day. Consistent follow-through shows employees that their voices lead to real change. 

Guidelines for stay interviews 

Practical steps determine whether stay interviews succeed. You may understand their value, but impact depends on how they are carried out. Who runs them? When should they happen? How do you ensure they lead to action? 
This section explains the essentials. HR usually designs the program, while managers typically hold the conversations, so the guidance supports both sides. 

1. Begin with a focused group 

There’s no need to launch stay interviews across the entire organization immediately. Start with employees whose retention matters most right now — long-tenured contributors, high performers, and high-potential talent. 

2. Make stay interviews a consistent practice 

“Consistent” will look different depending on business context, but aim for at least once a year. The key is predictability, not sporadic check-ins. 

3. Be intentional about timing 

Avoid scheduling stay interviews too early in someone’s tenure — a new hire may not yet have the full picture of their experience. Also, keep them separate from performance reviews to prevent them from feeling evaluative. Lastly, group the interviews within a reasonable time window so themes can be identified and addressed without delay. 

4. Choose the right interviewer 

Managers are typically best positioned to lead these conversations because they already have established relationships with team members. That said, ensure managers receive guidance or coaching on conducting productive, open conversations. 

5. Allocate sufficient time 

A meaningful stay interview typically runs 30–60 minutes — long enough for employees to share honest feedback without feeling rushed. 

6. Standardize structure 

Create a template that managers can follow, ensuring a consistent experience across teams and that all employees are asked the same core questions. 

7. Prioritize smart questioning 

This may sound obvious, but the substance of the conversation entirely depends on the quality of the questions asked. You’ll find suggested questions in the next section. 

8. Centralize the insights 

All feedback should be stored in one easily accessible place — ideally within your talent management system — so that trends can be analyzed without chasing scattered notes. 

9. Validate what you heard 

Before closing the conversation, managers should recap the employee’s key motivators and concerns to ensure clarity and avoid misinterpretation. Including this as a final step in your template helps make it a habit. 

10. Look for signals within the data 

Are certain motivators or pain points showing up repeatedly? Identifying common patterns allows you to scale what works and proactively address what doesn't. 

11. Translate feedback into action 

This part cannot be skipped. Stay interviews strengthen loyalty only when employees see that their input results in visible consideration or change. Listening without action leads to disappointment — but responsiveness builds trust that endures.

Pitfalls to avoid in stay interviews 

Before you dive into stay interviews, it’s important to set the right expectations because how you conduct them determines whether they build trust or break it. 

Be transparent about what stay interviews can and can’t do

Leaders should be clear that stay interviews are not a promise to fix everything right away. The goal is to understand employees, gather feedback, and strengthen relationships. Some issues take time to solve or involve business decisions employees may not fully see. Setting expectations early prevents misunderstandings. 

Prioritize confidentiality to foster psychological safety 

Employees need to feel confident that anything they share will remain private unless they explicitly agree to have it discussed further. When people believe their openness won’t come back to harm them, they’re far more likely to provide honest and helpful insights. 

Keep stay interviews separate from performance evaluations 

Connecting these conversations to performance reviews can instantly shut down openness. Employees should never feel like their candid feedback could affect how they’re rated or rewarded. A stay interview is about listening, not judging — and that distinction must be crystal clear. 

Ask open-ended questions that encourage meaningful discussion 

A closed question like, “Is everything going well?” almost guarantees a quick and shallow response. Instead, ask, “What’s going well, and what could be better?” This type of question gives employees room to share both positives and opportunities for improvement, leading to richer insights and real connection. 

Follow up consistently and thoughtfully on what you learn 

If employees raise concerns, leaders owe them acknowledgment and clarity on next steps. Even when an issue can’t be resolved right away, or at all, employees should at least understand why; and feel appreciated for voicing it.  

Leaders won’t be able to solve every challenge and employees don’t expect them to. But showing you genuinely listened and are doing what you can builds trust, strengthens engagement, and reinforces why people choose to stay. 

Level up your stay interviews with Xoxoday 

Stay interviews help you uncover what truly matters to your people and take action before dissatisfaction leads to resignation. When employees receive recognition, feel connected to their teams, and see opportunities to grow, they are far more likely to stay committed and engaged. 

Xoxoday strengthens this long-term retention effort by powering continuous recognition, boosting motivation with meaningful rewards, and enabling managers to celebrate great work more consistently.  

Here’s how Xoxoday adds value: 

• Track retention drivers over time: Convert stay interview responses into measurable engagement indicators so leaders can monitor what keeps employees committed. 
• Identify at-risk talent early: Spot disengagement patterns and turnover signals faster with built-in analytics and sentiment trends. 
• Close the feedback loop with recognition: Address common stay interview needs such as appreciation and belonging through instant, visible recognition. 
• Turn insights into action: Enable managers to respond to employee feedback with targeted rewards, support, and growth initiatives that strengthen retention.  

With smart engagement insights built in, organizations can connect stay interview feedback directly to the everyday employee experience and improve what matters most.

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