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Stay interview questions to ask while you can still act on the answer

Twelve questions for the one-to-one, plus a ten-question survey for a team too big to meet one by one.

  • 12questions to ask
  • About 30 minper conversation
  • One personand their own manager
  • 10in the survey version
Open the survey version Try the survey version
Stay Interview Survey · answer to move through it
Use this template
Question 1 of 10 Why you are here
The reason I took this job is still true.
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2
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5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 2 of 10 Why you are here
I would have to give something up to take a similar job somewhere else.
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2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 3 of 10 What is next
What I am learning here would be hard to pick up at another employer.
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2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 4 of 10 What is next
I could describe what my job might look like in two years.
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2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 5 of 10 What changes
Something I asked for in the last year actually happened.
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Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 6 of 10 Who asks
Who would you rather talk this through with?
My own manager
Someone else here
Nobody, this form is enough
Question 7 of 10 In your words
What part of your week do you dread?
Question 8 of 10 In your words
What have you asked for before that never happened?
Question 9 of 10 In your words
If one thing changed before we next talk, what should it be?
Question 10 of 10 Follow-through
I expect something to change because I answered this.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree

The 12 stay interview questions

A stay interview is a one-to-one conversation between a person and their own manager about why they stay and what would change that, held while there is still time to act on the answer. Take two or three questions from each group below; the survey version covers the same ground on a form.

Plain text, one question per line, with the answer scale.

What is worth keeping

Start with what works, so the person has something to protect.

  1. Think about a day here recently that went well. What made it a good day?Open question, asked out louda specific day gets a specific answer.
  2. Which part of your job would you protect if I had to take something off your plate?Open question, asked out loud
  3. What do you have here that you would have to give up somewhere else?Open question, asked out louda long silence is the answer to write down.

What is wearing thin

Ask these in the middle, once there is something worth keeping.

  1. What part of your week do you dread?Open question, asked out louda dreaded Tuesday meeting is fixable this month.
  2. What are you doing that somebody else should be doing?Open question, asked out loud
  3. What would another employer have to offer before you would take the call?Open question, asked out loud

Where this is going

A direction, not a rating, so keep it apart from the performance review.

  1. What do you want to be able to do a year from now that you cannot do today?Open question, asked out loudan answer with a skill in it is cheap to act on.
  2. Who here has taught you something this year?Open question, asked out louda name tells you who to protect.
  3. If nothing was in the way, what would you want your job to look like in two years?Open question, asked out loud

What I can change

Last, because the meeting exists to produce these answers.

  1. What is one thing I do that makes your job harder?Open question, asked out loudwait for it, and ask again next year.
  2. What have you asked for before that never happened?Open question, asked out loudit names something already promised, so it is checkable.
  3. If we change one thing before we next talk, what should it be?Open question, asked out loudthis answer goes on the stay plan with a date.

How to run a stay interview

The person's own manager asks, one person at a time. Stay interviews are not anonymous. Before you finish, write a stay plan of no more than three actions, each with a name and a date.[1] Richard Finnegan's five-question method is worth reading beside these twelve.[2]

The survey version suits a team too big to meet one by one. Send it by name, or design a survey online of your own. Someone who has already resigned needs the exit interview questions. A new starter takes the induction feedback survey template. The pulse survey questions read a whole team between conversations. The employee retention survey template asks a whole team, anonymously, whether people plan to stay. The job security questionnaire asks whether people expect to keep their jobs.

Two chairs turned toward each other across a small table holding a sheet with three items on it, one of them marked, under a wall calendar with a single date picked out
Half an hour on the calendar, and a plan of three things at the end.

Stay interview FAQ

How long should a stay interview take?

About 30 minutes. One university HR toolkit suggests a 30-minute meeting.[1] That leaves room for two or three questions from each group and the silence after each answer.

How often should you hold stay interviews?

Once a year for each person is the practice the same toolkit recommends.[1] Add one after a big change for them, such as a new manager or a team split.

Who should ask the questions?

The person's own manager, because only they can act on the answer without asking permission. If the manager is part of what needs saying, ask HR to run the meeting, or send the survey version and have HR read it.

Can you send the questions ahead?

Yes. The toolkit says questions can go ahead of the meeting so the person has time to prepare their thoughts.[1] Pick three or four from the bank, not all twelve.

Related employee survey templates

Every other way of asking employees is in the employee survey templates.

EmployeeExit Interview SurveyOnce the resignation is in and the only thing left to collect is the account of why.14 questions, 4 min EmployeeEmployee Retention SurveyThe same worry asked of a whole team at once, with no names attached and enough answers to see a pattern.11 questions, 3 min EmployeeManager Effectiveness SurveyWhen the question is about the manager rather than about one of their people.15 questions, 4 min EmployeeEmployee Feedback SurveyWhen the answer you need is one nobody gives to a person who knows their name.14 questions, 4 min EmployeeEmployee Pulse SurveyThe short read between one of these conversations and the next, asked of everyone.9 questions, 3 to 4 min EmployeeInduction Feedback FormSomeone still in their first weeks, where the questions are about arriving rather than staying.11 questions, 3 min

Michael Hodge, survey methodology · Updated 29 September 2026 · How templates are reviewed

Sources (2)
  1. University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Human Resources. "Stay Interview Toolkit." intranet.med.wisc.edu
  2. Finnegan, Richard P. "How to Conduct Stay Interviews: 5 Key Questions." SHRM. shrm.org

Book half an hour with the person you cannot afford to lose

Twelve questions for the room and a ten-question form to send.

Open the survey version