Are stay interviews anonymous?

No — and this is the most important thing to understand about the instrument. A stay interview is explicitly not anonymous. It is a named, one-on-one conversation between a specific employee and their direct manager. The lack of anonymity is a feature, not a flaw: it enables personalized commitments in a way no anonymous survey can. The trade-off is social-desirability bias — employees may soften criticism of their manager. Pair stay interviews with anonymous pulse or engagement surveys to get both the individual picture and the honest population-level signal.

Who should conduct a stay interview — HR or the direct manager?

The direct manager conducts the stay interview. This is the opposite of the exit interview, which SHRM recommends be run by someone other than the direct manager. In a stay interview, the manager is the right person because they are the one with the authority to act on what they hear — to change a workload, adjust a role, advocate for a promotion, or protect the conditions that keep someone engaged. HR's role in a stay-interview program is to train managers, provide the question framework, and coach on the stay plan format — not to own the conversation.

How often should stay interviews be conducted?

The Finnegan SI5 model recommends approximately twice a year for every direct report. For employees flagged as flight risks — either through low intent-to-stay scores on a survey or through manager observation — quarterly conversations are appropriate. Do not schedule stay interviews reactively (only after a resignation on the team or a bad engagement score); that timing arrives too late and signals to remaining employees that the interview is damage control rather than genuine interest.

What is a stay plan and what should it include?

A stay plan is the written output of a stay interview — a short list of specific, time-bound commitments the manager makes based on what they heard. A good stay plan includes two or three concrete actions: for example, 'Add you to the product steering committee by Q3,' 'Free up one afternoon per sprint for your data skills project,' or 'Advocate for the senior title at the next compensation cycle.' It should be sent to the employee within 48 hours of the conversation and referenced at every subsequent one-on-one. Vague stay plans ('I'll look into that') are worse than no plan — they signal the conversation was performative.

Is there a score or calculator for stay interviews?

No. Stay interviews produce no score and no aggregate report. The artifact is an individual stay plan, not a metric. This is a deliberate design choice: scoring a retention conversation misses the point — the value is in the specific commitments a manager makes to a specific employee, not in a number that rolls up to a dashboard. If you need population-level flight-risk data with a score or index, use an intent-to-stay survey (see the morale and retention risk guide) paired with your stay-interview program.

Employee Surveys

What Are Stay Interview Questions (and How to Use Them)?

A stay interview is a structured, one-on-one conversation — not an anonymous survey — that a direct manager holds with a current, valued employee roughly twice a year to learn what keeps them and what might drive them to leave. The output is an individualized stay plan, not a score or aggregate report. The business case is straightforward: replacing a salaried employee costs six to nine months of their salary (SHRM), and turnover intention is the strongest single predictor of actual turnover (meta-analytic r = 0.38–0.50). Catching flight risk in conversation is far cheaper than catching it in an exit interview.

9 QuestionsConversational (1-on-1)Twice a YearOpen-Ended

The Question Bank

Copy-Ready Questions, Grouped by Theme

Every group uses the scale that fits it. Copy one question, a whole theme, or the full set straight into your survey tool.

Filter by theme9 questions

Why You Stay

Open textConversational — manager listens, probes, and takes notes

Opening questions that surface the concrete, day-to-day positives keeping this employee at the organization. The manager's job here is to listen and probe, not pitch. Answers reveal which conditions to protect.

1.
When you're heading into work in the morning, what are you most looking forward to?
Paraphrased from Finnegan SI5 Theme 1 (QSET-010)
Surfaces the immediate, intrinsic motivators that are hardest to replicate at a competitor. Answers ground the stay plan in specifics (a project, a colleague, a kind of work) rather than abstractions.
2.
What has kept you here since we last spoke — or since you joined?
Paraphrased from Finnegan SI5 Theme 3 (QSET-010)
Explicitly asks the employee to articulate their own stay reasons, which strengthens their commitment through the act of stating it and gives the manager a map of what not to disrupt.
3.
What aspect of your current role would be hardest to find somewhere else?
A probe that identifies the hard-to-replicate advantages of this role — the manager can then deliberately reinforce and protect those conditions.

Growth and Learning

Open textConversational — manager listens, probes, and takes notes

Questions that map the employee's learning trajectory and development ambitions. Growth is consistently one of the top voluntary-departure drivers; identifying gaps here feeds directly into the stay plan.

1.
What have you been learning in this role, and what do you most want to develop next?
Paraphrased from Finnegan SI5 Theme 2 (QSET-010)
A two-part probe: the first half confirms growth is happening; the second half surfaces unmet ambitions that, if ignored, become exit reasons. Answers translate directly into development commitments in the stay plan.
2.
Is there a skill, experience, or type of work you're not getting here that you'd like to be?
A follow-up that makes it safe to name gaps without implying resignation. Most employees won't volunteer development frustrations unless explicitly invited.
3.
Where do you see yourself in two to three years, and how can I help you get there?
Connects near-term development to a longer career narrative. Employees whose manager actively supports their career arc are significantly less likely to look externally.

Flight Risk and Stay Plan Input

Open textConversational — manager listens, probes, and takes notes

The highest-stakes questions in the conversation. Question 7 (last time you thought about leaving) is the leading-indicator question — the answer forecasts actual turnover risk. Question 8 (what your manager can do) is the direct input to the stay plan. Do not skip these; they are the reason for conducting the interview.

1.
When was the last time you thought about leaving, and what was going on at that point?
Paraphrased from Finnegan SI5 Theme 4 (QSET-010)
The single highest-yield stay-interview question. Turnover intention is the strongest individual-level predictor of actual turnover (r = 0.38–0.50, Steel & Ovalle 1984; Griffeth et al. 2000). A candid answer here is an early-warning signal the manager can act on before it becomes a resignation. Probe gently: 'What would have made that moment easier to get through?'
2.
What is one thing I could do differently — or continue doing — that would make the biggest difference to your experience here?
Paraphrased from Finnegan SI5 Theme 5 (QSET-010)
Turns the conversation into a co-authored stay plan. The manager is asking for direct input, which signals psychological safety and yields specific, actionable commitments. This is the question that makes the interview distinct from any survey.
3.
Is there anything coming up — workload, team changes, new responsibilities — that concerns you or that I should know about?
A forward-looking probe that catches near-term stressors before they compound. Stay interviews conducted only once a year miss mid-cycle disruptions; this question surfaces them.

Decision Guide

When Should You Use This Survey?

Match the survey type and cadence to your situation.

🤝

You want to retain a specific high-performer or flight-risk employee

Use

Stay interview (this page) — 1:1 conversation with direct managerIndividual stay plan with specific commitmentsFollow-up at next 1:1 or in 4–6 weeks

Avoid

Sending a generic pulse survey in place of the conversation

Generic surveys signal generic interest. A tenured employee who feels their manager doesn't know their name won't feel retained by a SurveyMonkey link.

📊

You want to understand retention risk across an entire team or department

Use

Engagement survey or pulse survey — anonymous, population-levelIntent-to-stay index from morale/retention-risk surveyStay interviews for the highest-risk individuals identified in the data

Avoid

Using stay interviews as a substitute for anonymous population data

Stay interviews surface individual risk; they cannot produce aggregate trends. Use the survey to find the at-risk segment, then use stay interviews to act on it.

🚪

An employee has already resigned and you want to understand why

Use

Exit interview — conducted by HR or someone other than the direct managerAnonymous written exit survey for honest root-cause dataTheme coding across exits over time

Avoid

Conducting a stay interview after the resignation is submitted

At that point the decision is made. The stay interview is a pre-decision instrument; the exit interview is post-decision. If you are conducting stay interviews too late, the cadence needs to move earlier.

📅

You want to run stay conversations organization-wide as a formal program

Use

Manager training on SI5 questioning technique and active listeningStay-plan template and tracking system (kept between manager and employee)HR coaching layer — review manager-reported themes, not individual transcripts

Avoid

Requiring managers to submit individual stay-interview transcripts to HR

Uploading private retention conversations to a central database breaks the psychological safety that makes the interviews valuable. Aggregate themes only.

🧭

You want to evaluate the ROI of your stay-interview program

Use

Track 12-month voluntary turnover rate in teams where stay interviews are conducted vs not conductedMonitor intent-to-stay scores in pulse surveys alongside stay-interview cadenceCompare replacement costs avoided against program hours

Avoid

Using stay-interview participation rate as the sole success metric

The metric that matters is whether employees who had stay interviews stayed. Participation rate measures manager compliance, not retention impact.

Benchmarks

What "Good" Looks Like

Scores only mean something against a benchmark. Here are the numbers worth measuring against.

6–9 months of salary

SHRM's estimate of the cost to replace a salaried employee — e.g., $30,000–$45,000 for a $60,000 role. A 30-minute stay conversation is the cheapest retention tool available.

SHRM; also Gallup estimates 50–200% of annual salary depending on role seniority (STAT-009)

r = 0.38 to 0.50

Meta-analytic correlation between intent to leave and actual turnover. Turnover intention is the strongest single predictor of actual departure — which is why surfacing it in conversation is a leading indicator, not a soft chat.

Steel & Ovalle (1984); Griffeth, Hom & Gaertner (2000) — STAT-011

$1 trillion annually

Estimated annual cost of voluntary turnover to US businesses. Stay interviews target the preventable fraction — employees who would stay under the right conditions.

Gallup, 'This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion' (BENCH-021)

50–200% of annual salary

Gallup's range for employee replacement cost by role. Seniority amplifies the multiplier sharply — a director-level departure can easily exceed 150%.

Gallup (STAT-009)

Do It Right

Survey Design Best Practices

The methodology that separates a survey people answer honestly from one they ignore.

Stay interviews are conversational — never treat them as survey data

A stay interview is a named, one-on-one, non-anonymous conversation conducted by the direct manager. It is not a pulse survey, not an engagement questionnaire, and not a performance review. Because responses are not anonymous, they carry social-desirability bias — employees may soften criticism of their manager. Pair stay interviews with population-level anonymous surveys (pulse or engagement) to get the complementary picture: the interview tells you about this individual; the survey tells you about the team.

METH-011 — Finnegan/SHRM; Formbricks (citing Giacalone & Knouse)

Run them twice a year, with the direct manager — not HR

The Finnegan SI5 model specifies that the direct manager conducts the stay interview, approximately twice a year. This is the opposite of the exit interview, which SHRM recommends be conducted by someone other than the direct manager. The direct manager is the right interviewer here because (a) they are the person with the most power to act on what they hear, and (b) the relationship itself is what the conversation is designed to protect. HR can coach managers on the questions and stay-plan format, but should not own the interview.

QSET-010 notes — Finnegan (SHRM, 2018)

The manager listens roughly 80% of the time

A stay interview is not a career-development monologue by the manager. The Finnegan model is explicit: the manager's role is to ask, probe, and listen — not to reassure, justify, or pitch. Resist the urge to respond to criticism with explanations. Take notes visibly; it signals that answers will be remembered and acted on. Silence after a question is data, not awkwardness — let it sit.

QSET-010 — Finnegan (SHRM, 2018)

The artifact is a stay plan, not a score

At the close of every stay interview, the manager writes a short stay plan: the two or three specific commitments they are making based on what they heard. Examples: 'Get you on the product roadmap committee by Q3,' 'Block 30 minutes every two weeks for your data skills project,' 'Advocate for the title change at the next comp cycle.' Share the plan with the employee within 48 hours. Follow up on it at the next conversation. A stay interview with no follow-through is worse than no interview — it signals that the conversation was performative.

QSET-010 — Finnegan (SHRM, 2018)

Five core questions plus probes — resist the urge to add more

The SI5 model covers five themes in five questions. The temptation to expand to 10 or 15 questions turns a conversation into an interview panel and a structured retention tool into a bureaucratic form. Depth comes from probing, not from asking more questions. The conversation should take 30–45 minutes. If it regularly runs shorter, the manager is not probing; if it runs longer, the manager is talking too much.

QSET-010 — Finnegan (SHRM, 2018); METH-001

No scoring, no aggregate reporting — protect the individual

Stay interview responses must not be aggregated, scored, or reported upward in a way that identifies individuals. Unlike engagement surveys (where HR presents team-level data to leadership), stay interviews generate private commitments between a manager and one employee. Rolling up themes across a team for manager coaching is appropriate only when done carefully, in aggregate, and with employee awareness. Never tie stay-interview content to performance reviews or promotion decisions — doing so destroys the psychological safety that makes the conversation work.

METH-011; METH-006

Avoid These

Survey Mistakes That Wreck Your Data

Treating a stay interview like an anonymous survey

The defining error: distributing a stay-interview question bank as a written form and collecting responses in aggregate. The moment you anonymize the response, you have destroyed the instrument. The value of a stay interview is that it is personal, attributed, and produces individual commitments. There is no anonymous stay interview — that is just a pulse survey.

Instead: Keep it a 1:1 conversation with the direct manager. Use anonymous pulse and engagement surveys for population-level anonymous listening; use stay interviews for individual retention action.

Running a stay interview with no follow-through

Asking an employee what would keep them and then not acting on their answer is more damaging than never asking. It signals that the conversation was a box-ticking exercise and lowers both trust and future willingness to be candid. Only 51% of employees report that actual improvements resulted from survey feedback (Perceptyx, 2026) — stay interviews that produce no stay plan reproduce the same action gap.

Instead: Write and share the stay plan within 48 hours of the conversation. Reference it at every subsequent 1:1. If a commitment cannot be met, say why, promptly.

Having HR conduct the stay interview instead of the direct manager

HR is the right owner of the exit interview (where objectivity and distance from the manager matter). HR is the wrong owner of the stay interview. The direct manager is the one with the authority to change the day-to-day conditions that the employee describes. An HR-conducted stay interview surfaces problems that HR then has to escalate — adding a layer and a delay that costs the employee's confidence.

Instead: Train managers to conduct stay interviews themselves. HR's role is to train, coach, and track program adoption — not to own the individual conversation.

Asking stay-interview questions during a performance review

Performance reviews are evaluative; stay interviews are developmental and trust-building. Mixing the two formats creates a context where the employee faces conflicting incentives: honesty about flight risk may read as poor commitment. The conversations need their own dedicated space and time.

Instead: Schedule stay interviews as stand-alone 30–45 minute conversations, separate from performance reviews and compensation cycles, twice a year.

Expanding to 15 questions and missing the depth

The Finnegan SI5 model is five themes for a reason. Adding questions trades depth for breadth — the manager covers more topics but probes none of them. A stay interview that lists 15 questions becomes a form to complete, not a conversation to have. Breadth signals that the manager is more interested in finishing than listening.

Instead: Ask five core questions and probe deeply: 'Tell me more about that.' 'What specifically would have helped?' 'When did you first notice that?' Depth comes from follow-up questions, not additional agenda items.

Scheduling stay interviews only after a retention scare

Reactive stay interviews — triggered by a resignation on the team or a low engagement score — arrive too late for the individual who left and create an atmosphere of urgency that undermines psychological safety for those who remain. Employees can tell when they are being interviewed because leadership is suddenly worried.

Instead: Run stay interviews on a regular calendar cadence (twice a year for all direct reports; quarterly for identified flight-risk or high-impact employees). Routine conversations feel like genuine interest; emergency conversations feel like damage control.

Sources & Licensing

Where These Questions Come From

Validated instruments have owners. Here's what's adapted from what — and how to use each one without stepping on a license.

Finnegan SI5 (Stay Interview 5)

The five stay-interview themes used on this page are paraphrased from Richard P. Finnegan's SI5 model. The exact wording of the SI5 questions is Finnegan/SHRM-published IP and has not been reproduced verbatim. The constructs (here-and-now positives, learning/growth, reasons for staying, last thought about leaving, manager's role) are paraphrased in line with the SI5's published framework and cited accordingly.

Source: Richard P. Finnegan, The Power of Stay Interviews for Engagement and Retention, 2nd ed. (SHRM, 2018)

Ready to Send

Launch & Follow-Up Templates

The invite, the reminder, and the results share-back — the messages that drive response rates.

Manager's Stay Interview Invite (Email)

Subject: Let's talk about what's working — and what could be better Hi [Employee Name], I'd like to schedule a stay interview with you — a dedicated 30–45 minutes for us to talk about what's keeping you here, what you're learning, and what I can do to make your experience better. This is not a performance review. There's no form to complete. It's a conversation I want to have with everyone on the team twice a year, because I'd rather hear what matters to you now than find out after the fact. I'll come with a few open questions. You don't need to prepare anything — just show up ready to be honest. Here are a few slots next week: - [Day, Date, Time] - [Day, Date, Time] - [Day, Date, Time] Let me know which works, or suggest a time that's better for you. [Manager Name]

Keep the tone low-stakes and direct. Avoid framing it as 'an important HR initiative' — that raises defensiveness. The invite should read like the manager's own idea.

Stay Plan Follow-Up (Email)

Subject: My notes from our stay interview — and what I'm committing to Hi [Employee Name], Thank you for being so candid in our conversation on [Date]. I want to share what I heard and what I'm committing to as a result. What I heard from you: - [Theme 1 — e.g., 'You want more ownership over the roadmap process'] - [Theme 2 — e.g., 'The recognition loop on the new product has felt invisible'] - [Theme 3 — e.g., 'You'd like to develop your data visualization skills this year'] What I'm committing to: 1. [Specific action — e.g., 'Add you to the roadmap review meeting starting [Date]'] 2. [Specific action — e.g., 'Present your Q2 work in the all-hands on [Date]'] 3. [Specific action — e.g., 'Allocate one afternoon per sprint for the Tableau course you identified'] I'll check back in on these at our [next 1:1 / next stay interview in [Month]]. If anything shifts before then, tell me — this plan is meant to be a living document, not a once-a-year form. [Manager Name]

Send within 48 hours of the interview. The speed of follow-up signals that the conversation was real, not performative. Keep commitments specific and time-bound — vague promises ('I'll look into that') erode trust faster than no promise at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

A stay interview is a structured, one-on-one conversation a manager has with a current employee to find out why they stay and what might make them leave — conducted before any departure decision. An exit interview happens after someone resigns, is typically run by HR (not the direct manager), and asks retrospective questions about why the person is leaving. The defining boundary: stay interviews are forward-looking, proactive, and non-anonymous; exit interviews are retrospective, conducted at arm's length from the manager, and ideally paired with an anonymous written survey to overcome social-desirability bias.

Keep Exploring

Related Survey Guides

Employee Surveys

What Questions Should Be on an Employee Engagement Survey?

34 employee engagement survey questions grouped by validated driver — Q12-based, UWES-anchored, with the right scale and benchmarks. Copy-ready for your annual census.

Read guide

Employee Surveys

What Questions Should You Ask in an Exit Interview?

The complete exit interview question bank: 30 questions across 7 themes — reasons for leaving, pay, manager, culture, growth, rehire intent — with templates.

Read guide

Employee Surveys

What Questions Should Be on an Employee Morale Survey?

Get 26 validated morale and intent-to-stay questions, flight-risk benchmarks, and copy-ready templates — catch turnover risk before it becomes an exit interview.

Read guide

Browse All Survey Guides

A Survey Only Helps If You Act On It

The fastest way to tank your next response rate is to collect feedback and do nothing. Actify turns survey findings into action — recognition, engagement activities, and wellbeing benefits employees actually choose.

Book a 20-min Demo See How It Works

No credit card required. 15-minute setup.