What’s a “stay interview?” How can they help employee engagement, while keeping your best employees out of an exit interview or exit survey? 

We’ve recently come across this new practice, which is used by some companies to hold onto their superstars. Basically, you’re sitting down for a frank discussion with employees who are at risk of being poached, or leaving for other reasons.

“They are a direct opportunity to prevent flight risks from leaving, but they are also a deep dive into engagement,” said Lenore Lambert, director at The Interview Group, told www.hcamag.com.

“So other than targeted retention, they are a useful follow-up tool for engagement surveys, targeting staff in areas that are less engaged and identifying specifically what needs to be done to get the best from people.”

This pre-emptive strike can help you hold onto your top performers, while gaining insights into what might help you retain the rest of your staff.

This is a relatively new idea, so there is no real data to show the success rate or any other numbers to support the stay interview’s impact on turnover or retention. However, the idea is a good one. And properly executed, it could make sure your best employees remain YOUR best.

If you have any questions about what exit surveys or employee engagement surveys can do for your company, please contact us any time.

An ethnically diverse team is great, but they present challenges for the people who manage them. A recent article explored how employee engagement survey can help these managers keep their team motivated.

Carol Patton of Hreonline.com suggests using an employee engagement survey and asking questions like, “Do you feel you're able to be your best in this team?” Or “Are your ideas taken seriously?”

“Armed with employee feedback, HR can then begin coaching team leaders. Ask questions such as: What would it feel like if your team was more innovative? If that happened more often, how would that benefit you?”

In the same article, Tricia Dupilka, director of talent solutions at BPI Group lists 360 evaluations and employee engagement surveys as valuable tools, while warning against using them too early.

"People have long memories… If you do a 360 too soon, in the back of their mind they may be thinking about well, in the last six months it's gotten a little better, but they're not thinking about the difference in the last month," said Dupilka.

"We recommend that a full 360 be done 12 to 18 months down the road."

If you have any questions about what employee engagement surveys or 360 degree evaluations can do for your company, please contact us any time.

You’ve conducted an employee engagement survey and gone over the results. You’ve seen which employees are the most engaged, so how should you reward them?

Consider promoting these employees, or creating what’s now being called “Intrapreneurs.” An Intrapreneur is defined as “An employee who is both willing and able to develop and implement innovative solutions, thereby adding surprising value to some or all of the organization’s stakeholders.”

“This higher tier is in the realm of intrapreneurship, where people are not only willing but also able to create unexpected value,” wrote Larry Myler, in an article at Forbes.com.

Upgrading or promoting your engaged employees into people who can act as leaders and come up with their own ways to help the company grow can have a number of benefits:

1. You gain fresh perspective from junior or frontline employees

2. Other employees see you’re willing to reward hard work and engagement

3. With nearly every company saying they encourage engagement, you get to be one that actually proves they do.

“Upgrading even one person from engaged to intrapreneur can create more value than migrating a larger number of disengaged people to the engaged group,” added Myler.

If you have any questions about what an employee engagement survey can do for your company, please contact us any time.

The career website Glassdoor.com recently conducted a mass employee satisfaction survey of sorts, and the results are in. So which company can brag about having the most satisfied employees?

An American consulting firm called Bain & Company ranked as the best place to work in 2014, knocking Facebook off the top spot in last year’s poll.

The survey was conducted online and asked employees to rate how satisfied they are, based on:

• Career opportunities
• Compensation and benefits
• Culture and values

Companies were graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 representing the highest level of satisfaction. Bain & Company scored an amazing 4.6.

"We are incredibly proud to be named the #1 Best Place to Work," said Russ Hagey, Global Chief Talent Officer at Bain & Company.

"For more than 40 years, we have placed significant focus on creating an outstanding professional and personal work experience that in turn has fueled our growth anchored in a mission of delivering results for clients and organizations around the globe," Hagey said.

Twitter placed second, while LinkedIn, Eastman Chemical and Facebook rounded out the top 5.

If you have any questions about what more targeted employee satisfaction surveys can do for your company, please contact us any time.

Your time with the company is winding down. Do you treat the exit survey or interview seriously? Or do you treat it as just one more thing you have to take care of before you leave.

Many experts believe that you should treat the exit survey or interview very seriously. Yes, it helps the company’s future, but you may not realize what it can do for yours.

“Participate in an exit interview if you want a good reference in the future,” wrote Bob Wilson in an article at wgntv.com.

Wilson is a managing partner at OI Global Partners, and feels taking this last chore seriously is crucial in leaving on good terms.

“Treat the exit interview as seriously as a hiring interview and focus on the benefits the new position presents for you and your career – and not the shortcomings of the job you are leaving or anyone working there.”

This could be the last bit of official business you take care of with this employer, so it’s important to leave a good impression. If you have bad things to say, be sure to offer them as constructively as possible. If you have good things to say, be sure to use them to bookend the bad things.

If you have any questions about what exit survey software can do for your company, please contact us any time.