Stay Interview Questions: 55 Questions to Retain Top Talent in 2026

Stay Interview Meaning

Most organizations learn why employees leave only after they are gone. Exit interview questions capture the reasons someone already decided to quit. Stay interviews flip that sequence: instead of diagnosing departures, they identify what keeps people engaged while there is still time to act. In 2026, with labor markets tight and employee expectations continuing to shift, a structured stay interview process is one of the most direct ways to reduce preventable turnover.

The retention challenge is not new, but the scale is. Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion annually, roughly 9% of global GDP. Teams with low engagement experience 18% to 43% higher turnover than their highly engaged counterparts. These numbers reflect a systemic problem, not a seasonal trend.

Remote and hybrid teams amplify the problem. Managers lose the informal signals that once flagged disengagement: shorter hallway conversations, visible frustration, or a sudden drop in participation. In distributed environments, a stay interview is often the only structured touchpoint where a manager can gauge what a team member actually thinks about their role, workload, and future. The stay interview meaning, at its core, is a proactive conversation designed to surface what matters to an employee before it becomes a resignation letter.

55 Stay Interview Questions and Answers

The best stay interview questions are specific enough to produce actionable insight and open enough to give the employee space to say what they actually think. The questions below are organized by category so managers can select the ones most relevant to each conversation rather than reading through a generic list. Use the first 25 as detailed guides with sample answers and follow-up moves. The remaining 30 expand coverage into areas that may surface in longer or recurring conversations.

Engagement and Motivation Questions

These stay interview questions for employees uncover what drives daily effort and where enthusiasm may be fading. Patterns in this category often predict retention outcomes months before a formal resignation.

Question #1: What do you look forward to most when you start your work day?

Sample strong retention answer: “I enjoy the problem-solving part of my role. Digging into a new challenge with the team energizes me, especially when we can see direct results from our work.”

Early risk signals:

• Vague or deflecting answer, such as “the paycheck” without further elaboration
• Long pause before responding or visible discomfort
• References only social elements, nothing about the work itself

Manager follow-up move:

• Increase exposure to challenging projects aligned with stated interests
• Reduce routine tasks where possible to protect engagement

Question #2: When was the last time you felt genuinely proud of something you accomplished here?

Sample strong retention answer: “Last month when we shipped the new onboarding flow ahead of schedule. Seeing the customer satisfaction scores jump within two weeks made the effort feel worthwhile.”

Early risk signals:

• Cannot recall a recent example or references something from more than a year ago
• Attributes the accomplishment entirely to others without personal ownership

Manager follow-up move:

• Publicly recognize recent contributions in a team setting
• Ensure the employee’s role in successful projects is visible to leadership

Question #3: Is there anything about your current work that has started to feel repetitive or draining?

Sample strong retention answer: “The weekly reporting cycle feels manual and time-consuming. I would rather spend that time on analysis, which is where I add more value.”

Early risk signals:

• Lists multiple draining tasks with emotional weight
• Mentions the same frustration they raised in a prior conversation without it being addressed

Manager follow-up move:

• Evaluate which repetitive tasks can be automated or reassigned
• Discuss realistic timeline for shifting the workload mix

Question #4: What would make your work more meaningful to you right now?

Sample strong retention answer: “Being closer to the customer. I do a lot of backend work and rarely see how it lands. Even occasional exposure to client feedback would help me connect the dots.”

Early risk signals:

• Responds with “nothing” without engagement in the conversation
• Describes something the organization has already committed to but not delivered

Manager follow-up move:

• Create a structured channel for the employee to receive customer impact data
• Invite them to client-facing reviews or feedback sessions

Question #5: On a scale from one to ten, how motivated do you feel about the next six months? What would raise that number?

Sample strong retention answer: “I am at a seven. Getting clarity on our team’s direction after the restructuring would push me to a nine. I work best when I know where we are heading.”

Early risk signals:

• Scores below five without a clear path to improvement
• Says the number has been declining over consecutive conversations

Manager follow-up move:

• Share as much forward-looking context as possible, even if incomplete
• Schedule a follow-up specifically to revisit the score after addressing the stated concern

Questions About Growth and Career Development 

Growth-related employee stay interview questions reveal whether someone sees a future at the organization or is quietly considering alternatives. When employees stop talking about what they want to learn, they have often already started looking elsewhere.

Question #6: What skills are you building right now that you want to use more in your role?

Sample strong retention answer: “I have been learning data visualization on my own time. I would like to apply it to our quarterly reviews so the insights are easier for stakeholders to digest.”

Early risk signals:

• Says they are not building any new skills
• Mentions skills that are entirely unrelated to the organization’s work

Manager follow-up move:

• Identify an upcoming project where the new skill can be applied
• Offer access to relevant training or tools

Question #7: Where do you see your career heading over the next two years, and does this role support that direction?

Sample strong retention answer: “I want to move into a lead role. This position gives me the cross-functional exposure I need, but I could use more opportunities to run smaller projects independently.”

Early risk signals:

• Cannot articulate a career direction
• Describes a goal the organization cannot support at all

Manager follow-up move:

• Co-create a development plan with milestones tied to the stated career goal
• Assign a stretch project that builds leadership experience

Question #8: Do you feel the organization invests enough in your professional development?

Sample strong retention answer: “The budget for conferences is helpful, but I learn more from mentoring. I would appreciate being paired with someone from the leadership team who has been through a similar career path.”

Early risk signals:

• Flat “no” without belief that it will change
• Compares the organization unfavorably to a previous employer

Manager follow-up move:

• Explore internal mentorship pairing or cross-team shadowing
• Review the development budget to ensure it matches stated employee needs

Question #9: Is there a project or responsibility outside your current scope that you would like to take on?

Sample strong retention answer: “I have been interested in the product roadmap planning process. Sitting in on those sessions would help me understand how priorities get set, which is a skill I want to develop.”

Early risk signals:

• Expresses no interest in expanding scope
• Mentions the same unrealized request from a previous stay interview

Manager follow-up move:

• Arrange an observer role or a trial assignment in the desired area
• Set a review date to evaluate fit and decide on a more permanent shift

Question #10: What is one thing we could do to help you grow faster here?

Sample strong retention answer: “More honest feedback. I get positive comments but rarely hear what I need to improve. Constructive input helps me grow faster than praise alone.”

Early risk signals:

• Says nothing can help, suggesting checked-out mindset
• Gives an answer that conflicts with what the manager has already offered

Manager follow-up move:

• Commit to regular, specific feedback in one-on-one meetings
• Ask the employee to define what actionable feedback looks like to them

Questions About Workload and Friction Points

Workload questions surface operational issues that erode engagement over time. People rarely quit over a single bad week, but sustained friction without resolution is one of the most reliable predictors of voluntary turnover.

Question #11: What part of your job takes more effort than it should?

Sample strong retention answer: “Getting approvals. A task that takes me an hour to complete can sit in an approval queue for five days. It stalls my other work and makes deadlines harder to hit.”

Early risk signals:

• Describes systemic blockers that have existed for a long time
• Expresses frustration with visible emotional intensity

Manager follow-up move:

• Map the approval workflow and identify where delays occur
• Propose a streamlined process or escalation path for time-sensitive items

Question #12: Do you feel you have the tools and resources you need to do your best work?

Sample strong retention answer: “Mostly, yes. The one gap is our project management tool. It is slow, the integrations break often, and the team has created workarounds that add unnecessary steps.”

Early risk signals:

• Lists several missing tools or resources
• Has stopped asking for what they need because prior requests were ignored

Manager follow-up move:

• Prioritize the most impactful resource gap for resolution
• Communicate a realistic timeline for addressing infrastructure requests

Question #13: How sustainable does your current workload feel over the next twelve months?

Sample strong retention answer: “Right now it is manageable, but we are heading into our busy season with one fewer person than last year. If that is not addressed, it will not be sustainable past Q3.”

Early risk signals:

• Describes current workload as already unsustainable
• Mentions health or personal-life impacts from overwork

Manager follow-up move:

• Review headcount planning and temporary support options before the peak period
• Identify tasks that can be deprioritized to create breathing room

Question #14: What is one process you would eliminate or redesign if you could?

Sample strong retention answer: “The end-of-month reporting format. We spend two days reformatting data that leadership looks at for ten minutes. A dashboard would deliver the same insight with a fraction of the effort.”

Early risk signals:

• Names a process that leadership has explicitly defended
• Has raised this before without seeing any progress

Manager follow-up move:

• Invite the employee to draft a lightweight proposal for the redesign
• Present the idea to leadership with data on time savings

Question #15: Are there tasks you are doing that you believe someone else should own?

Sample strong retention answer: “I am still handling onboarding documentation for new hires even though it should sit with HR. It was a temporary arrangement that became permanent.”

Early risk signals:

• Lists several misallocated responsibilities
• Expresses resentment about workload creep

Manager follow-up move:

• Audit task ownership against the current role description
• Transition misallocated tasks with a clear handover plan and timeline

Manager Relationship and Support Questions

The quality of the employee-manager relationship is the single most influential factor in retention. Gallup found that it takes more than a 20% pay raise to lure an employee away from a manager who genuinely engages them. These sample stay interview questions give managers direct insight into how their support is landing.

Question #16: Do you feel you get enough feedback from me to know where you stand?

Sample strong retention answer: “Your feedback is honest, which I appreciate. I would benefit from hearing it more frequently though, not just during reviews. Quick comments after key meetings help me adjust faster.”

Early risk signals:

• Says they rarely or never receive useful feedback
• Feels surprised by performance review outcomes

Manager follow-up move:

• Establish a weekly or biweekly feedback touchpoint, even if brief
• Ask the employee how they prefer to receive feedback

Question #17: Is there anything I do that makes your work harder?

Sample strong retention answer: “Sometimes decisions change after I have already started executing. A heads-up when priorities are shifting would save me from rework.”

Early risk signals:

• Avoids answering directly, suggesting low psychological safety
• Describes recurring behavior the manager has not addressed

Manager follow-up move:

• Commit to earlier communication when priorities shift
• Create a standing check-in before major directional changes

Question #18: Do you feel I understand what you need to do your best work?

Sample strong retention answer: “You understand my role well, but I do not think you see how much time the cross-team coordination takes. It is not visible in my output, but it absorbs a significant part of my week.”

Early risk signals:

• Feels consistently misunderstood or undervalued
• Describes a gap between what the manager expects and what the role actually involves

Manager follow-up move:

• Ask the employee to walk through a typical week so hidden effort becomes visible
• Adjust expectations or redistribute tasks based on what emerges

Question #19: How comfortable are you bringing concerns to me before they become bigger problems?

Sample strong retention answer: “I feel comfortable with work-related issues. For interpersonal things, I tend to hold back because I am not sure how they will be received.”

Early risk signals:

• Says they do not feel comfortable raising concerns at all
• Has been escalating issues through other channels instead

Manager follow-up move:

• Acknowledge the honesty and reinforce that all concerns are welcome
• Follow up on a past concern to demonstrate responsiveness

Question #20: What is the most useful thing I could do for you in the next quarter?

Sample strong retention answer: “Help me get visibility with the VP. I have been leading a workstream that impacts their goals, but they do not know my name. That exposure matters for my career trajectory here.”

Early risk signals:

• Says “nothing,” suggesting disengagement or distrust
• Makes a request the manager has already failed to deliver on

Manager follow-up move:

• Arrange a presentation opportunity or invite the employee to a leadership meeting
• Track this request and report back on progress within 30 days

Work Environment and Flexibility Questions

Flexibility has moved from a perk to a baseline expectation. These unique stay interview questions help managers understand whether the current work arrangement supports or undermines performance, especially in remote and hybrid settings.

Question #21: Does our current work arrangement support how you work best?

Sample strong retention answer: “The hybrid schedule works well for deep focus at home and collaboration in the office. The only friction is mandatory office days that do not have team activities. On those days I am just doing solo work in a noisier environment.”

Early risk signals:

• Describes the arrangement as a significant source of dissatisfaction
• Has started making personal plans around avoiding the current setup

Manager follow-up move:

• Review mandatory in-office days against actual collaboration value
• Propose a trial adjustment and measure impact on output and satisfaction

Question #22: What does a productive day look like for you, and how often do you have one?

Sample strong retention answer: “A productive day means three to four hours of uninterrupted focus time, one meaningful meeting, and visible progress on a priority. I get that about three days a week, which feels reasonable.”

Early risk signals:

• Says productive days are rare, once a week or less
• Describes constant meeting overload or context switching

Manager follow-up move:

• Protect focus blocks on the calendar and minimize unnecessary meetings
• Audit recurring meetings for relevance and consolidate where possible

Question #23: Is there anything about our team culture that you wish were different?

Sample strong retention answer: “We are good at heads-down execution but not great at celebrating wins. A quick acknowledgment after a major delivery would go a long way.”

Early risk signals:

• Describes cultural issues that affect their daily experience
• Mentions tension with specific colleagues without resolution

Manager follow-up move:

• Introduce lightweight recognition practices that fit the team’s rhythm
• Address interpersonal issues directly if they surface

Question #24: How well do you feel informed about changes happening across the organization?

Sample strong retention answer: “I hear about big changes through the all-hands, but the context is thin. I would rather hear from my direct manager what a change means for our team specifically.”

Early risk signals:

• Learns about changes from external sources or rumors
• Feels blindsided by decisions that affect their work

Manager follow-up move:

• Add a brief post-announcement debrief to existing one-on-one meetings
• Proactively share how organizational changes translate to the team level

Question #25: If you could change one thing about working here, what would it be?

Sample strong retention answer: “The pace of decision-making. Good ideas get stuck in review cycles that last weeks. I would like to see us move faster on low-risk decisions.”

Early risk signals:

• Names something fundamental, like trust or leadership quality
• Gives a list of complaints rather than a single focused change

Manager follow-up move:

• Identify decision-making bottlenecks that fall within your control
• Pilot a faster approval track for lower-risk changes and report results upward

30 Additional Stay Interview Questions to Explore

The questions below expand coverage into areas that may not surface in every conversation but become relevant as the stay interview process matures. Use them selectively based on the employee’s tenure, seniority, and recent experiences. Managers who keep a working list of stay interview questions examples across categories are better prepared to adapt each session to the individual.

Recognition

Recognition questions surface whether employees feel their contributions are seen and valued, or if good work is quietly absorbed without acknowledgment.

1. Do you feel your work is recognized in a way that matters to you?
2. What form of recognition motivates you the most?
3. When was the last time you felt genuinely appreciated for something specific?
4. Is recognition distributed fairly across the team, from your perspective?

Compensation Transparency

Compensation questions in a stay interview are not about negotiation. They reveal whether an employee’s perception of fairness aligns with reality and whether pay is becoming a pull factor toward other opportunities.

1. Do you feel your compensation reflects the value you bring to the team?
2. How transparent do you find our approach to pay and progression?
3. Are there non-monetary benefits that would make a meaningful difference to you?
4. Do you understand how compensation decisions are made here?

Role Clarity

Role ambiguity drives quiet disengagement. These questions test whether employees know what success looks like and whether their actual work matches the role they signed up for.

1. Is your current role what you expected when you accepted the position?
2. Are your priorities clear, or do you often have to guess what matters most?
3. Has your role shifted in ways you did not anticipate, and how do you feel about those changes?
4. Do you know what success looks like in your position over the next six months?

Team Collaboration

Collaboration questions reveal whether team dynamics are supporting or undermining individual performance. People leave teams as often as they leave managers.

1. How would you describe the level of trust within our team?
2. Is there anyone on the team you find difficult to collaborate with, and what would help?
3. Do you feel your voice carries equal weight in team discussions?

Leadership Trust

Trust in senior leadership influences whether employees believe the organization is heading somewhere worth staying for. These are stay interview questions for managers to ask when they sense skepticism about the broader direction.

1. Do you trust the direction senior leadership is taking the organization?
2. How well do you understand the company’s priorities for this year?
3. Do you feel leadership decisions are communicated with enough context?
4. Is there a recent leadership decision you did not understand or disagree with?

Learning Opportunities

Learning questions help managers assess whether the organization’s development offerings match what employees actually need to stay challenged and grow.

1. What is one skill you want to develop that your current work does not cover?
2. How do you prefer to learn: formal courses, peer learning, or on-the-job experience?
3. Is there someone in the organization you would like to learn from?

Work-Life Balance

Balance questions uncover whether the job is encroaching on personal time in ways the employee has not yet raised. In remote settings, boundaries are especially prone to erosion.

1. How often do you find yourself working outside of your regular hours?
2. Do you feel comfortable disconnecting from work at the end of the day?
3. Is there anything about your schedule that you would change if you could?
4. Does your workload allow you to take time off without stress about catching up?

Long-Term Vision

Vision questions assess whether an employee sees a credible future for themselves inside the organization, or whether they have mentally moved on even if physically still present.

1. Do you see yourself here in two years? What would make that more likely?
2. What would need to change for you to consider this the best job you have ever had?
3. Is there a role or position within the company that you aspire to?
4. What would make you start looking for another opportunity?

How to Analyze Stay Interview Answers

Collecting answers is the easier part. The value of a stay interview emerges from how the data is interpreted. SHRM recommends using stay interviews as a targeted retention strategy, and the analysis stage is where that targeting happens.

Look for patterns across employees, not isolated complaints. When three people on the same team mention unclear priorities, that is a structural issue. When one person mentions it once, it may be a temporary frustration. Tracking themes over multiple conversations reveals which issues are systemic and which are situational.

Pay attention to energy shifts, not just words. An employee who gives technically fine answers but does so with visible disengagement may be signaling more than someone who raises specific concerns with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm about friction points can actually be a positive sign: it means the employee cares enough to want things fixed.

Avoid overreacting to a single comment. One negative data point does not require an organizational response. Instead, note it, watch for repetition, and distinguish between venting, which is normal, and a pattern that signals disengagement. Knowing how to answer stay interview questions from an analysis perspective means being disciplined about what warrants action and what warrants observation.

Use a simple tracking format: record the date, the employee, the top themes, and any specific commitments the manager made. Review this log quarterly to identify trends and hold yourself accountable. A stay interview action plan template can standardize this across teams and make it easier to aggregate findings at the department level.

Stay Interview Best Practices: Common Mistakes to Avoid 

Stay interviews are simple in concept but easy to execute poorly. These are the most common mistakes that undermine their impact.

• Turning it into a performance review. The moment an employee feels evaluated, they stop being honest. Stay interviews are about their experience, not their output. Keep the two conversations separate.
• Asking but not acting. If employees share concerns and nothing changes, the next stay interview will produce polite non-answers. Every session should end with at least one concrete follow-up the manager commits to.
• Being defensive. When an employee describes friction caused by management, the natural instinct is to explain or justify. Resist it. Listen, take notes, and respond after reflecting.
• Doing it only with high performers. Stay interview best practices include conducting them across the team, not just with top talent. Mid-level performers who quietly disengage represent a significant retention cost that often goes unnoticed.
• Overpromising. Saying “I will fix that” without the authority or resources to follow through destroys trust faster than the original problem did. Be honest about what you can influence and what requires escalation.

When to Conduct a Stay Interview

Timing matters as much as the questions themselves. A stay interview template that defines cadence, format, and follow-up timelines helps managers build consistency without adding scheduling overhead.

The most practical approach is a quarterly light version layered on top of an annual deep version. Quarterly sessions can be integrated into existing one-on-ones: dedicate 15 to 20 minutes to three or four focused questions from this list, rotating categories each quarter. Annual sessions should be standalone conversations of 30 to 45 minutes that cover all five categories and include a review of prior commitments.

Beyond the regular cadence, certain triggers should prompt an additional session. After major organizational changes such as restructurings, leadership transitions, or layoffs, employees re-evaluate their commitment to the organization. A brief check-in within two weeks of a significant change surfaces concerns before they calcify into decisions. Similarly, before promotion cycles, a stay interview gives the manager direct insight into whether the employee’s expectations align with available opportunities.

Consider this a downloadable stay interview questions pdf resource for your team. Save these questions, customize them to your context, and build a repeatable cadence that turns stay interviews from an occasional event into a continuous retention signal.

FAQs on Best Stay Interview Questions