Stay Interview Questions: 30 questions and a conversation guide

Have the conversation before the resignation letter

Much of what an exit interview tells you could have been learned months earlier. A stay interview asks while you can still act, and the 30-day follow-up is what makes it count.

When someone resigns, Acas suggests the employer talks to them, because a conversation might help you find out if there are problems that can be resolved (Acas). The trouble is timing. By the time the letter is on your desk, the new job has often been offered and accepted. A stay interview has the same conversation earlier, with people who have not decided to go.

It matters because people move often. The CIPD puts average annual turnover for UK workers at 34%, based on ONS data for 2022–23 (CIPD), and notes that high turnover can be costly in recruitment, training and lost knowledge (CIPD).

What most stay interview templates miss

Many stay interview templates are long lists of similar questions. Fewer cover what goes around them:

• Who to talk to first. “High performers” is not a plan. Signals such as a new manager, a missed promotion or a refused request tell you where risk is building.
• The words to open with. If the employee thinks it is a disguised performance review, you will hear nothing useful.
• A way to record risk. A few lines of notes do not tell HR which teams are wobbling or why.
• A deadline. The conversation only builds trust if something happens afterwards. This guide uses a 30-day rule.
• Frontline and shift staff. Hold it in paid time, on their shift, somewhere they can talk.
• UK law. Some well-meant questions, about retirement for example, carry real discrimination risk.

Who should run the interview?

Most guides say the line manager, because they can act on what they hear. Some UK organisations prefer someone who is not the employee’s manager, so people feel able to speak freely; the IPA recommends that approach in its own guidance (IPA). The template works for either. If the relationship with the manager is part of the problem, use someone else.

Questions to leave out

A stay interview asks about the future, and that is where the legal risk sits. Acas says that, unless there is a good business reason, employers should not ask directly about retirement plans (Acas). Ask everyone the same open question about where they would like to be in one to three years instead, and let them raise anything personal. The guide includes a table of questions to avoid and what to ask instead.

Five steps from conversation to action

1. Pick who to talk to first using the priority list
2. Book it in paid time and explain the purpose in advance
3. Open with the script, ask six to ten questions and listen
4. Record the risk and agree one or two actions before you finish
5. Close every action, or explain why you cannot, within 30 days

Notes from these conversations are personal information. The ICO says employers must respond to a worker’s subject access request without delay and within one month (ICO), so write every note as if the employee will read it.

The template comes as a printable PDF and an editable Word file. For the bigger picture, read our guide to improving employee retention and our free engagement survey template. Stay interviews work best alongside regular check-ins, so pair this with our one-to-one meeting template.