KEY POINTS:
Much has been written about the elusive Generation Y candidate. Should you employ 'em? Shouldn't you employ 'em? We recently read one article that stated that you should not employ them - full stop! Um, that's effectively taking 21 per cent of the workforce out of the workforce
participation equation (and a few of them are yet to actually start working).
So youth pay rates and retiring baby boomers aside ...
Managing and retaining staff has never been more important than it is today in such a tight job market. Whether your staff is Gen Y or Gen X (or a combination), they're moving through the ranks at varying paces. Boomers who still have a few years left in the workforce beware! They're hot on your heels and wanting to make their mark.
So the question is raised - how to engage employees of all ages and retain them in your place of work?
Stay interviews are the new exit interviews, and one key ingredient in keeping your workforce engaged.
Stay interviews differ from an annual employee satisfaction survey. A satisfaction survey generally gauges the current climate of all employees, allowing an impartial facilitator (either face-to-face or online) to measure certain metrics that an organisation is wanting to research, such as culture, values, management styles, interpersonal climate, support, performance management etc.
A stay interview is conducted on a quarterly basis and is designed as an employee temperature check. Rather than survey a company's entire workforce, a sample of 20 per cent of an organisation's employees should be polled. This audience should be cross-generational, come from different parts of the business and encompass varying levels of seniority.
As an engaged workforce equates to little or no churn (or employees leaving your organisation), the purpose of conducting stay interviews is to identify:
* Any issues or problems and address these as they arise.
* Gauge satisfaction levels of employees.
* Whether an employer is fulfilling its promises back to staff.
* Improve the organisational climate by encouraging and improving communication between employees and managers.
* Any training requirements or employee needs that hold staff members back from working to their maximum productivity.
Upon completion, stay interviews should also be able to identify any employees who are dissatisfied and hopefully help avert their departure.
Stay interviews also differ from performance reviews. One generally conducts a performance review on an annual basis. These are designed to gauge what key staff members really want in their remuneration packages and to ensure that top performers are retained within the business.
Be prepared to stand by the results, once they are available. If you spend time speaking to your staff, you need to distil the outcome back to them and have a clear strategy on how you will deliver the improvements.