Stay Interviews

[deanwebb]

Not a blog post, but an article. It's from the law industry, but I expect it's a trend showing up at a job near you:

https://abovethelaw.com/2022/03/why-stay-interviews-might-help-law-firms-and-companies-retain-legal-talent/

This should be more than just a 6-month performance review. Those things don't work. They're basically a formality for the company to give you a modest raise that may or may not keep up with inflation and/or justify bonus funding levels to the employees. For so long, it's been a matter of complain and get branded as clubhouse poison and find yourself edged out... so it's better to just fake a grin and walk out when you find a new job that's better than the one you have... instead of making your current job better.

I did leave my last position for my current one for reasons other than money. I'm so much happier where I am, I don't regret the lateral move one bit. That's right: *lateral* move. On top of that, I had a proposition to work elsewhere at a huge $$$ rate... but it was a place that I knew would be miserable - they truly couldn't pay me enough to work there.

But I don't see "stay interviews" as something that will have meaning at larger, public companies or at agencies with fixed budgets. Those places are too rigid to adapt, I'm thinking. Smaller, privately-owned firms can do more to adapt to what employees want.

[Otanx]

Grumpy old man chiming in. This is just the new "Look we care about our employees" buzz word. All of the questions they list are things that are already included on my performance review. Guess what? It requires companies to actually follow through with things. They even mention that in the article

Through a stay interview, a company or law firm will gain deeper insight into ways to retain currently employed lawyers or in-house counsel. But these suggestions cannot sit in a vacuum. They must be applied and implemented.

If I say that getting X training will help me with my job, but the company never allocates the budget for training then it does not matter if I told them that at my performance review, or at a stay interview. Same with any other changes that would help. If I don't feel comfortable telling my boss through normal interactions I am just going to shut up and smile when asked during a stay interview as well. The culture of the company needs to change to actually care about their employees, and not just make up a new buzz word so they can pretend to care. Changing culture isn't easy, and takes a long time so for an employee the best thing to do is find a new job.

End of grumpy old man rant.

-Otanx

[deanwebb]

Yep. Once companies realize that changing culture isn't something done without a decent budget, we'll see an actual, better culture. I've said this before, I'll say it again - it's firms on the small side and definitely those that are privately-owned that have the best track records for keeping employees truly happy.