Stay Interview Template
A proactive retention conversation, not an exit interview. Ask the people you most want to keep what holds them, what frustrates them and what would make them leave, while there is still time to act. A themed question set, a manager process checklist, a retention risk matrix and an action tracker.
Reviewed by Madhu Karunakaran, VP, People & Culture
- A themed question set, grouped so the conversation stays open rather than interrogating
- A manager process checklist, so it is run as a caring conversation and not an exit debrief
- A retention risk matrix, so flight risk across the team is visible at a glance
- An action tracker, so the one or two things you commit to actually get done
What is inside
- A themed question set that groups the conversation into what keeps people, what frustrates them, growth, recognition, the manager relationship and what would make them leave, so it stays open rather than feeling like an interrogation.
- A manager process checklist that keeps the conversation framed as caring and proactive, not as an exit debrief, with reminders to listen more than talk and to note themes rather than script answers.
- A retention risk matrix that scores each team member across the drivers that hold people, so flight risk is visible at a glance instead of being a surprise in a resignation letter.
- An action tracker that captures the one or two things you commit to, with an owner and a follow-up, because a stay interview you do not act on does more harm than none at all.
Who it is for
Anyone who has to plan what people learn, and answer for whether it landed.
- L&D and training teams
- People managers and team leads
- Heads of function and department
- HR business partners
- Compliance and risk teams
- Onboarding and enablement teams
- Operations and delivery leads
- COOs and HR directors
How to use this template in 4 steps
- Pick your format. Download the PDF to share, the Word file to edit, or the Excel file to work in live. All three are free.
- Make it yours. Adapt the sections, fields and wording to your team, roles and process so it fits how you actually work.
- Put it to work. Fill it in, circulate it to stakeholders for sign-off, or roll it out to your team.
- Track and improve. Review it on a set cadence and refine it as your goals, roles and priorities change.
What is inside
- A themed question set that groups the conversation into what keeps people, what frustrates them, growth, recognition, the manager relationship and what would make them leave, so it stays open rather than feeling like an interrogation.
- A manager process checklist that keeps the conversation framed as caring and proactive, not as an exit debrief, with reminders to listen more than talk and to note themes rather than script answers.
- A retention risk matrix that scores each team member across the drivers that hold people, so flight risk is visible at a glance instead of being a surprise in a resignation letter.
- An action tracker that captures the one or two things you commit to, with an owner and a follow-up, because a stay interview you do not act on does more harm than none at all.
Treat this as a conversation structure, not legal or HR advice. Build trust before you ask, keep the conversation constructive rather than a list of grievances, and above all act on what you hear. Handle anything sensitive that surfaces, including pay, conduct or wellbeing, with your HR team and your own policies.
The stay interview question set
The heart of the template. Questions are grouped by theme so the conversation flows and nothing important is skipped. Use them as a guide, not a script: ask the ones that fit, follow the threads that open up, and let the person talk. The download has the same set with space to note what you hear.
| Theme | Questions |
|---|---|
| What keeps you here | What makes you look forward to work on a good day? What would you miss most if you left tomorrow? What has kept you here so far? |
| What frustrates you | What gets in the way of doing your best work? What is one thing you would change about how we work? What do we do that wastes your time or energy? |
| Growth and development | Are you learning and growing the way you want to be? What skills would you like to build next? Where do you want your career to go, and are we helping you get there? |
| Recognition | Do you feel your contribution is seen and valued? When did you last feel genuinely appreciated here? How do you like to be recognised? |
| Relationship with manager | What can I do more of, or less of, to support you? Do you get enough feedback and direction from me? Is there anything you have wanted to raise with me but have not? |
| What would make you leave | What would make you seriously consider an offer elsewhere? Is there anything that, if it stays the same, would push you to look? If you were tempted away, what would it most likely be about? |
When the development that comes out of these conversations lives in the same platform people learn in, a promise you make in the room becomes a visible learning path the person can see and progress through, rather than a note that gets forgotten by the next busy week.
Run it as a caring conversation
A stay interview goes wrong when it feels like an exit interview, a survey or a performance review. This checklist keeps it what it should be: a short, honest conversation the manager holds, where the person does most of the talking. Tick items as you prepare, it stays in this browser. The download has the same list with an owner column.
- Held by the direct manager, not outsourced to HR or a formBeforeManager
- Framed openly as a stay conversation, caring and not an exitOpeningManager
- Timed when things are calm, not in a crisis or after a resignationBeforeManager
- Questions chosen from the themes, used as a guide and not a scriptBeforeManager
- Manager listens more than talks and resists fixing in the roomDuringManager
- Themes noted, not a transcript, and the person does most of the talkingDuringManager
- One or two realistic actions agreed, over-promising avoidedCloseManager
- Honest about what cannot change, so trust is not spentCloseManager
- Anything sensitive routed to HR under the right policyAfterManager and HR
- Follow-up date set and the loop actually closed laterAfterManager
The fastest way to break trust is to ask and then do nothing. If you are not prepared to follow up on what you hear, do not run the conversation yet. An unanswered stay interview tells your best people their input does not matter, which is worse than never asking.
Retention risk across the team
The question set is one conversation at a time. This matrix steps back to the team: for each person you most want to keep, how strong are the things that actually hold people. Score each driver and the flight risks stand out before they become resignations. In Excel the readiness and gaps calculate as you type.
| Team member | Tenure | Engagement | Growth | Recognition | Manager | Flight risk | Ready |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Sharma | 4 yrs | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| B. Okafor | 2 yrs | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 90% |
| C. Martins | 6 yrs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 60% |
| D. Reyes | 1 yr | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 50% |
| E. Haddad | 3 yrs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20% |
| Coverage at required | 60% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 40% | 64% |
E. Haddad is the exposure here: no clear growth, no recognition and high flight risk, despite three years of tenure and experience that would be expensive to lose. That is the conversation to have this week, not next quarter.
Turn what you hear into action
A stay interview is only as good as what follows it. This tracker turns the themes from the conversation into specific actions with an owner and a date, so the one or two things you committed to actually happen and you can show the person they were heard.
| Theme | Signal | Action | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth and development | Wants to move toward a lead role, feels stuck. | Agree a development path and a stretch project this quarter. | Manager |
| Recognition | Good work going unseen since the team grew. | Reset how wins are shared in the team ritual. | Manager |
| What frustrates you | Too much time lost to a broken handoff. | Fix the handoff with the next team, set a review date. | Manager and Ops |
| Relationship with manager | Wants more regular feedback and direction. | Move to a standing fortnightly one on one. | Manager |
| What would make you leave | Pay raised quietly, flagged as a tipping point. | Raise with HR under the pay review process. | Manager and HR |
How to use it
- Choose who, and why now
Pick the people you most want to keep and run the conversation on a steady cadence, not only after someone has one foot out the door.
- Frame it as caring, not exit
Tell them plainly this is a stay conversation: you value them, you want to understand what keeps them here and what gets in the way.
- Work through the themes
Use the question set as a guide, not a script. Ask what keeps them, what frustrates them, and what would make them consider leaving.
- Listen more than you talk
This is their conversation. Resist defending or fixing in the room. Note the themes, not just the words, and let silences do their work.
- Agree one or two actions
Do not promise everything. Commit to one or two concrete things you can actually influence, and be honest about what you cannot.
- Follow up and close the loop
Set a date, do what you said, and come back to show it happened. The follow-up is what turns the conversation into retention.
Of all the things people raise in stay interviews, growth is the one a manager most directly controls. Disprz makes that development visible and real, turning a promise about progression into a learning path the person can see and move through, and teams building capability this way see up to 50 percent gains in engagement.
Common mistakes this template prevents
- Running stay interviews only after someone resigns, which makes them exit interviews with a kinder name.
- Turning the conversation into an interrogation or a survey, so people give safe answers instead of honest ones.
- The manager doing most of the talking, defending and fixing in the room instead of listening and noting themes.
- Over-promising to keep someone happy, then spending the trust when the promises are not kept.
- Asking the questions and never acting, so the people you most wanted to keep learn that their input changes nothing.
Which format should you use?
| Format | Best for | What is inside | Editable | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sharing and print | The full template, formatted to print or circulate | No | 56 KB | |
| Word | Editing the wording | Every section as editable text you can adapt | Yes | 87 KB |
| Excel | Filling it in live | The grid and fields set up as a working spreadsheet | Yes | 66 KB |
Questions people ask
What is a stay interview?
How is a stay interview different from an exit interview?
Who should run stay interviews, and how often?
What questions should a stay interview include?
Do I have to fill the form three times?
More from the L&D library
A stay interview surfaces what people want. Growth is the part you can actually deliver. That is what we run.
Bring what your stay interviews are telling you to a 30-minute working session. We will show how Disprz turns the development people ask for into structured, visible learning paths they can see themselves progressing through, so the growth you promise in the conversation becomes something real. Teams build capability with up to 50 percent gains in engagement when development is made this visible.