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Writer's pictureJen Gill, LDO

Stay Interviews are Crucial for a Successful, Happy Eye Care Practice

One aspect I always see in management is that they focus all their time on poor performers, and they forget to think about their top performers. 😥 When I managed practices, I always ensured to keep the employees engaged, and I would focus on my top performers while coaching vertically or horizontally the bottom performers. This method drastically created growth within my stores in a positive manner. Stay interviews are essential for employers looking to keep their best employees engaged and invested in their organization. High-performing employees are valuable assets, and you must do everything possible to support and encourage them. A great way to do this is through stay interviews, which allow you to check in with your top employees and gain insight into their job satisfaction, career goals, and workplace motivation. Why do they want to work for you? What processes should you keep or change? Here are some eyetastic reasons stay interviews are essential for keeping your best employees engaged and invested in your organization to ensure a successful practice.

Identify Potential Problems Early

Stay interviews allow you to identify and address potential problems early before they become significant issues in the workplace. Sometimes, the minor issues will become more prominent, and your associates might feel unsupported, which will cause those essential issues that we all want to avoid. When problems are associated with state and federal laws, you must act swiftly, or the repercussions can be detrimental to your practice. In that case, you can address their concerns and start making positive changes before the issue becomes more serious. If you don't hold stay interviews, you may notice that one or more of your top employees is unhappy or dissatisfied, and it might be too late to do anything about it. At this point, the trust will be gone.

Show That You Care About Your Employees

Employees want to feel appreciated and cared for, and interviews are a great way to show that you care about them and their careers. Holding stay interviews shows employees that you care about their happiness, career growth, and development. It also shows them that you care about their ideas, feedback, and suggestions and want to hear what they say. Ensure you effectively listen and follow-thru with whatever you agree to during the interview. This is a great way to build trust and loyalty between your employees and encourage them to remain committed to their careers at your organization.


Keep Team Members Engaged and Motivated

High-performing employees want to feel appreciated, engaged, and motivated at work. Employees who are not involved and motivated are much more likely to leave your company and will likely take their knowledge and expertise with them when they do. During the stay interview, you can ask your employees what motivates them and what would make them feel more engaged and motivated at work. It is only sometimes money. Think Maslow's Hierarchy of Need (firm believer in this)! You can then use this information to make changes that will keep your top performers engaged and motivated. If you don't hold stay interviews and one or more of your top performers becomes disengaged and unmotivated, there is very little you can do to improve their situation once it gets to that level.

Understand Employee Career Goals

One of the best ways to understand what drives your employees is to ask them about their career goals. What do they want to achieve in their careers? Where do they want to go? Stay interviews are an excellent opportunity to ask these questions and to gain insight into your employees' career goals. You can also ask about their current career goals and where they want to go next. This will help you get to know your employees better and identify potential issues that may impede their career advancement. Sometimes, employees may change their paths throughout their employment, so regular check-ins will keep you and your employees working together to help the individual reach their career goals.

Gain Insight into Workplace Satisfaction

Engagement and motivation are part of workplace satisfaction, so if you want to understand your employees' satisfaction with the company, you can use the stay interviews to gather this information. You may feel that your organization is doing great, but you have high turnover with low morale. You can use a satisfaction survey or scale to measure employee satisfaction at the beginning of the stay interview and then again at the end to see if there are any changes. If there are changes, this will let you know that some issues need to be addressed.

Improve Communication and Listening Skills

Stay interviews require active listening and communication skills, which will improve these essential skills and help you become a better manager and leader. Listening carefully to what your employees say will help you understand them better and respond to their feedback, suggestions, and ideas in a way that respects their thoughts and feelings. Communication is vital, and it's essential to present the information you gather from the stay interviews clearly and concisely that allows your employees to feel heard and appreciated. Sometimes, employees need to use you as a therapist to voice their ideas and concerns, which will help with employee growth.

Gather Feedback and Suggestions

Stay interviews are an excellent opportunity to ask employees for feedback and suggestions about their jobs, workplaces, and leaders. You can ask them about their work/life balance, their work environments, the tasks they are responsible for, the relationships they have with their managers, and their relationships with their coworkers. Employees might feel hesitant to share their thoughts with their managers outright since they work for you and are accountable to you. They may worry that you will take their comments the wrong way or that they will somehow negatively affect their careers if they speak up.

Identify Opportunities for Growth and Development

Stay interviews are an excellent opportunity to learn more about your employees' skills, strengths, and areas for improvement or growth. You can use this information to start planning their next career steps and identify areas they may need to work on to be promoted or advance in the organization successfully. The biggest issue I hear when speaking to candidates is the need for growth in their company, which you can quickly settle by talking with your staff and opening other doors to your business needs. Create change in areas that need improvement. Doing so will expand your associate's skill level while helping your practice grow.

Identify Opportunities for New Skill Development

Stay interviews are a great way to learn about your employees' skill gaps and to identify areas where they may need to develop new skills to advance successfully in their careers. You can use this information to start planning for further skill development or training programs and to identify areas that may need to be improved before your employees can move forward. If you don't hold stay interviews, you may have difficulty discovering where your employees need to improve, which could slow their career advancement.

Encourage Open and Honest Conversations

Stay interviews are a great way to encourage open and honest conversations between you and your employees. They also allow you to build trust and show employees that you are sincere and interested in their opinions and ideas. Holding stay interviews is a great way to open up lines of communication between you and your employees and to show them that you genuinely want to hear their thoughts and suggestions. It's also a great way to encourage honest feedback, which can be helpful for you as a manager.

Implement Stay Interviews Today

If you don't, one or more of your employees may become unhappy or dissatisfied with their job. You may find that it's too late to do anything to repair the damage. They could stay on for years, spreading their poison to other staff members. And when unhappy or dissatisfied employees decide to leave, it may be too late for the ramifications they caused to your business. Stay interviews are just as crucial as exit interviews, and hopefully, they will prevent your top performers from leaving or turning into bottom performers. Stay involved with your staff and their growth. You will be rewarded with having the best team ever.


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