With intense competition for talent, Stay Interviews have increasingly become a key retention technique to stay connected with consultants and understand if they are happy, motivated, and professionally fulfilled—or if they are feeling undervalued and bored. Staying in the loop with your consultants and providing them with career direction and professional development guidance are effective methods for ensuring they remain motivated and productive members of your team for the long term. This approach supports employee engagement and retention.
Summary
- Stay Interviews proactively align consultant growth goals with client needs through clear career direction and development.
- Prioritize internal mobility and upskilling to leverage institutional knowledge and prevent disengagement from overlooked talent.
- Make the conversations win-win, honest, and actionable—and follow up using targeted questions to sustain engagement.
How to Conduct a Win-Win Stay Interview
When conducting a Stay Interview, make it a win-win for both the company and the consultant.
- Ask where the consultant would like to grow.
- Share this information with the client to co-develop a plan that maintains current delivery while expanding the consultant’s skills.
- Emphasize the value of institutional knowledge gained by consultants and the importance of retaining top performers who understand the environment.
- With growing talent and skills shortages, prioritize professional development, including reskilling or upskilling, for employees and teams.
Prioritizing Internal Mobility: An Example
On a project delivery team with a Project Coordinator and several mid-level and senior PMs, when the need for a junior project manager is identified, consider three options:
- Look across the organization for availability of a junior project manager.
- Evaluate project coordinators for promotion.
- Explore externally.
Before looking externally, look internally to see if you can promote from within and backfill the Project Coordinator role. This approach:
- Capitalizes on the initial training investment.
- Grooms a resource that already understands the organization.
Immediately going external can cause individuals who are interested to feel overlooked or undervalued—feelings that can lead to disengagement and retention issues. Not knowing team member interests, goals, and aspirations can create avoidable turnover risks.
Handling Promotion Readiness
If a consultant feels ready to be promoted but you don’t agree:
- Explain why with clarity and transparency.
- Outline the experience and behaviors they need to consistently demonstrate to move to the next level.
- Provide clear career direction and development guidance so they feel supported and know the path forward.
Sample Stay Interview Questions
Consider asking:
- Are you happy in your current position?
- If you could change one aspect of your job, what would it be?
- What challenges are you facing, if any?
- Do you have the tools, training, and support from the team and management to be successful?
- What areas could we improve on as a team? As an organization?
Follow-Through
The most important thing throughout the Stay Interview is to be honest, open, and to follow up on the discussion.
Q&A
What is a Stay Interview and how does it help retention?
Answer: A Stay Interview is a proactive conversation designed to understand whether a consultant is happy, motivated, and professionally fulfilled—and to align their growth goals with client needs. By providing clear career direction, prioritizing internal mobility and upskilling, and acting on feedback, organizations keep consultants engaged, leverage their institutional knowledge, and reduce the risk of disengagement and turnover.
How should I conduct a Stay Interview to make it a win-win for the company, client, and consultant?
Answer: Ask where the consultant wants to grow, then share that input with the client to co-create a plan that maintains current delivery while expanding the consultant’s skills. Keep the discussion honest, open, and actionable, and follow up. Use targeted questions to sustain engagement and ensure commitments translate into specific development steps.
Why prioritize internal mobility before looking externally for talent?
Answer: Promoting from within capitalizes on prior training and preserves valuable institutional knowledge. It also prevents the unintended consequence of making interested team members feel overlooked or undervalued—feelings that can drive disengagement and retention issues. Internal moves can be paired with backfilling entry roles to maintain delivery while developing talent.
What should I do if a consultant wants a promotion but I don’t think they’re ready?
Answer: Be transparent about why and outline the experience and behaviors they need to consistently demonstrate to reach the next level. Provide clear career direction and development guidance so they know the path forward and feel supported rather than dismissed.
What are good questions to include in a Stay Interview?
Answer: Consider asking:
- Are you happy in your current position?
- If you could change one aspect of your job, what would it be?
- What challenges are you facing, if any?
- Do you have the tools, training, and support from the team and management to be successful?
- What areas could we improve on as a team? As an organization?
Remember: the most important parts are honesty, openness, and following up on what you discuss.
