WELLBEING Conducting stay interviews
Assessing a staff members general outlook • What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?
• What do you like most / least about your job?
• What keeps you working here? • What might tempt you to leave? • Have you thought about leaving? If so when, and what situation made you consider this?
• Would you recommend working here to others? You can use a 1-10 scale if this helps. Why or why not?
How staff feel about their work • If you could, what would you change about your job?
• What do you think about your objectives? • How meaningful do you find your work? • Do you have the right resources and support to do your best work?
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n his regular column this month for Education Today Mark Solomons, CEO of School Wellbeing Accelerator shares his top tips for conducting stay interviews to improve staff retention.
The end of the summer term is nearly here, time for exit interviews and farewells. But what about those staff who are staying - what do leaders know about how they are feeling? Now is the time to take the opportunity to find out, so they won’t be saying farewell any time soon.
Stay interviews can provide leaders with a competitive advantage by providing a better understanding of what is likely to keep an individual working for the MAT or school, as well as identifying issues that, if addressed, will help retain staff.
The education sector continues to face enormous challenges, not least of which is the attrition of staff. The latest figures from the DfE’s Working Lives of Teachers and Leavers survey (April 2023) reports ‘25% of teachers and leaders are considering leaving the sector in the next 12 months for reasons other than retirement’ - the most common being high workload (92%), followed by government initiatives or policy changes (76%) and pressures relating to pupil outcomes or inspections (69%).*
Retention and recruitment problems have a ripple effect across MATs and schools. When they struggle to retain and recruit staff, the pressure is on remaining teachers to cover lessons. The resulting lack of continuity and expectations impacts pupil behaviour, increasing staff stress and decreasing wellbeing. This leads to absence and staff leaving and the situation is exacerbated. Constant ‘teacher churn’ decreases the quality of learning, and staff and pupils’ relationships become less secure, lowering pupil outcomes. Retention is crucial to interrupt this cycle – so what tools can leaders use to help? Exit interviews are increasingly becoming an expected part of the process when staff leave,
and can give leaders useful information and indicators of areas of concern. However, this is more of an autopsy, and those staff who have quit may be less likely to provide the insights you need, unless interviews are conducted by those with the right skills.
‘Stay interviews’ remain less common, yet they can provide leaders with a far better understanding about what keeps staff working at the MAT or school. They provide real insights that can be used to create a better employee experience and help make sure the MAT or school is an employer of choice. Stay interviews should be carried out regularly and seen as a positive experience. They need to be conducted by an experienced member of the leadership team - this could be the line manager, HR, non-line leaders or even anonymously. The objective of the interview is to check in with staff and learn more about how they’re feeling about their work, the MAT and school, and their future.
Interviews should feel like a conversation not an interrogation, and be regarded as an opportunity to find out more about what would better support that staff member. The tone should be informal and focused on obtaining feedback and gathering information. The interviewer listens rather than joining the conversation to answer or justify events or what is happening now, and helps ensure the staff member is at ease and confident to give candid feedback without repercussions. A standard set of questions helps structure the interview - these can be used consistently across the MAT or school, reviewed and adapted as needed, with additional follow up questions to further clarify necessary details behind the answers provided.
Feedback from the interviews should be aggregated and staff that have contributed should be updated on actions taken as a result of the information they shared. Here are some examples of questions focussing on five areas of the staff member’s experience:
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• What would make your work more satisfying?
• How do you like to be recognised? Is this happening for you here?
• What motivates - or demotivates you? • Do you feel your contributions are valued? (If not, why not?)
How staff feel about their future • What future do you see for yourself here? • Which of your strengths and talents are we fully utilising / not utilising?
• What do you think about the professional development you receive?
• What learning and personal development would you like to receive?
How do staff feel about their line manager • How can they better support you? • What can they do more / less of? • What advice would you give them? • Think about the best manager you have worked with, what did you appreciate most about them?
Staff response to the stay interview • How did this interview / discussion make you feel?
• What question(s) would you have liked me to ask?
• What are we currently not doing, that you feel we should?
Stay interviews can deliver significant insights and conducting them regularly and consistently can make sure more staff, particularly those with talent, are retained within your MAT or school.
For further information, support and advice about creating a culture with staff wellbeing at its centre, please contact
uwelbee.co.uk
*
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_ data/file/1148571/Working_lives_of_teachers_ and_leaders_-_wave_1_-_core_report.pdf
July/August 2023
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