The Power of the ‘Stay Interview’ in Preventing Costly Public Sector Employee Turnover
High employee turnover can cost your agency valuable time, drain resources and lower the quality of services you provide to the public, so it’s critical to focus on retention before it becomes a problem. A stay interview is a proactive tool to get ahead of turnover.
It allows you to have open, structured conversations with your employees about why they choose to stay in their roles. This approach helps you identify concerns early, strengthen trust, and create a workplace where your team feels valued and supported.
What Is a Stay Interview?
A stay interview is a structured conversation between you and an employee that helps uncover why they remain in their role and what might cause them to leave. It goes beyond surface-level check-ins by exploring motivators, challenges and opportunities for improvement that can directly shape retention strategies.
This matters because over 50% of workers who quit in 2021 cited low pay, a lack of advancement opportunities and feeling disrespected as their top reasons for leaving. Unlike exit interviews, which only provide insights after someone has already walked away, stay interviews focus on prevention and allow you to address concerns before they escalate. When built into a continuous employee engagement strategy, they create stronger communication and make your workplace resilient.
Why Stay Interviews Matter in the Public Sector
In government jobs, you face unique retention challenges like tight budgets and slow promotion opportunities that can leave employees frustrated and disengaged. In fact, just in June 2025, the federal government saw more than 20,000 quits, layoffs and discharges, which highlights how urgent it is to keep skilled workers on board.
When you consider that hiring a new employee costs around $5,000, not to mention the loss of experience and service delays, the stakes become higher. This is why stay interviews are essential. They allow you to spot workplace issues and build stronger trust between managers and employees. They create stability, which ensures health care workers, teachers and public safety professionals can serve communities effectively.
Benefits of Stay Interviews
Stay interviews let you spot dissatisfaction before it turns into a resignation, which helps you address problems early instead of scrambling to replace valuable employees. By listening closely, you can offer personalized solutions like flexible schedules, training opportunities or development programs that meet your team’s needs and show them their contributions matter.
Engagement naturally rises when your staff feels valued and heard, and the impact is powerful. Organizations with engaged employees are 43% more productive, outperform the market by 28% and report 25% higher overall well-being. On top of that, stay interviews save you money by reducing the high costs of hiring and onboarding replacements. This benefit is especially critical in taxpayer-funded institutions with limited budgets and every resource must be used widely.
A stay interview is a structured conversation between you and an employee that helps uncover why they remain in their role and what might cause them to leave.
How to Conduct Effective Stay Interviews in Government Settings
To make stay interviews effective, you’ll want to ask employees what they enjoy most about their work, what frustrates them and how leadership can better support their growth and day-to-day experience. These conversations work best when you schedule them annually or semi-annually, often alongside performance reviews, so they become a regular part of your engagement strategy.
The key is to create a safe environment where employees can speak openly and honestly without fear of backlash. This is especially crucial since 92% of U.S. workers say it’s very or somewhat important to work for an organization that values their emotional and psychological well-being.
You also need to show that feedback leads to real change, whether improving policies, adjusting workloads or adding career development opportunities. Because government agencies often operate within union agreements and human resource policies, adapting the process is essential to remaining compliant and effective.
Sample Questions for Public Sector Stay Interviews
These questions should be open-ended, allowing employees to share their experiences in detail while giving you insights into creating a better work environment. Below are some practical examples you can adapt to fit your agency’s needs:
- Ask about satisfaction: What do you enjoy most about serving the public in your role?
- Identify challenges: What obstacles or frustrations make your work harder than it should be?
- Explore retention risks: What factors might make you consider leaving for another job?
- Support career goals: How can leadership better support your growth and professional development?
- Improve daily work: What changes would make your day-to-day responsibilities more satisfying or manageable?
Strengthening Public Sector Workplaces With Stay Interviews
Employee retention saves money and ensures consistent delivery of public services that communities rely on. When employees stay longer, agencies avoid costly turnover while building stronger relationships between staff, leadership and the people they serve. HR leaders and managers in the public sector should start integrating stay interviews into their retention strategies to strengthen their workforce and public trust.
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