Stay Interview Form Template

An exit interview asks why someone is leaving, after the decision is made and while they're already mentally elsewhere. A stay interview asks the same territory of someone who hasn't decided anything — what keeps you here, what would make you start looking, what do you want more of — and ends with one specific change and a date on it. It is named rather than anonymous, because one agreed action needs one person's name against it.

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Last updated 21 August 2026

Fields in this template

Your Namerequired
Role or Job Titlerequired
Team or Departmentrequired
Who Are You Having This Conversation With?required
Date of the Conversation
How Long Have You Been in This Role?required
Under 6 months · 6-12 months · 1-2 years · 2-5 years · 5-10 years · More than 10 years
What keeps you here?required
What does a good day here look like?
What would make you start looking elsewhere?required
Has anything in the last six months made you think about leaving?
No · Once or twice · More than once · I've thought about it seriously
How much of your work uses what you're best at?required
Almost none of it · A little · Some of it · Most of it · Almost all of it
What skill or experience do you want more of in the next year?required
Is there a role or kind of work here you'd want in two years?
How supported do you feel by your manager?required
Not at all · A little · Somewhat · Well · Very well
What could your manager start, stop or keep doing?required
How fairly do you think your work is recognised?
Not at all · A little · Somewhat · Fairly · Very fairly
What is one specific thing you'd like changed, and by when?required
Anything you'd want kept between us?
Action Agreed, and Who Owns It

Who uses this template

Managers running structured one-to-ones with their teamPeople teams introducing retention conversations before turnover spikesSmall companies with no engagement survey and no budget for oneSkip-level leaders checking in below their direct reportsTeams that just lost someone and want to know who else is closeManagers of long-tenured staff whose reasons for staying nobody has checked in years

About this template

formformform's Exit Interview Form asks for the last day of employment, the primary reason for leaving, and what you'd change about the role — all in the past tense, of someone whose decision is already made and whose answers arrive too late to act on. It is a useful form. It is also the most expensive way to learn something: by the time it is filled in, the person is gone, the knowledge is going, and the replacement costs are already committed.

A stay interview asks the same territory of someone who is still here and hasn't decided anything. That difference changes every question. Instead of "why are you leaving", it asks what keeps you here — the things you'd actually miss — and takes the answer literally, because that list is what you are protecting. Instead of "what would you change", it asks what would make you start looking elsewhere, in the present tense, while it is still hypothetical. It asks how much of the work uses what someone is best at, what skill they want more of in the next year, whether there is a role here they'd want in two, and what their manager could start, stop or keep doing.

The form ends with one required question: what is one specific thing you'd like changed, and by when. Singular and dated on purpose. A stay interview that closes with six vague themes changes nothing and teaches everyone in the room that these conversations are theatre; one that closes with a single commitment somebody owns is the only version that has ever worked. That is also why the form is named rather than anonymous — an agreed action needs a person attached. If what you want is anonymous team-level sentiment, the Satisfaction Pulse Poll is the right instrument and this one is not. And be careful with the "anything you'd want kept between us" field: keep it only if you can honestly honour it, and delete it if the responses land in a system other people read.

12 form ideas you can build with this template

Annual Stay Interview Form

Run it once a year per person on a fixed rhythm, so it never reads as a reaction to somebody else's resignation.

Skip-Level Stay Interview

Have a leader two levels up run it, so the manager-support question gets an answer worth reading.

Retention Conversation Form for Managers

Give managers a structure for the conversation they know they should have and keep postponing.

High-Performer Retention Check-In

Focus on the growth and two-year role questions for people whose next move is the thing most likely to take them elsewhere.

Long-Tenure Employee Check-In Form

Use the tenure dropdown and the "what keeps you here" question with staff nobody has asked in a decade.

Post-Reorganisation Retention Interview

Ask what would make someone look elsewhere in the weeks after a restructure, while it's still hypothetical.

Remote Employee Stay Interview

Keep the manager start/stop/keep question, which carries most of the signal when nobody shares a room.

Frontline Staff Retention Conversation

Shorten to the keeps-you-here, would-make-you-leave and one-change questions for a shift-based team.

First-Year Retention Check-In

Run it at nine or twelve months, after the 30-day onboarding survey has already done its separate job.

Nonprofit Staff Stay Interview

Pair mission-driven answers to "what keeps you here" with an honest look at what would make someone leave anyway.

Team Lead Development Conversation

Use the skill and two-year-role fields to plan development for people you'd rather promote than replace.

Post-Resignation Team Check-In

After a departure, run it with the remaining team — knowing it will read as a reaction, and saying so.

What's included

Opens by saying plainly that this is not an exit interview and nothing has been decided

"What keeps you here" asked first and required — the thing you're protecting, in the employee's own words

"What would make you start looking elsewhere" asked in the present tense, which an exit interview cannot do

A growth question about the next year and an open one about the next two

A start / stop / keep question about the manager, answerable without accusing anyone

One required action field: a single specific change, with a date, not a list of themes

Named rather than anonymous, because a per-person commitment cannot come from an anonymous form

An optional manager-completed field for the agreed action and its owner

How to create a stay interview form

1
Click "Use this template" to load the stay interview into your free formformform account.
2
Decide who runs the conversation. If the manager-support question is the one you most need answered, have a skip-level or HR contact run it instead of the direct manager.
3
Keep or delete the "kept between us" field based on who will actually read the responses — don't promise confidentiality the workflow can't deliver.
4
Decide whether the employee fills it in alone beforehand or you complete it together; delete the manager-completed action field if it's the former.
5
Turn on end-to-end encryption for the form in your account settings if these answers should be readable only by you.
6
Publish, share the link directly with the person, and book the conversation before you send it — the form is a structure for a conversation, not a substitute.

Best practices for your stay interview form

Say it is not an exit interview out loud, at the start, in those words. Otherwise half the room assumes it's a trap and answers accordingly.

Ask what keeps someone here before you ask what would make them leave. Starting with the negative question turns the conversation into a complaint session and buries what you were trying to protect.

Run these on a rhythm, not after a resignation. A stay interview scheduled the week someone's colleague quit reads as damage control, because it is.

Leave the specific-change field required and singular. Six themes produce nothing; one dated commitment produces something you can be held to.

Have someone other than the direct manager run it when the manager relationship is the question. Nobody rates their manager honestly to their manager's face.

Do the agreed action, and report back on it by the date. One broken commitment from a stay interview costs more trust than never having asked.

Don't use it as a compensation negotiation. If pay is the answer, say so and take it to the process that can actually change pay, rather than leaving it hanging in a form.

Keep these responses tightly held. Turn on formformform's optional end-to-end encryption for the form if the answers should be readable only by the person running the conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Is this stay interview template free?

Yes. Clone it, edit it, and collect unlimited responses at no cost, with no per-submission fees.

How is a stay interview different from an exit interview?

Timing changes everything. formformform's Exit Interview Form asks for a last day, a primary reason for leaving and a retrospective view, of someone whose decision is already made. This asks what keeps you here and what would make you start looking, of someone who hasn't decided anything — and it ends with one specific change and a date, which an exit interview has no reason to collect.

Should stay interviews be anonymous?

No, and this form is named for that reason. The output is a single agreed action for one person, which needs a name attached. If you want anonymous team-level sentiment instead, use the Satisfaction Pulse Poll — it's built for exactly that and this one isn't.

Won't asking what would make someone leave put the idea in their head?

It doesn't work that way. People who are thinking about leaving are already thinking about it, and people who aren't will tell you what they'd need in order to stay — which is the answer you wanted. The risk isn't the question, it's asking it and then doing nothing.

Who should run the conversation?

Usually the direct manager, on a regular rhythm. But if the manager relationship is the thing you most need honest data about, have a skip-level leader or an HR contact run it instead — the manager-support question is worth very little when the manager is holding the pen.

How often should we run stay interviews?

Once or twice a year per person, scheduled in advance. Running them only after a resignation makes the whole exercise read as damage control, and the answers get correspondingly careful.

Are the responses private?

Every formformform form is hosted in the EU, encrypted in transit and at rest, and visible only to your account. For a conversation this sensitive you can also turn on optional end-to-end encryption for your copy, which seals each answer in the browser to your key before it's stored. Only promise confidentiality in the form itself if your actual workflow can honour it.

Why are the ratings radio buttons?

formformform has no rating or scale field type, so five-point scales ship as five-option radios throughout the template library. The labelled options — "almost none of it" through "almost all of it" — are usually clearer than numbers anyway.