The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You want managers to ask valued employees what keeps them and what might push them out, and to act on the answers.
- {{who}}
- {{interviewers}}
- {{reason}}
- {{what_we_can_change}}
- {{existing_data}}
- {{hr_contact}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
Help me plan stay interviews for {{who}}, run by {{interviewers}}. The goal is to learn what keeps people here and what might make them leave, while there is still time to act. I will share the guide with the people running the interviews, so it should work for someone doing this for the first time. Why we are doing this now: {{reason}} What we can realistically change (budget, flexibility, development, workload, recognition): {{what_we_can_change}} What our last engagement survey or exit interviews said, if anything: """ {{existing_data}} """ Produce, with a heading for each part: 1. An invitation the interviewers can send, under 80 words, saying what the conversation is for and that it is not a performance review. 2. A 30-minute guide: an opening, eight to ten open questions in a sensible order, and one follow-up probe for each. For example: "What would make you think about leaving?" with the probe "Has anything come close to that in the last six months?" 3. Guidance for the interviewer: how to listen without defending, how to respond when someone raises pay or promotion (acknowledge, do not promise, follow up), and what to do with complaints that need a formal process, such as harassment or discrimination, which go to {{hr_contact}}. 4. A record template with the columns Theme, What they said (in their words), Action, Owner, Date. 5. How to turn individual answers into themes across the group and report back to staff without identifying anyone. Keep parts 1 to 3 under 600 words. Keep the questions about the work, the team, growth and conditions. Do not include questions about health, family plans, age or other personal matters, and do not suggest offering raises or promotions in the meeting. Actions should come only from what we can change; where an answer points to something we cannot change, the guide should say to acknowledge it honestly. If there is no survey or exit data, base the questions on common reasons people stay and leave, and say that is what you did. If the reason for running these is unclear, start with a note asking what decision the results should inform.
Variables
- {{who}}
- Which employees, for example "everyone in customer support with more than one year of service".
- {{interviewers}}
- Who will run them, for example "each person's direct manager".
- {{reason}}
- Why now, for example "turnover rose this year".
- {{what_we_can_change}}
- The levers you really have: budget, flexibility, training, workload, recognition.
- {{existing_data}}
- Themes from recent surveys or exit interviews, or "none".
- {{hr_contact}}
- Who handles formal complaints.
Why it works
- An example. An example question with its follow-up probe shows interviewers how to get past a polite first answer.
- What to avoid. Personal questions and in-the-room promises are ruled out, and actions come only from what you can actually change.
- If unsure. Complaints that need a formal process are routed to HR, and missing survey data is acknowledged rather than filled in.