Employee Check-in Questions That Tell You Who Is About to Leave

One question does most of the work in an employee check-in: "Looking at the next twelve months, how do you feel about staying on here?" Ask it early, ask it plainly, and let the answer decide what you ask next. People who sound settled get asked what keeps them. People who hedge get asked what is holding them back and whether they have told anyone. People who say they might leave get asked what is driving it and what single thing would change their mind.

Then two questions for everyone, about their manager and about whether training prepared them, and one closing number: how likely they are to recommend working here, 0 to 10. That is ten questions, five to ten minutes, and it is the script behind the check-in calls we run.

The rest of this guide is the full question set, the reasoning behind each one, and the part most check-in templates leave out: how to turn the answers into something HR can act on the same week.

Three reasons, and they compound.

The questions are closed. "On a scale of 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with your onboarding?" gets a 4 from almost everyone, because a 4 is the polite answer and nobody wants to explain a 2. You end up with a distribution, not a reason.

The wrong person asks. When the manager runs the check-in, every question about the manager is off the table. On the calls we run, the supervisor is one of the most common risk drivers people name. They do not name it to the supervisor.

Nobody acts on it. A check-in that ends in a spreadsheet nobody opens has trained the employee not to bother next time. The answers have to reach someone who can do something, with the person's name attached, or the exercise is theatre.

"Looking at the next twelve months, how do you feel about staying on here?"

It works because it is about the future, not about satisfaction. Someone can be unhappy and staying, or content and already interviewing. Asking about satisfaction tells you the mood. Asking about the next twelve months tells you the decision.

Read the whole answer, not the first word. "Yeah, I think so, but let's see how the appraisal goes" is not a yes. It is unsure, and unsure is the group you can still do something about. Enthusiasm about the work is not the same as intending to stay either. Score the intent.

Do not read options aloud. If you say "would you say you are committed, unsure, or considering leaving?", people pick whichever word they heard last, or the one that sounds least dramatic. Ask it open, and map the answer to a category afterwards.

"What are the main things that make you want to stay and build something here?" This is the stay-driver question, and it is a different question from the risk-driver one below. Never infer a stay driver from the absence of a complaint. Someone who has not mentioned their manager has not told you their manager is good.

"What should we make sure we keep doing, so it stays this way for you?" The answers here are the cheapest retention plan you will ever get, because they are things you already do. They are also the things that quietly stop happening when a team gets busy.

"If you had to name the one thing holding you back, what would it be?" One thing, not a list. The single biggest concern is the one worth acting on, and forcing a choice stops the answer dissolving into generalities.

"Have you been able to raise that with anyone here?" This is often the most useful field on the whole record. A concern nobody in the building has heard is a communication problem you can fix tomorrow. A concern that was raised and ignored is a management problem, and it tells you the employee has already tried.

"What would need to change for you to feel more settled about staying?" Phrase it as a change, not a wish. You want something a manager can put in a calendar.

"What is the main thing making you think about moving on?" Same discipline as above: the main thing. The answers cluster into a short list on almost every cohort: a better opportunity or no growth here, the role not matching what was promised, pay, the supervisor, work culture or hours, and personal reasons.

"Have you been able to raise that with anyone here?" Ask it again on this branch. The answer changes what happens next: an unraised concern goes to the manager's manager, a raised-and-ignored one goes higher.

"If one thing could change and make you stay, what would it be?" You will not be able to grant every ask. You will be surprised how often the ask is small: a conversation about growth, a clearer target, a move to a different team, a review of pay that was promised and never happened.

"How satisfied were you with the support and guidance from your manager during this period?" Ask it of everyone, including the settled, so the manager cuts in your data are not built only from unhappy people.

"How effective was the training in helping you do your job?" On a fixed five-point scale afterwards, from very effective to not effective. Training that did not prepare people is one of the most fixable causes of early exits, and one of the least reported, because nobody wants to say they did not understand the product.

"On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend working here to a friend?" Ask it last, after the person has said what they needed to say. Asked first, it anchors everything after it.

The number is useful mainly in combination. Someone who says they are staying but would not recommend the place is not low risk. They are medium risk, and they are telling you something the gate question could not.

Free-text answers are honest but do not roll up. Score every call into the same fields, from fixed lists, and keep the person's own words as evidence beside the category.

Commitment: committed, unsure, or at risk, with one sentence of evidence paraphrasing what they said. Risk drivers: a primary and up to two secondary, from the fixed list above. Stay drivers: up to three, from a separate list, only for people who were asked. Requested actions: what they asked for, from a list such as more one-on-ones, clearer goals, skill development, a move inside the company, a fairer workload, recognition, a pay review. Raised with anyone: yes, no, or not asked. Training effectiveness on the five-point scale. Recommend score, 0 to 10.

Then apply a rule, not a model, to get a risk level. High: said they may not stay, or raised something that needs a formal review such as harassment. Medium: unsure, or settled but would not recommend. Low: settled and would recommend. Unknown: never reached, or declined. Unknown is never counted as low. Someone you could not reach is unmeasured, not fine.

A rule beats a score because it can be defended in a room. "The model said 71" ends a retention program in its first review meeting. "She said she may not stay, here is the sentence" starts a conversation.

Not the manager, for the reason above. Ideally not HR either, if the employee reports to the same building. A neutral voice gets a different answer, and a phone call gets a different answer from a form, because people say things they would not type.

Tell people up front that the check-in is attributed. You cannot act on an anonymous row, so say so before the first question: what you share goes to senior HR leadership. If someone objects, end the call and never dial them again. An anonymous check-in program feels safer and produces nothing you can use.

Run it in the language the person actually speaks, in the everyday register of a workplace, not the textbook one. And keep it short. Five to ten minutes is long enough to get past the polite answer and short enough that a branch employee will take the call.

At any real headcount, this is a call program, not a meeting series, which is why we built it as AI check-in calls: the counselor phones each person at the milestone you set, runs this script, and the answers land on a queue with names on it.

In order, with the branch noted. Everyone gets the opening, the gate, the two universal questions, and the close.