AI can surface engagement signals.
But only if your surveys are built right.
Get the step-by-step guide to running an internal employee engagement survey that produces clear data worth acting on.
Get the free guide →Originally published May 2021 · Last updated June 22, 2026
Key Takeaway:
A stay survey is a structured set of questions asked to current employees to surface what keeps them engaged and what might cause them to leave. Unlike exit surveys, stay surveys give HR leaders time to act.
AI layoffs are making headlines, and your employees are paying attention.
The tech industry alone has cut more than 123,000 jobs in 2026, with AI listed as the most cited reason for headcount reductions. Even in organizations where cuts were never part of the plan, your employees are still watching how AI is being deployed around them and drawing their own conclusions. Anxiety around workplace AI has become one of the most significant drivers of disengagement globally, with engagement levels now at their lowest point since 2020.
To learn more about the cost of AI uncertainty and how you can use it to improve employee engagement instead, our AI engagement guide is a good starting point.
Stay surveys are one of the most direct tools you can use to interrupt disengagement. Here is how to use them.
What is a stay survey?
A stay survey is a structured set of questions asked to current employees to understand what keeps them engaged, what might cause them to leave, and what the organization could do to strengthen the employment relationship. Unlike exit surveys, which capture reasons for leaving after the fact, stay surveys surface retention risk while there is still time to act on it.
How stay surveys reduce turnover
Employees who are uncertain about their future do not raise their hand and say so. They disengage quietly, reduce their effort, start exploring other options, and eventually leave.
Stay surveys close that gap in three ways.
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They surface retention risk early.
A targeted set of questions around manager relationship, career growth, recognition, and role security gives you visibility into which employees are at risk and why, before a decision to leave is made.
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They give managers something to act on.
The most common reason stay survey programs fail is slow follow-through. When survey results reach your managers quickly with clear next steps, and your employees actually get a response to their concerns, you rebuild trust.
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They signal that the organization is listening.
When employees feel uncertain about their future, discretionary effort is the first thing to go. A stay survey, followed by visible action, is one of the clearest signals you can send that you value your people enough to ask what they need before they walk out the door
Stay surveys work when the questions are built to surface what's actually driving turnover.
What questions should a stay survey include?
Effective stay survey questions target the factors that most reliably predict whether your employees are thinking of staying or leaving: manager relationship, career growth, recognition, role security, and in 2026, AI anxiety. Most organizations are still skipping that last one.
Manager relationship
- Do you feel your manager recognizes your contributions?
- Do you feel comfortable raising concerns with your manager?
Career growth
- Do you see a clear path for growth in this organization?
- Do you feel your skills are being developed here?
Recognition and belonging
- Do you feel recognized for the work you do?
- Do you feel a sense of belonging on your team?
AI and role security
- Do you feel informed about how AI is being used in your role or team?
- Do you feel the organization is using AI to support employees rather than replace them?
Retention intent
- What would make you consider leaving this organization?
- What is the one thing this organization could do to improve your experience at work?
The questions surface the risk. What happens next determines whether anything changes.
How to act on survey results
Stay surveys create an opportunity. Follow-through is what turns that opportunity into retention. Effective follow-through has three steps:
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Get results to managers fast, while the data is still fresh enough to act on.
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Make action plans visible so employees know their feedback was heard.
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Use employee recognition to close the loop.
Stay surveys often reveal that employees do not feel seen for their contributions. Recognition is the most direct response to that finding.
AEFCU saw a 12-point increase in employee engagement in 12 months after running WorkTango's Surveys & Insights and Recognition & Rewards together. Recognition favorability rose from 62% to 78%. Leader action follow-through improved 100%.
That is what the full loop looks like. Survey, act, recognize, repeat.
What it costs to wait
Disengagement compounds quietly. One unanswered concern, one contribution that went unrecognized, one manager who never followed up. By the time it shows up in a resignation letter, the moment to act has already passed.
Stay surveys exist because that window does not have to close on you. WorkTango's Surveys & Insights gets results to the people who can act on them. Recognition & Rewards gives those people something concrete to do next.
Stay Survey FAQs
Most organizations run stay surveys once or twice a year, but the more useful question is timing. Stay surveys are most effective when run during predictable high-risk windows: after a reorg, following a round of layoffs at a peer company, or six to twelve months after onboarding. A standing annual cadence is just a foundation to grow on.
Results should reach direct managers as quickly as possible, not just HR. The retention risk lives at the team level, and managers are the ones with the daily relationship to act on it. HR's role is to aggregate trends, flag systemic issues, and hold leaders accountable for follow-through.
A pulse survey measures how employees feel across a broad range of engagement dimensions on a regular cadence. A stay survey is more targeted. It focuses specifically on the factors that predict whether an employee will stay or leave, and is typically run at a specific moment rather than on a fixed schedule. Both tools are complementary. Pulse surveys surface early signals; stay surveys dig into the why behind them.
Acknowledge the feedback publicly before taking action privately. Employees who complete a survey and hear nothing assume the data disappeared. If you don't have tech that can help you easily organize and communicate results for you, a brief all-hands or team-level message confirming that results were reviewed and what changes are being considered is is far better than doing nothing. Silence is the fastest way to kill participation in the next one.
They can, if follow-through is weak. Asking employees what would keep them and then doing nothing with the answers signals that the organization is not actually listening. The greater risk is not running them at all. An organization with no stay survey data is operating blind on its most expensive HR problem.
Emily Hendricks
Emily Hendricks is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at WorkTango, where she creates content that helps organizations build better employee experiences. With a passion for turning complex HR topics into practical, actionable insights, she's dedicated to helping HR leaders and managers find strategies that actually work for their teams.
