Diagnostics

AI Adoption Change Readiness Customer Retention Employee Relations M&A Integration Manager Effectiveness Onboarding Breakdown Product & Launch Readiness Regrettable Turnover Sales Performance Strategy Alignment Team Execution All applications → Book a diagnostic →
How It Works Reports Resources Security Pricing About Contact
Choose an issue
Applications / Regrettable Turnover

Retention

Regrettable Turnover Diagnostic

Understand why valuable employees are leaving — before more do.

The question this diagnostic answers:

Why are valuable employees leaving, and what can we change before more leave?

A prioritized retention plan grounded in the specific reasons your best people are leaving — not generic engagement scores.

Book a diagnostic discussion View all applications

Typical timeline: 2–3 weeks from launch to report

The business problem

Replacing a mid-level employee costs 50–200% of annual salary. Exit interviews arrive too late, cover surface reasons, and rarely reach the populations you most need to retain. HR ends up reacting to departures rather than preventing them.

Business impact when this problem persists

  • Replacement costs averaging 1–2× annual salary per departure
  • Institutional knowledge and client relationships walking out the door
  • Team productivity declining during extended vacancies
  • Engagement drop among remaining employees who watch peers leave
  • Recruiting costs compounding as the vacancy pool grows

What the diagnostic examines

  • Preventable versus structural causes
  • Manager behaviors driving or accelerating departure
  • Workload, role clarity, and scope problems
  • Compensation versus non-compensation factors
  • Development, growth, and career-path barriers
  • Trust and communication breakdowns with leadership
  • Group and demographic patterns across the at-risk population

Who participates

  • Current employees in high-turnover roles or business units
  • Employees identified as flight risks through HR data signals
  • Recent departures where a brief post-exit conversation is appropriate (optional)
  • Managers of at-risk teams (separate conversation track)

Conversation topics

Topics are reviewed and approved by the customer before any participant invitation is sent.

  • Role clarity and day-to-day alignment with the role as offered
  • Growth opportunities and development support
  • Manager relationship and communication quality
  • Workload, prioritization, and pace
  • Recognition, compensation fairness, and career trajectory
  • Confidence in leadership direction
  • Likelihood of staying and factors that would change that

What the report includes

  • Executive root-cause summary with evidence attribution
  • Preventable vs. structural cause breakdown
  • Affected populations by role, level, manager, or business unit
  • Manager pattern analysis (when threshold is met)
  • Prioritized retention interventions with effort/impact framing
  • 30-, 60-, and 90-day action plan with assigned owners
  • Follow-up conversation plan for 60- or 90-day measurement

Sample findings

Illustrative examples of the kind of findings this diagnostic produces. Actual findings are grounded in participant conversations and carry explicit confidence ratings.

Role scope has expanded significantly beyond the original offer in 68% of conversations

High confidence

Manager communication frequency cited as a factor in 54% of at-risk conversations

High confidence

Limited internal mobility options mentioned by 41% of respondents with 3+ years of tenure

Medium confidence

Compensation fairness concerns concentrated in one business unit; national comparisons unclear

Low confidence

Appropriate for

  • Business units or roles experiencing above-average voluntary turnover
  • Post-reorganization environments where attrition is rising
  • Companies entering competitive hiring markets where retention is critical
  • HR leaders who need evidence to make the retention investment case to the C-suite
  • Organizations preparing workforce-planning assumptions for budgeting

Not designed for

  • Replacing manager 1:1 conversations or performance management
  • Identifying employees who should be let go
  • Making compensation decisions or producing salary benchmarks
  • Surveillance of employees expressing dissatisfaction
  • Legal investigations into specific complaints or incidents

Employee trust safeguards

Specific protections built into this diagnostic

Participants are informed of the purpose before conversations begin

Reporting thresholds prevent identification of individuals in small groups

Findings are attributed to themes and populations, not individuals

Customer reviews and approves conversation topics before launch

No findings are used to make individual employment decisions

Data is retained only for the period specified by the customer

Ready to diagnose this issue?

A 30-minute conversation is enough to assess scope and fit.

Book a diagnostic discussion