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For CEOs, Executive Teams and HR/People Leaders.

Stability is not the same as confidence.

A free, five-minute diagnostic — grounded in Work Institute's 2026 Retention Report, built on 15,424 exit interviews — that reveals your organization's Retention Risk Band and hands you a personalized playbook to close the gap between quiet stability and real retention confidence.

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15 questions · 5 retention drivers · reveals your Retention Risk Band

19.2%

of employees who quit in 2025 cited Career as their reason for leaving — the #1 driver for the 15th consecutive year, and the highest rate since 2021.

Work Institute, 2026 Retention Report
74.69%

of all reasons employees cite for leaving fall into categories Work Institute classifies as preventable — shaped by leadership decisions, not the labor market.

Work Institute, 2026 Retention Report
2x

Job Security concerns more than doubled year over year, reaching their highest level ever recorded — driven by AI and automation anxiety, not job loss itself.

Work Institute, 2026 Retention Report
~30%

rise since 2023 in employees citing manager Professional Behavior as a reason for leaving — now over two-thirds of all management-related exits.

Work Institute, 2026 Retention Report
The Diagnostic

Score your organization across five retention drivers

Answer for how your organization actually operates — not how you wish it did. Every dimension maps to one of the Strategic Imperatives in Work Institute's 2026 Retention Report.

Step 1 of 5 Career Systems
Career
Managers
AI & Change
Expectations
Early Tenure

Career Systems

Career has been the #1 reason employees quit for 15 straight years. Clarity beats promises.

1. How clear is the path for growth and advancement for employees at your organization?

2. When employees ask about promotion criteria or development opportunities, can managers give a clear, consistent answer?

3. Does your organization have a structured, visible process for internal mobility (lateral moves, not just promotions)?

Manager Readiness

Manager Professional Behavior is now the dominant driver of management-related exits — a behavior problem, not a skills gap.

4. How consistently do your managers model respect, fairness, and accountability under pressure — not just technical competence?

5. Have your managers received real training — not just onboarding — on career conversations, expectation-setting, and conflict management?

6. When an employee raises a concern about a manager's behavior, does it get addressed promptly and fairly?

AI & Change Clarity

Job Security concerns more than doubled in a year — driven by ambiguity about AI, not job loss itself. Silence is what creates risk.

7. Has your leadership clearly communicated how AI and automation will — and will not — be used in your organization?

8. Do your managers feel confident guiding their teams through AI-related changes and questions?

9. When economic or organizational uncertainty arises, does leadership address it directly — or does silence tend to fill the gap?

Expectation Alignment

Work-Life Balance is now a baseline expectation, not a perk. Employees aren't asking for everything — they're asking for honesty.

10. Are workload, scheduling, and flexibility expectations clearly and honestly communicated before frustration builds?

11. When flexibility can't be granted (a role can't be remote, for example), does leadership explain why — or does the decision go unexplained?

12. Do stated organizational values match what actually gets rewarded and reinforced day to day?

Early Tenure Experience

Exits within the first 90 days represent tens of billions in lost productivity — and they're almost entirely preventable.

13. Do new hires receive a realistic preview of the role's workload and expectations before day one?

14. Is there a structured process for connecting new employees with their manager and team during the first 90 days?

15. Do you proactively check in with new employees before frustration turns into a resignation?

Please answer every question before continuing.
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Retention Confidence Score

One Last Step

Your Retention Risk Band is ready.

Tell us where to send it — you'll see your full score breakdown, your Retention Risk Band, and a personalized action plan immediately after.

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Your Results

Your Retention Risk Gap

Based on your answers, here's how your organization scores across the five drivers Work Institute's 2026 Retention Report identifies as most preventable — and which Retention Risk Band you're in.

0% Retention Confidence Score
Band

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Score by Dimension

Recommended Next Step

Your personalized retention action plan

These recommendations are matched to your Retention Risk Band and your weakest dimension — where a focused move will close the gap fastest.

Ready to close the gap?

Bring these results to a free 30-minute leadership and retention conversation with Marcel. We'll walk through your Retention Risk Band, your biggest gap, and the fastest path to close it.

Book Your Free Discovery Call
Who's behind this

Marcel Schwantes

Marcel is an executive coach, speaker, and author of Humane Leadership: Lead With Radical Love, Be a Kick-Ass Boss. He works with CEOs and executive teams who want strong performance without sacrificing people — replacing command-and-control habits with cultures built on hope, kindness, humility, compassion, trust, accountability, growth, and purpose. He hosts deep conversations with global leadership experts on his podcast and newsletter.

marcelschwantes.com Get the book The Marcel Newsletter LinkedIn

Research Source

  1. Work Institute, "2026 Retention Report: Employee Turnover Insights and Trends in 2025" — 15,424 exit interviews conducted in 2025 (120,000+ since 2020), across 175+ organizations, ~60% healthcare and 40% cross-industry — https://email.workinstitute.com/hubfs/2026%20Retention%20Report/WorkInstitute_RetentionReport_2026.pdf
  2. Work Institute, Retention Reports landing page — https://workinstitute.com/retention-reports

The Retention Risk Bands and match logic in this tool are inspired by Work Institute's Strategic Imperatives framework but are a directional self-assessment, not Work Institute's proprietary statistical model.