Flight risk (retention risk)
Flight risk is an assessment of how likely an employee is to leave the organization in the near term — a signal that succession and retention planning must account for.
Flight risk estimates the likelihood that a specific person leaves in the near term, based on signals like market demand for their skills, stalled scope or compensation, engagement changes, and life events. It is an input to both retention action and succession planning.
In a succession context, flight risk cuts both ways: a high-risk incumbent makes the role's bench urgent, and a high-risk successor quietly invalidates the plan that depends on them.
The signal most teams miss is successor flight risk. Named successors who experience no investment — no stretch work, no sponsorship, no conversation about trajectory — hear about their future from recruiters instead, and each such departure removes cover from every plan that person backstopped.
Flight-risk flags work best as prompts for conversations, not verdicts. The point of marking someone high-risk is that a manager acts this month — on scope, recognition, development, or pay — while the person is still in the building to act on.
See where your bench breaks before it matters.
Bring your real org chart. We show you the succession gaps, cascade risks, and bench depth in a 30-minute walkthrough. IT security questions answered on the same call.
IT review first? The FAQs answer the security questions honestly →