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As the retention of top talent remains a concern for many leaders and managers, I am reminded of a quote from Leigh Branham’s book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: “Employee turnover is not an event — it is a process of disengagement that can take days, weeks, months, or even years until the actual decision to leave occurs.” This quote perfectly captures the extended deliberation process that employees experience, from the initial thought of quitting to their final decision. To empower managers to proactively identify and mitigate critical retention risks before an employee decides to leave, I have developed a new one-page template. This tool prompts managers to consider essential questions about their team members: Is the person a high performer? A high potential? Do they hold a critical position? To what extent would their departure negatively impact the organization? In column one, enter the names of employees to be reviewed. The following columns allow managers to indicate with a check mark whether each team member meets the specified criteria, with the option to modify these criteria by editing the column headers. The final column is reserved for documenting follow-up actions on areas of concern. While templates are not necessary for identifying retention risks, simple tools like this can help managers proactively and intentionally address the most critical retention risks on their teams.
