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Count of employees actively flagged as flight risk by managers, based on engagement signals (skip-level surveys, manager 1:1s, counter-offer activity, tenure-curve risk). A leading indicator that complements the lagging `hr.voluntary_exits` number. Common pitfall: stale flags that never get cleared — at-risk lists tend to drift toward "every senior IC ever" without manager discipline. Best practice is a quarterly refresh with explicit add/remove notes and an action attached to each flag. — HR KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).

I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier)

No public third-party standard anchors this KPI yet, so I'mBoard authors and maintains the definition — transparently labeled as editorial tier. See the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system and the back-attribution workstream.

Rogue ID: hr.at_risk_count Type: Number Domain: HR

Definition

Count of employees actively flagged as flight risk by managers, based on engagement signals (skip-level surveys, manager 1:1s, counter-offer activity, tenure-curve risk). A leading indicator that complements the lagging hr.voluntary_exits number. Common pitfall: stale flags that never get cleared — at-risk lists tend to drift toward "every senior IC ever" without manager discipline. Best practice is a quarterly refresh with explicit add/remove notes and an action attached to each flag.

Formula

Count of currently-flagged active employees on the retention watchlist. Flag criteria are company-defined but typically include: declining 1:1 engagement, missed comp expectations, counter-offer activity, or manager-flagged tenure-curve risk. Convention: flags expire 90 days after entry unless renewed.

Why it matters

Converts manager intuition into a board-readable risk count, and pairs naturally with hr.retention_initiatives so the board sees risk and response together. A rising at-risk count without rising retention activity is a yellow flag.

How to interpret

Read alongside hr.voluntary_exits — at-risk count should lead exits by 1–2 quarters. Concentration in one team or level is more diagnostic than the absolute number. Sustained at-risk count above ~10–15% of headcount typically warrants a targeted retention program (industry folk-wisdom, not citation-grade).

Calculation policy

How an AI agent should compute this KPI from messy company data. Free-text rules consumed at reasoning time — not a deterministic DSL. The most common ways to get this wrong are listed under Common miscomputations.

Inclusion rules

Count of currently-flagged active employees on the retention watchlist as of the snapshot date — a point-in-time read of manager-assessed flight risk.
Flag criteria are company-defined but typically include declining 1:1 engagement, missed comp expectations, counter-offer activity, or manager-flagged tenure-curve risk.
Convention: a flag expires 90 days after entry unless a manager explicitly renews it — this keeps the list disciplined.

Exclusion rules

Stale flags past their 90-day expiry that no manager has renewed — left in, the list drifts toward "every senior IC ever" and the count loses meaning.
Employees on a formal PIP — that is performance management (hr.performance_watch_count), a different signal from retention risk.
Departed employees still flagged in the system.

Required inputs

Current retention-watchlist with entry dates, last-renewal dates, and an action attached to each flag.
Team / level attribution for the concentration read.
The company-defined flag criteria and the 90-day expiry convention.

Data-source priority

Manager / HRBP retention-watchlist of record (refreshed each cycle).
Skip-level and engagement-survey signals as corroboration.

Edge cases

Flag with no attached action: best practice is to require an action per flag; a bare flag should be reviewed rather than counted as managed risk.
An at-risk employee who moves onto a PIP: they shift to hr.performance_watch_count — do not double-count across both watchlists.
Quarterly refresh: stale flags drop out unless explicitly renewed, so the count can fall purely from list hygiene — note when a drop is hygiene vs genuine de-risking.

Validation checks

At-risk count should LEAD hr.voluntary_exits by ~1–2 quarters; if exits rise with no prior at-risk build-up, manager flagging is lagging reality.
Concentration in one team or level is more diagnostic than the absolute number.
Sustained above ~10–15% of headcount typically warrants a targeted retention program tracked in hr.retention_initiatives.

Common miscomputations

Carrying expired flags forward without renewal — inflates the count and turns a leading indicator into noise.
Conflating PIP employees (performance) with flight-risk employees (retention) — they answer different board questions.
Counting flags with no owner or action as managed risk.

hr.voluntary_exits
hr.voluntary_turnover_rate
hr.retention_initiatives
hr.talent_challenges

Source

I'mBoard editorial — authored and maintained by I'mBoard, first published 2026-04-01. No third-party standard is cited for this KPI; when one emerges, the definition is back-attributed and promoted to the published tier (a minor version bump). Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.