People Analytics Deconstructed

What is a Flight Risk Model?

Millan Chicago Season 1 Episode 12

In this episode, co-hosts Ron Landis and Jennifer Miller deconstruct the concept of a flight risk model. They focus on how these types of models can be used to predict the degree to which employees are at risk of leaving an organization.  

In this episode, we had conversations around these questions:  

  • What is a flight risk model?  
  • Why are flight risk models important?  
  • How do you build a flight risk model?  
  • What are some clear steps that HR professionals can take to build a flight risk model?  

Key Takeaways:  

  • Employee attrition has a variety of consequences. Organizations want to predict who is most likely to leave so that they can better forecast future staffing needs, intervene as necessary to enhance retention, and/or estimate dollar costs associated with predicted attrition.  
  • A flight risk model determines the employee characteristics, job characteristics, and organizational characteristics that relate to whether an employee voluntarily leaves an organization.  
  • There are different analytic approaches to developing flight risk models (with differing strengths and weaknesses). It is essential to choose the approach that is most appropriate for the given situation and to assess the accuracy of the model for making predictions. 
  • At the end of the episode, Jennifer and Ron recommend steps for folks just starting out in this space all the way to the more advanced HR professional.  

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