The company was facing a growing retention risk:
~20% annual attrition
50th percentile salaries - not competitive
Flat structure with limited promotions
High workload
Only one career & salary review per year
Strong headhunting pressure from competitors
Managers lacked early warning signals and structured ways to support employee growth.
HR only saw the problem when people were already leaving.
A custom AI-powered career development system was introduced to standardize growth
conversations and detect flight risk early.
How it worked:
Managers prepared for 1:1s using AI-generated conversation guides
Conversations remained fully human-led
AI created 90-day development plans with concrete actions and milestones
HR analyzed anonymized insights to identify risk drivers and low-cost retention
improvements
Built-in ethics safeguards ensured consent, anonymization, and bias checks
Before → After
Annual Attrition: ~20% → 15.56%
Career Conversations: 1× / year → Quarterly structured
Development Plans: Ad-hoc → Standardized 90-day plans
HR Insight: Exit interviews → Live workforce intelligence
22% attrition reduction YoY
Lower rehiring and onboarding costs
Higher employee trust, clarity, and engagement
Predictable, scalable retention management
