Executive retention and onboarding for critical hires

What is Ros?

Ros is the Retention Operating System for executive talent. It gives People and operating leaders, including PE operating partners and portfolio talent leaders, a record to revisit: what was promised, what the executive reports, and what the company records in response. This supports conversations about executive retention and leadership alignment without treating a risk score as a decision.

Its commitment record and follow-up workflows give the company and executive specific issues to revisit. Before the offer, a separate assessment reviews directional stability signals in a finalist's career history.

Turn an onboarding promise into a follow-up record

Consider an illustrative hire promised ownership of a product roadmap. After joining, the executive reports that decisions still sit elsewhere. Recording the commitment and reported gap gives the manager a concrete issue to address. Ros brings the recorded owner and next check date into view, including where either is missing.

A reported gap is not an independently verified finding. The company and executive can record their responses through the follow-up workflow; a risk signal alone does not establish why someone will leave or that a departure can be prevented.

For company People and operating leaders

A CEO, CFO, COO, or People leader may need to review a critical hire without a portfolio context. Ros gives the company and executive a specific record to revisit when role scope, resources, or expectations differ from the recorded offer. The follow-up stays with the people responsible for the relationship.

Executive retention in private equity portfolio companies

An operating partner cannot personally attend every hiring and onboarding conversation across a portfolio. A structured record makes it easier to discuss outstanding commitments with portco leaders, identify missing follow-up, and decide where management attention is needed.

Start with a complimentary retrospective review of one executive hire that did not work out. The review examines what the earlier career history could support; it does not prove the cause of the departure. See the PE operating partner audit for the engagement path.

Executive onboarding: revisit the offer after the start date

A first-year retention conversation can start with practical questions. Is the role scope the executive accepted still the role being asked of them? Have the promised resources arrived? When expectations change, have both parties recorded their responses? Ros supports this review through recorded commitments, executive responses, check-ins, and manager follow-up.

The Appointment File is the record of the hiring commitments. A reported broken commitment can be followed through a manager-owned repair workflow, with company and executive responses. This is follow-up evidence, not a guarantee that an executive will stay.

What People and operating leaders can review in Ros

• Recorded hiring and onboarding commitments and reported gaps.
• Follow-up owners and check dates, including missing assignments.
• Check-in feedback and management follow-through for enrolled executives.
• Directional pre-hire stability signals, interpreted with human judgment.
• Logged predictions alongside recorded outcomes, with the available evidence and its limits.

How are executive retention risk signals tested?

Ask what information was available before a prediction, how it was tested, and whether the evidence is retrospective or prospective. Historical holdout evaluation is different from demonstrated performance with a new monitored workforce. Ros publishes its temporal holdout methodology and limitations so buyers can assess that distinction.

Ros provides decision support. It does not guarantee individual tenure or replace manager conversations. Employers remain responsible for employment decisions and applicable obligations. Read the governance guidance before using outputs in a hiring or retention process.

Start with one executive hire

Bring a past hire to a complimentary retrospective audit, or map executive coverage to prepare a leadership conversation.