The Engaged Flight Risk
They feel energized and involved in their work. They may still be thinking about leaving.
In Elation’s study, about one in eight highly engaged employees were considering leaving. Their engagement scores were almost identical to those of colleagues more inclined to stay.
The study included 691 people across 14 client organizations. It measured intentions to leave; it did not track subsequent departures.
Almost identical engagement
Average engagement score out of 100
For a leader, that difference matters. If an experienced, valuable contributor leaves, the organization could lose knowledge and momentum while facing the cost of recruitment. Their enthusiasm for the work may have given little reason to expect a departure.
The differences were elsewhere
When we looked at the wider employee experience, the pattern became clearer. Those considering leaving reported fewer opportunities to advance, less favorable treatment, and lower ratings of pay fairness and appreciation.
Someone can enjoy the work while feeling that their contribution is undervalued or their progress is blocked. The wider measures helped distinguish those experiences.
A less positive work experience
Points lower among those considering leaving
The study cannot establish what caused people to consider leaving. It does show that similar engagement scores can sit alongside very different experiences at work.
A score leaves room for guesswork
My concern is how quickly a score becomes an explanation. It is easy to measure engagement, assume we know why it looks that way, and choose a familiar program to address it. The program may sound sensible while leaving the underlying concern untouched.
A short survey can be useful. The problem is assuming that a single score gives us enough information to explain what employees are experiencing. Two departments can have similar engagement scores for different reasons.
That is why Elation measures engagement and intention to stay alongside workplace conditions such as advancement, fairness, and support. Together, these measures help us explore what may sit behind the scores.
The quality of those measures matters. Adding questions is useful only when they are well designed and capture something relevant. Here, the wider measures distinguished two groups that looked almost identical on engagement and showed where their experiences differed.
See what sits behind your scores
Explore how Elation’s assessment and AI-supported analysis could help you understand engagement, retention intentions, and the conditions employees experience.
A little more about the research
Elation analyzed responses from 691 people across 14 organizations, collected between July 2025 and March 2026. Counting each person once, using their latest response, 34 of 277 highly engaged employees also showed a stronger intention to leave: 12.3%, or about one in eight.
The comparisons of engagement and working conditions used the full set of 706 assessments, which included repeat responses from 15 people. This was a snapshot of an Elation client sample. It cannot tell us what caused people to consider leaving or how many later left, and the one-in-eight figure should not be treated as a rate for all workplaces.
The full study (technical brief), including the scoring, checks, and limitations, is available on request. It has not been independently peer reviewed.
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