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Diagnostic / Talent infrastructure

Score the system, not the person.

Evaluate your institution's talent infrastructure across five domains and see where it holds people and where it quietly loses them.

20 questions 5 domains About 15 minutes

Begin the diagnostic

A system-level view

The questions are about the conditions around talent, not a verdict about the people inside them.

Your results will appear on this page after all 20 questions are answered.

Before you begin

An honest setup note.

This diagnostic shows you where to look. The score is a starting point, not the work itself. Rubescent works through the results with you in a conversation about what your institution is trying to hold, change, or make possible.

The diagnostic / 20 questions

Read each statement against the system as it operates today.

Overall progress0 of 20 answered

Choose one response for every statement. Nothing is stored and your results are calculated in your browser.

Relational

The trust networks, mentorship pathways, and belonging signals that tell talented people they have a future here.

0 of 4 answered

Q1.Our organization has structured mentorship or sponsorship pathways for high-potential talent, not just informal advice.
Q2.People across levels and departments know each other's work well enough to collaborate without a leadership mandate.
Q3.When talented people are struggling or disengaging, someone in the organization notices and acts before a resignation letter appears.
Q4.New hires are intentionally connected to relationships that help them succeed rather than left to navigate the social landscape alone.

Navigational

How clearly people can see the path forward. When advancement feels opaque or political, the people with the most options leave first.

0 of 4 answered

Q5.Employees at every level can articulate what advancement looks like, with specific steps, criteria, and timelines rather than vague possibility.
Q6.Promotion and advancement decisions are transparent enough that most staff would say the process is fair, even when not selected.
Q7.High performers receive proactive career development conversations rather than only annual reviews or feedback when something goes wrong.
Q8.Lateral moves and cross-functional growth are valued and supported rather than treated as stalls or demotions.

Opportunity

Whether the system creates real chances for growth or recycles the same roles. Static systems lose dynamic people.

0 of 4 answered

Q9.We create new roles and responsibilities in response to emerging talent rather than only when someone leaves and we backfill.
Q10.Professional development is strategic, invested where it builds institutional capacity rather than distributed evenly as a perk.
Q11.High-potential people regularly get stretch assignments, leadership exposure, or cross-institutional projects.
Q12.The organization actively creates opportunity pathways that extend beyond our walls through partnerships and secondments.

Institutional

The policies, structures, and incentives that either align with talent retention or quietly work against it.

0 of 4 answered

Q13.Our compensation and incentive structures actually reward the behaviors we say we value rather than only tenure or compliance.
Q14.Our HR processes do not inadvertently punish the people we most need to keep.
Q15.Institutional knowledge is captured and transferred systematically rather than lost every time someone leaves.
Q16.Leadership succession planning extends beyond the top tier, developing future leaders at the mid-level before we need them.

Measurement

What gets tracked shapes what gets valued. If metrics do not capture what your best people contribute, the system optimizes for the wrong things.

0 of 4 answered

Q17.We track leading indicators of talent health, such as engagement trends, internal mobility, and early attrition signals, not only annual turnover numbers.
Q18.Exit data is systematically analyzed and directly informs policy changes rather than only collected and filed.
Q19.We can quantify the full cost of talent loss, including institutional knowledge, relationship capital, and downstream impact.
Q20.Performance metrics capture the full contribution of our best people, including informal leadership, mentorship, and culture building.

Your answers stay in this browser tab until you restart or leave the page.

Keep the conversation going

The system can change when the conditions become visible.

Start a conversation Back to Where to Start