Engagement Radar

Warning signs come before the resignation. We catch them early.

You spent months finding them, so make sure they stay. Engagement Radar is our methodology that measures six areas of a new hire's performance and satisfaction in the first 90 days. You get a report: what holds them back, what keeps them and what to do now, while it's still easy.

What Radar brings you See a sample report

90 days: we cover the whole probation period
5 minutes: to read the report
up to CZK 850k: what losing a senior and rehiring can cost

Value for both sides.

Engagement Radar isn't monitoring. The company gets clear steps and the new colleague gets support when they need it most.

For the company

Faster ramp-up: obstacles get solved in weeks, not months.
Fewer departures during probation, because you see the signals early.
Concrete, prioritised steps instead of impressions.
An outside view that's often missing inside the team.

Plus insights from mental coaching for leaders:

Why more pressure lowers performance instead of raising it, and how to tell the team has switched into “fight or flight”.
What “got a minute?” really costs: the price of context switching and how to protect deep work.
Why a new hire stays quiet even when they don't know: impostor syndrome, psychological safety and the questions that open them up.
Motivation without bonuses: meaning, autonomy and a sense of progress, what works for seniors more than money.

For the new colleague

A safe space to say what's missing, without fear of looking incompetent.
Knows sooner what's expected and who to turn to.
Their voice reaches the manager, but only in a form they agree to.

Plus mental coaching on what almost everyone in IT deals with:

how to focus when the day is chopped up by meetings and Slack,
how to say “I can't make it” or “I disagree” without damaging relationships in the team,
how to build trust in a new team as an external contractor,
how to handle pressure around deadlines and incidents without burning out after a few months.

What a quiet exit costs.

It comes after eight weeks of saying “all good” in 1:1s.
Of waiting for access and not wanting to bother anyone.
Of getting priorities from three places at once.

None of it was visible. And then it costs this:

Leaving in month 4

Senior's gross monthly salary115 000 Kč

Four months of ramp-up that leave with the person: ~280 000 Kč
New hire: ~250 000 Kč
Successor's ramp-up from zero: ~280 000 Kč
Manager and team time for a second onboarding: ~50 000 Kč
Total: ~850 000 Kč
Role without full performance: ~6 months

Rough estimate: employer cost = salary × 1.338; ramp-up = 4 months at ~55 % output; hiring = 18 % of annual salary; 2 months' notice + search + new ramp-up. Your numbers will differ, but the order of magnitude usually holds.

What it builds on

A good senior can deliver zero.

Skills and experience are what we look for when hiring. But an interview can't show you the other two variables.

State: How much of their ability a person can use at a given moment. It multiplies: when state is close to zero, even ten years of experience won't help.
Barriers: Friction in the team and the system around the person: missing access, priorities from three places, no roadmap. They subtract every single day.

State

How much of their ability can the person use right now?

Energy and fatigue
Focus and overload
Confidence in the role
Motivation and meaning

Skills

Do they have everything the role needs?

Ramp-up in tech and domain
Knowing people and processes
What's missing and what would speed them up
Strengths not used yet

Barriers

What in the team or system drains performance?

Unclear briefs and priorities
Access to information and people
Conflicting guidance, waiting
Relationships and psychological safety

How it works

Three snapshots in the first three months.

Around day 30
Opening conversation
What works, what slows things down and what's missing on the company side. You get the snapshot right after.
Around day 60
Check-in
What has moved since last time and what hasn't. For blockers, we check that someone is actually solving them.
Around day 90
Final conversation
The overall picture of onboarding, motivators and flight risks. With the day-30 and day-60 snapshots you see the trend.

For contractors we continue after 90 days

Ongoing · every 2–3 months: What has moved and what hasn't, and whether blockers are really being solved. Each snapshot shows the trend.
On change · whenever needed: New scope, a new team, an extension or a signal that something is off. We don't wait for the next date.

Each conversation takes 30–60 minutes, scheduled around the project.

Output

What the output looks like.

A performance and collaboration snapshot: summary, six dimensions with a traffic light, what slows delivery and recommended steps. Below, an anonymized sample from a real project after the first month, and what the company took from it.

Anonymized sample from a real project

Performance & collaboration snapshot

B2B delivery · Phase 1 · after the first month

Specialist: Specialist A
Role: Frontend developer
Client: Product company
Period: Autumn 2025

Summary

The specialist's input shows that the biggest source of stress is not technical problems but unclear communication and priorities. Even a small mismatch (different information by e-mail than in a verbal brief) can lead to frustration and lost energy. A short, regular communication rhythm would give him confidence and strengthen motivation.

Example: within three days he received three different signals:

a task agreed with the tech lead on one part of the app,
an e-mail with a different brief from another person in management,
then the tech lead wrote that something else was a higher priority.

The specialist understands that the team is used to this style of communication and respects it.

6.5/10Overall score
average of 6 dimensions

State in six dimensions

Scale 1–10 · 8–10 strong · 6–7 watch · 1–5 risk

01
Clarity of scope & briefs
Tasks are sometimes clear, sometimes less so.
Different information from two people causes confusion. There is no regular meeting rhythm, which makes priorities harder to follow.
6/10Watch
02
Communication & cooperation
No regular rhythm, information arrives through different channels.
He values the smaller company and direct access to management. He is interested in the wider product context (the “big picture”). More shared time would help him feel anchored.
6/10Watch
03
Mental state & energy
Energy varies with how clear the brief is and how much time admin takes.
Feels full ownership of the frontend, including part of the architecture.
6/10Watch
04
Flow & continuity of delivery
Handles the work even though the legacy code is complex and hard to navigate.
Getting to know the application takes longer.
8/10Strong
05
Meaning & motivation
Assessed as part of mental state.
6/10Watch
06
Expectations vs. reality
Estimated from the other areas.
7/10Watch

What slows delivery

Most serious first

Communication and prioritisation: He turns to the tech lead rather than to another person in management so as not to burden them. He would value a regular slot where everything gets aligned.
Feedback: He gets it only sometimes. Positive feedback on one delivered feature motivated him a lot; elsewhere it was missing.
Admin: Logging hours in several ways (spreadsheet, e-mail template, calls) feels inefficient and drains energy.
Technical side: The code is historically complex, but he copes. Refactoring the whole app without deeper knowledge carries risk.

Recommendations for the client

Ordered by impact

A short regular sync twice a week (tech lead + specialist, management if needed). Aligns priorities and reduces conflicting interpretations.
A clearer brief format: one template or a shared backlog that makes the expected output clear.
Faster feedback. Even a short reaction removes uncertainty and adds energy.

Names, company and identifying details removed. Scores and structure match the original.

What the company takes away

1
The problem wasn't technical.
The best-rated area is delivery itself (8/10). The environment holds performance back: three different signals in three days. Fix communication, not the person.
2
The specialist wouldn't have said it.
He understands and respects the team's style and doesn't want to burden anyone. Without the conversation, frustration would grow quietly until it showed in performance or a resignation.
3
The steps cost almost nothing.
Two short syncs a week, one brief format and faster feedback. Compared with the cost of losing a senior, a minimal investment.
4
A clear priority, not a long list.
The company knows what to do first and why. The next conversation shows whether communication and scope scores improved.

The client receives only the version the specialist agrees to.

Trust rule

What reaches you and what doesn't.

You get

Work barriers
Patterns in onboarding and communication
Recommended steps with a named owner
Overall risk

You don't get

Verbatim content of conversations
Personal and sensitive information
Anything about health
Psychological interpretations

When a sensitive topic comes up: Radar isn't therapy. We don't assess health or personal crisis topics. We agree next steps with the specialist, and only what we agree on reaches you.

What we capture

Things managers usually don't hear.

Real statements from onboardings. Not complaints, but precise pointers to what to change.

“If someone sat with me for two hours and explained the whole thing, it would save me a week.”

“If I had a visual roadmap, I'd feel more motivated.”

“I'm missing the big picture. I only see pieces of work, not where it's all heading.”

“Sometimes I hear different things from different people, and that slows me down more than technical problems.”

Read the full article on onboarding stress (in Czech)

Principles

Trust is a condition, not a bonus.

With consent

We share with the manager and HR only what the specialist agrees to.

No performance rating

It's not an appraisal or a clinical assessment. The goal is better onboarding and support.

Both sides

We also ask the specialist what they could do differently. There are always two sides.

FAQ

What does it cost?

For specialists we placed with you, Engagement Radar is free for the first 90 days. For your other new hires we offer it as a standalone service.

How much of the specialist's time does it take?

Three conversations of 30–60 minutes in the first three months. For contractors, then once every 2–3 months and on change.

Who sees the results?

The manager and HR receive the report, only to the extent the specialist agreed to.

Does it work for people who've been with the company longer?

Yes. We use the same approach for retention when people lose motivation or meaning.

Keep your new hire beyond the probation period.

You tell us the role and start date, we take care of the rest. For people you hired through us, it's free.

1You send us the role and start date.
2We launch Radar and explain everything to your new colleague.
3You receive regular snapshots with concrete steps.