Methodology
Most tools in this space ask you to trust a score. This page is the opposite. It sets out what Accolgo measures, the published research each choice rests on, the places where we made a judgement call instead, and the claims we deliberately do not make.
Check-ins arrive by email, and a line manager or buddy without a work inbox will soon be able to get theirs by WhatsApp instead.
What we measure
A 2025 meta-analysis in the Journal of Management pulled together decades of research on how new starters settle, and identified four things that consistently predict whether someone stays: whether they feel accepted socially, whether the role is clear, whether they are mastering the work, and whether they feel they fit. Most of the questions Accolgo asks map onto one of those four. The rest ask about the start as a whole, such as whether someone is glad they joined or sees themselves staying.
That matters because the four things come from published research that anyone can check. How Accolgo reads them is our own work: we wrote our own questions, and our own rules for when a line manager should be prompted.
Whether they feel part of things and can speak up. One of the two strongest signals we track.
Whether the job feels like a fit and their work matters. The other of the two strongest.
Whether the job matches what they were told at interview.
Whether they have the tools, access and support. The weakest of the four as a predictor of leaving, and we say so below.
Not all four are equal
The same meta-analysis reports how strongly each of the four relates to somebody intending to leave. They are not the same, and treating them as if they were would waste a line manager’s attention. So belonging and feeling valued raise a flag sooner than the other two do.
Feeling set up is the weakest predictor of leaving, roughly half the strength of the strongest. We have not turned it down, on purpose. A set-up problem is the cheapest thing on this list to fix, and missing someone costs far more than one extra conversation.
The slow fade is the one that costs you. Someone who drops sharply usually has a reason, and usually tells somebody. Someone who eases down a little every week for two months tells nobody, never scores badly, and never has a bad week that anything would notice. Accolgo compares each person against how they were when they started, not just against last week, which is the only way that person shows up at all.
What we do not claim
Sectors do differ. Three large public surveys, from the United States, Hungary and across Europe, found almost the same gap in job satisfaction between hospitality and finance.
But the gap is small. Industry explains about two per cent of the difference in how satisfied people are at work. The employer someone works for matters about three times more than the kind of job they do.
So Accolgo uses the same rules to read every new starter, whatever sector they work in. Your sector is never an input to the rules that decide whether someone is flagged. It does one thing: it suggests a starting kind of role when you add someone, which you can change.
That matters because the kind of role changes three things. Front line and shift starters get a check-in every four days for about their first three months, so a change shows up sooner. When several people need the same attention, anyone in a higher-turnover kind of role is listed first. And the suggested opening words stay suited to the work.
Sources