The Deal Factor
Does what they get still match what they give? Every deal quietly renegotiates itself over time — whether or not you're in the room.
A book in the makingNew York Times Bestselling Author
How the Best Leaders Keep the Right People
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The $1 Trillion Question
Why do people actually stay?
Ryan Leak spent years chasing one question: why do people actually stay at a job? His team's research — 6 studies, 5,300+ people, 680,000 data points — found it isn't perks or unlimited PTO, but seven factors every leader can influence.
Stay Culture shows you how to identify these factors, coach the four types of stayers on your team, and run stay interviews that reveal the truth before someone quits. With U.S. businesses losing $1 trillion a year to voluntary turnover, this research-backed playbook helps you build a workplace people don't want to leave.
Why do people actually stay?
Not opinion. Evidence.
The research behind it
- Original studies
- 0Original studies
- People surveyed
- 0+People surveyed
- Data points
- 0Data points
The cost of getting this wrong
U.S. businesses lose an estimated $1 trillion every year to voluntary turnover
$0.00Trillion
U.S. businesses lose an estimated $1 trillion every year to voluntary turnover, and 42 percent of employees who left say their organization could have done something to prevent it.
The good news? None of the seven factors require a bigger budget before you can begin. Most of them just require you to begin.
Every one of them is within your influence
The Seven Factors
01 The Deal Factor
Does what they get still match what they give? Every deal quietly renegotiates itself over time — whether or not you're in the room.
02 The Peace Factor
People rarely leave a job. They leave the churn, the politics, and the low hum of dread on a Sunday night.
03 The Seen Factor
Being valued and being noticed are different things. The best people stay where their contribution has a witness.
04 The Fit Factor
The right person in the wrong seat still looks like a performance problem. Usually, it's a fit problem.
05 The Growth Factor
Nobody wants a ceiling they can touch. When people stop growing, they start looking.
06 The Table Factor
There's a difference between being invited to the meeting and having a seat at the table where it's decided.
07 The Fun Factor
The most overlooked driver of retention. Only 1 in 4 long-tenured employees say their workplace is actually fun.
They’re already on your team
The four kinds of stayers
Everyone who hasn’t quit is staying for a reason — and the reason changes how you should lead them. Pick one.
Staying, but barely
Strugglers
They're still here, but something is costing them more than it should. The struggle is usually visible long before the resignation is.
How to lead them
Find the friction before they decide it's permanent.
In Stay Culture, you will learn how to
Find your culture’s gaps
Understand the seven factors that drive staying: the Deal, Peace, Seen, Fit, Growth, Table, and Fun Factors
Recognize the four kinds of stayers on your team right now (Strugglers, Safers, Stuckers, and Stakers) and coach each one differently
Run stay interviews and listening tours that surface why people stay, so you stop learning the truth from exit interviews
Use practical tools like the Deal Check, the Peace Audit, the Fit Conversation, and the Growth Conversation to find your culture's gaps
Handle departures with grace, because how people leave shapes why others stay
The tools inside
- The Deal Check
- The Peace Audit
- The Fit Conversation
- The Growth Conversation
Companion research report
The State of Fun at Work
Understanding what makes the best people stay
- U.S. workers surveyed
- 0U.S. workers surveyed
- Data points
- 0+Data points
- Research-backed insights
- 0Research-backed insights
Only 1 in 4 long-tenured employees say their workplace is actually fun — yet fun turns out to be one of the most overlooked drivers of retention. In this companion research report to Stay Culture, the Ryan Leak Group surveyed 1,000 U.S. workers who'd stayed with the same organization for five-plus years, gathering over 116,000 data points on what makes work feel enjoyable rather than just tolerable.
The findings challenge the assumption that fun is a perk at odds with performance: employees who experience more workplace fun report higher happiness, stronger emotional attachment to their organization, and no drop in performance, while fun itself tracks closely with leader relationships, team health, autonomy, and clear expectations.
Download the full white paper for thirteen research-backed insights and practical recommendations any leader can use to bring more fun back into the everyday experience of work.
Get the white paper
Thirteen research-backed insights any leader can use — free.
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The author
About Ryan Leak
Ryan Leak is a best-selling author, esteemed executive coach, and a highly sought-after transformational speaker. With an incredible reach of over 1 million people every year through his keynotes, Ryan's words have the power to transform lives. Each year, he dedicates his expertise and research to the growth of over 100,000 leaders, spanning the spectrum from Fortune 100 corporations to elite professional sports teams. While Ryan wears many hats, the ones he is most proud to wear are husband to Amanda and father to Jaxson and Roman.