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Employee Turnover: Definition and Calculation
EMPLOYEE-TURNOVER-churn
When we talk about employee turnover, we mean how many people leave a company over a certain
amount of time, usually a year. On the other hand, employee retention is the number of employees a
company keeps for a certain amount of time.
Many companies keep a close eye on turnover because it can cost a lot to find and train new employees.
Employee retention, like customer retention, offers a larger return than acquisition.
Retention is also a key indicator of how employees feel and how engaged they are. It can even give a
business a competitive edge. After all, when a company loses a number of employees like water, it
usually means something is wrong.
In this blog, we will discuss employee turnover. But before we go into more detail about it, let’s define a
few definitions.
Content Index
Employee turnover: Definition
Types of Employee Turnover
Employee turnover rate: How to calculate employee turnover
How can you analyze your organization’s turnover rate?
Top 7 reasons for employee turnover
Why is it crucial to measure employee turnover?
How to reduce employee turnover?
How QuestionPro helps in employee turnover?
Employee turnover: Definition
Employee turnover is defined as the number of employees who quit the organization or are asked to
leave and are replaced by new employees.
Employee turnover is usually calculated on a yearly basis. It doesn’t matter whether the employees
resigned or were fired; their absence takes a toll on the overall productivity of an organization.
As per the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the annual turnover rate in the U.S. is about 12% to 15%.
This phenomenon may have a certain negative impact but isn’t necessarily all that bad because if a
number of employees leave, there are new ones joining in. However, the pace at which the work gets
done is affected to a certain extent.
As we go further in the article, we will cover the important aspects of employee turnover and how we
can avoid it so it does the bare minimum damage to the goals and overall strategic development of the
organization.
Types of Employee Turnover
Employee turnover can take various forms depending on the circumstances that lead to an employee’s
departure. Understanding the various types of employee turnover is essential in order to identify and
address potential issues.
Employee turnover is primarily of 4 types:
Voluntary turnover
This type of turnover is when an employee decides to voluntarily leave the organization. It is the
employee’s choice to disassociate from the organization without pressure from any external forces.
Involuntary turnover
Involuntary turnover is when an employee is fired or asked to leave the organization due to various
factors (which cannot always be pinpointed).
Desirable turnover
Turnover is considered desirable when an organization fires or loses underperforming employees and
replaces them with new hires. This process may not go down well with a lot of employees, yet it is
essential to keep the momentum going within the organization.
Undesirable turnover
Undesirable turnover is when an organization loses its top-performing employees. Some employees
leave a deeper impact than others, and those are the employees that are difficult to replace.
Learn more: Employee retention strategies and best practices
Employee turnover rate: How to calculate employee turnover rate
Employees leave organizations for various reasons. Leaving can be voluntary or forced. However,
turnover is not considered good for the overall organization. It is a painful process of losing some of the
best talents within the organization.
On the other hand, if underperforming employees are replaced, it can bring some positive results. So,
the process has its fair share of positives and negatives.
In this section, we will be learning about employee turnover rate calculation.
Monthly employee turnover rate: To calculate employee turnover on a monthly basis, you will need 3
numbers:
Number of active employees at the beginning of the month (AEB)
Number of active employees at the end of the month (AEE)
Number of employees who left during the particular month (EL)
You can now get your average number of employees by adding the number of active employees at the
beginning of the month and the number of active employees at the end of the month and dividing by 2.
Avg.= AEB + AEE/2
For example: Say you have 100 active employees at the beginning of the month and 94 active employees
at the end of the month. Your average is calculated as follows:
Avg.= 100+95/2
= 97
Now you have your average calculated, and you should now divide the number of employees left by the
average you calculated. Therefore, monthly turnover can be calculated using the formula:
Employee Turnover
For example: If 3 employees left
Monthly turnover %= 3/97 X100
= 3.09 %
So your monthly employee turnover rate % is 3.09%
However, organizations prefer calculating employee turnover on a quarterly or annual basis as there is
enough data to point to meaningful statistics and, in turn, analyze the pattern.
Here is the formula to calculate the annual turnover rate:
Employee Turnover
For example: If you have 100 employees at the start of the year and 150 at the end of the year, and 5
employees left during that year, your annual turnover rate would be calculated as follows:
Annual Turnover rate percentage = 5/(100+150)/2 X100
= 5/150/2 X 100
=5/125 X100
=0.04 X 100
= 4%
Therefore, according to the calculation, your annual employee turnover rate percentage is 4%.
If you are an HR professional, you will be tempted to ask, so what is the best turnover rate formula that I
should use?
Good question! Depending on what you aim to measure, you can use different numbers to calculate
your turnover rate.
For example: If you want to illustrate the overall turnover, you would need to include all the
separations. There is another factor to this; if you want to include retirement in your turnover
calculation, then you will have to specifically mention this attribute.
One very interesting and extremely useful way of measuring turnover is to see whether your new hire
turnover rate is higher or lower than your overall turnover.
You can calculate the first-year turnover rate % by using the formula:
Employee Turnover
How can you analyze your organization’s turnover rate?
Analyzing an organization’s turnover rate is a critical task that can provide important insights into the
organization’s health. High turnover rates can indicate problems such as poor management, insufficient
compensation, and benefits, or a hostile work environment.
A low employee turnover rate, on the other hand, can indicate that the organization is effectively
retaining its employees and creating a positive workplace culture.
You can get a better understanding of your organization’s employee turnover if you look at the following
three critical aspects:
Which employees are leaving?
No matter the industry average, it is crucial for organizations to identify which employees are leaving the
organization. Once you know that, only then will you be able to take necessary actions, be it retention or
letting them go. An analysis needs to take place to identify if high performers are leaving or low
performers are. You can then take remedial measures; one way or the other, it may affect your
employee retention, staff engagement, workforce productivity, etc.
When are they leaving?
The timing of employee departures is crucial to understanding employee churn. If employees leave
within a few weeks of joining, you may have to look at your recruiting processes, job descriptions, etc. If
employees that have worked for a long are leaving, then it could be due to low engagement, lack of a
clear career path, absence of excellent employee benefits, etc. Knowing these can help in identifying
and revamping your people processes.
Why are they leaving the organization?
There are several reasons for an employee’s departure; it can be employee processes, management
style, superiors, lack of a feedback mechanism, etc. It is essential you conduct exit interviews,
understand the reasons, what could hold them back, etc. Organizations cannot fix everything overnight,
but they can start with a few things. Observing the turnover rate after that will determine what’s
working and what’s not.
Top 7 reasons for employee turnover
The only thing constant in this world is change; I have twisted the original penned down by Francois de
La Rochefoucauld, “The only thing constant in life is change.”
But constant changes can be harmful to any business. Employee turnover is a change that directly
affects an organization’s bottom line. Here are the top 4 reasons for employee turnover:
1. Better pay offers
Different people have different motivation, and believe me; nothing is right or wrong. There might be
employees in your organization who have worked with you for a long time and believe in your business,
but if they are presented with better opportunities, they might consider moving on.
Keep a keen eye on what your competitors are offering and what is the word in the market. You can also
conduct an annual survey to know if your employees are happy with the hike they are offered.
To help employees truly appreciate their compensation, provide each employee with a written
statement at the end of the year covering their remuneration cost and any additional charges that the
company provides them with.
2. Low levels of employee engagement
Employee engagement may sound cliche; however, it is one of the major issues faced by organizations.
Employees quit because they don’t feel engaged enough at work. Following are some of the common
traits:
They seek a more challenging role
They are not provided with good-quality work
Their ideas are not appreciated at work
They are not offered enough support from the team/manager
There are not enough training and development activities
There are many ways in which an organization can boost engagement activities, and your approach
should be what’s right for the organization and if it fits into the company culture or not. It is also
important to keep an organization’s leadership engaged and make sure your managers are well-trained
in crisis management.
3. Low workforce morale
High-performing employees need to be constantly engaged in the workplace and need to move forward
in terms of professional and personal growth. Take time to meet with your employees to understand
their career paths and what they appreciate the most in their respective roles.
Make sure your employees have enough opportunities at work that keep their pace active, and they are
involved enough in the organization’s development plan.
4. Poor management of employees
Employees often voluntarily leave the job due to relationships going sour. It might not always be the
case, but most often, this is the reason when traced back. Generally, if work relationships are positive,
there is greater enthusiasm in employees to perform better at work and stay focused and engaged.
By managing your employees better, you can reduce the percentage of employee turnover. Create
policies and procedures that suit not only them but also the organization. Employee loyalty is something
organizations need, and to make loyal employees, you need to make sure you inculcate best practices in
the system.
5. Growth opportunities missing
All your employees need to have a clear employee growth path that is known to them. It has to be clear
and should be clearly indicative of their goals, achievements, and growth. The absence of a growth plan
can bring the morale down, and they may feel their efforts will not be recognized and rewarded. These
employees are at risk of leaving the organization sooner rather than later.
LEARN ABOUT: Employee Rewards Ideas for Employee Engagement
6. Poor work culture
Organizations that have a positive and strong work culture outperform the ones that do not. Work
culture is much more than interesting work, outings, or a ping pong table. It is a combination of a lot of
things. Employees need to feel and know they are appreciated and valued. Weak company cultures tend
to have high workforce turnover numbers.
7. Unhealthy work-life balance
Achieving a healthy work-life balance is essential to employees, be it for pursuing higher studies,
hobbies, etc. Managers need to work with employees to help them achieve the right balance.
Employees feel assured this way and will stay longer with the organization.
questionpro logo
Products
Solutions
Resources
Features
Pricing
Language
Call Us
Log In
Site Search
SIGN UP FREE
Home Workforce
Employee Turnover: Definition and Calculation
EMPLOYEE-TURNOVER-churn
When we talk about employee turnover, we mean how many people leave a company over a certain
amount of time, usually a year. On the other hand, employee retention is the number of employees a
company keeps for a certain amount of time.
Many companies keep a close eye on turnover because it can cost a lot to find and train new employees.
Employee retention, like customer retention, offers a larger return than acquisition.
Retention is also a key indicator of how employees feel and how engaged they are. It can even give a
business a competitive edge. After all, when a company loses a number of employees like water, it
usually means something is wrong.
In this blog, we will discuss employee turnover. But before we go into more detail about it, let’s define a
few definitions.
Content Index
Employee turnover: Definition
Types of Employee Turnover
Employee turnover rate: How to calculate employee turnover
How can you analyze your organization’s turnover rate?
Top 7 reasons for employee turnover
Why is it crucial to measure employee turnover?
How to reduce employee turnover?
How QuestionPro helps in employee turnover?
Employee turnover: Definition
Employee turnover is defined as the number of employees who quit the organization or are asked to
leave and are replaced by new employees.
Employee turnover is usually calculated on a yearly basis. It doesn’t matter whether the employees
resigned or were fired; their absence takes a toll on the overall productivity of an organization.
As per the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the annual turnover rate in the U.S. is about 12% to 15%.
This phenomenon may have a certain negative impact but isn’t necessarily all that bad because if a
number of employees leave, there are new ones joining in. However, the pace at which the work gets
done is affected to a certain extent.
As we go further in the article, we will cover the important aspects of employee turnover and how we
can avoid it so it does the bare minimum damage to the goals and overall strategic development of the
organization.
Types of Employee Turnover
Employee turnover can take various forms depending on the circumstances that lead to an employee’s
departure. Understanding the various types of employee turnover is essential in order to identify and
address potential issues.
Employee turnover is primarily of 4 types:
Voluntary turnover
This type of turnover is when an employee decides to voluntarily leave the organization. It is the
employee’s choice to disassociate from the organization without pressure from any external forces.
Involuntary turnover
Involuntary turnover is when an employee is fired or asked to leave the organization due to various
factors (which cannot always be pinpointed).
Desirable turnover
Turnover is considered desirable when an organization fires or loses underperforming employees and
replaces them with new hires. This process may not go down well with a lot of employees, yet it is
essential to keep the momentum going within the organization.
Undesirable turnover
Undesirable turnover is when an organization loses its top-performing employees. Some employees
leave a deeper impact than others, and those are the employees that are difficult to replace.
Learn more: Employee retention strategies and best practices
Employee turnover rate: How to calculate employee turnover rate
Employees leave organizations for various reasons. Leaving can be voluntary or forced. However,
turnover is not considered good for the overall organization. It is a painful process of losing some of the
best talents within the organization.
On the other hand, if underperforming employees are replaced, it can bring some positive results. So,
the process has its fair share of positives and negatives.
In this section, we will be learning about employee turnover rate calculation.
Monthly employee turnover rate: To calculate employee turnover on a monthly basis, you will need 3
numbers:
Number of active employees at the beginning of the month (AEB)
Number of active employees at the end of the month (AEE)
Number of employees who left during the particular month (EL)
You can now get your average number of employees by adding the number of active employees at the
beginning of the month and the number of active employees at the end of the month and dividing by 2.
Avg.= AEB + AEE/2
For example: Say you have 100 active employees at the beginning of the month and 94 active employees
at the end of the month. Your average is calculated as follows:
Avg.= 100+95/2
= 97
Now you have your average calculated, and you should now divide the number of employees left by the
average you calculated. Therefore, monthly turnover can be calculated using the formula:
Employee Turnover
For example: If 3 employees left
Monthly turnover %= 3/97 X100
= 3.09 %
So your monthly employee turnover rate % is 3.09%
However, organizations prefer calculating employee turnover on a quarterly or annual basis as there is
enough data to point to meaningful statistics and, in turn, analyze the pattern.
Here is the formula to calculate the annual turnover rate:
Employee Turnover
For example: If you have 100 employees at the start of the year and 150 at the end of the year, and 5
employees left during that year, your annual turnover rate would be calculated as follows:
Annual Turnover rate percentage = 5/(100+150)/2 X100
= 5/150/2 X 100
=5/125 X100
=0.04 X 100
= 4%
Therefore, according to the calculation, your annual employee turnover rate percentage is 4%.
If you are an HR professional, you will be tempted to ask, so what is the best turnover rate formula that I
should use?
Good question! Depending on what you aim to measure, you can use different numbers to calculate
your turnover rate.
For example: If you want to illustrate the overall turnover, you would need to include all the
separations. There is another factor to this; if you want to include retirement in your turnover
calculation, then you will have to specifically mention this attribute.
One very interesting and extremely useful way of measuring turnover is to see whether your new hire
turnover rate is higher or lower than your overall turnover.
You can calculate the first-year turnover rate % by using the formula:
Employee Turnover
How can you analyze your organization’s turnover rate?
Analyzing an organization’s turnover rate is a critical task that can provide important insights into the
organization’s health. High turnover rates can indicate problems such as poor management, insufficient
compensation, and benefits, or a hostile work environment.
A low employee turnover rate, on the other hand, can indicate that the organization is effectively
retaining its employees and creating a positive workplace culture.
You can get a better understanding of your organization’s employee turnover if you look at the following
three critical aspects:
Which employees are leaving?
No matter the industry average, it is crucial for organizations to identify which employees are leaving the
organization. Once you know that, only then will you be able to take necessary actions, be it retention or
letting them go. An analysis needs to take place to identify if high performers are leaving or low
performers are. You can then take remedial measures; one way or the other, it may affect your
employee retention, staff engagement, workforce productivity, etc.
When are they leaving?
The timing of employee departures is crucial to understanding employee churn. If employees leave
within a few weeks of joining, you may have to look at your recruiting processes, job descriptions, etc. If
employees that have worked for a long are leaving, then it could be due to low engagement, lack of a
clear career path, absence of excellent employee benefits, etc. Knowing these can help in identifying
and revamping your people processes.
Why are they leaving the organization?
There are several reasons for an employee’s departure; it can be employee processes, management
style, superiors, lack of a feedback mechanism, etc. It is essential you conduct exit interviews,
understand the reasons, what could hold them back, etc. Organizations cannot fix everything overnight,
but they can start with a few things. Observing the turnover rate after that will determine what’s
working and what’s not.
Top 7 reasons for employee turnover
The only thing constant in this world is change; I have twisted the original penned down by Francois de
La Rochefoucauld, “The only thing constant in life is change.”
But constant changes can be harmful to any business. Employee turnover is a change that directly
affects an organization’s bottom line. Here are the top 4 reasons for employee turnover:
1. Better pay offers
Different people have different motivation, and believe me; nothing is right or wrong. There might be
employees in your organization who have worked with you for a long time and believe in your business,
but if they are presented with better opportunities, they might consider moving on.
Keep a keen eye on what your competitors are offering and what is the word in the market. You can also
conduct an annual survey to know if your employees are happy with the hike they are offered.
To help employees truly appreciate their compensation, provide each employee with a written
statement at the end of the year covering their remuneration cost and any additional charges that the
company provides them with.
2. Low levels of employee engagement
Employee engagement may sound cliche; however, it is one of the major issues faced by organizations.
Employees quit because they don’t feel engaged enough at work. Following are some of the common
traits:
They seek a more challenging role
They are not provided with good-quality work
Their ideas are not appreciated at work
They are not offered enough support from the team/manager
There are not enough training and development activities
There are many ways in which an organization can boost engagement activities, and your approach
should be what’s right for the organization and if it fits into the company culture or not. It is also
important to keep an organization’s leadership engaged and make sure your managers are well-trained
in crisis management.
3. Low workforce morale
High-performing employees need to be constantly engaged in the workplace and need to move forward
in terms of professional and personal growth. Take time to meet with your employees to understand
their career paths and what they appreciate the most in their respective roles.
Make sure your employees have enough opportunities at work that keep their pace active, and they are
involved enough in the organization’s development plan.
4. Poor management of employees
Employees often voluntarily leave the job due to relationships going sour. It might not always be the
case, but most often, this is the reason when traced back. Generally, if work relationships are positive,
there is greater enthusiasm in employees to perform better at work and stay focused and engaged.
By managing your employees better, you can reduce the percentage of employee turnover. Create
policies and procedures that suit not only them but also the organization. Employee loyalty is something
organizations need, and to make loyal employees, you need to make sure you inculcate best practices in
the system.
5. Growth opportunities missing
All your employees need to have a clear employee growth path that is known to them. It has to be clear
and should be clearly indicative of their goals, achievements, and growth. The absence of a growth plan
can bring the morale down, and they may feel their efforts will not be recognized and rewarded. These
employees are at risk of leaving the organization sooner rather than later.
LEARN ABOUT: Employee Rewards Ideas for Employee Engagement
6. Poor work culture
Organizations that have a positive and strong work culture outperform the ones that do not. Work
culture is much more than interesting work, outings, or a ping pong table. It is a combination of a lot of
things. Employees need to feel and know they are appreciated and valued. Weak company cultures tend
to have high workforce turnover numbers.
7. Unhealthy work-life balance
Achieving a healthy work-life balance is essential to employees, be it for pursuing higher studies,
hobbies, etc. Managers need to work with employees to help them achieve the right balance.
Employees feel assured this way and will stay longer with the organization.
Learn more: Employee turnover survey questions + sample questionnaire template
Why is it crucial to measure employee turnover?
With employee turnover, one can understand an organization, its workplace culture, compensation,
policies, and people procedures. It is a window into knowing the organization’s employee experience,
their average tenure with the organization, etc.
Staff turnover gives you insights and data to understand your hiring practices and fill in necessary gaps.
It also helps in arresting costs that organizations would spend on:
Employee Recruitment
Onboarding
Training
Benefits
Replacement hires
How to reduce employee turnover or employee retention?
Turnover is inevitable! But as an organization, you can surely reduce it. For involuntary turnover, the
best thing you can do is to manage your employees well and keep them engaged and satisfied at the
workplace.
The following top 6 things can be done to reduce the rate of employee turnover:
Identify the right candidates
Train your hiring staff to identify what a promising candidate looks like. It cannot happen overnight, and
it will take years of experience to master the art. Make the interview process robust and hire the right
people. This includes making sure that the candidate fits the profile perfectly, blends with the
organization’s culture, and more.
Offer competitive compensation
Do some research on your compensation packages, review them, and make them competitive. Have
your HR team do the research and put down the best packages in the industry and create something
similar for your organization too.
Recognize and reward performers
Ask managers/teams for their monthly/quarterly achievements. Reward your best-performing
employees. There is no greater joy than work well done and, in return, appreciated. It is one of the most
cost-efficient ways of increasing employee satisfaction.
Design and convey a career path
Outline a clear career growth path at the time of employee onboarding. Discuss this with employees
annually. Encourage them to bring questions to the table. If they are not comfortable talking directly to
the management, encourage them to speak to their managers or immediate supervisors.
Meet employees’ training need
Supervisors and managers play a crucial role in the organization. They are the first line of contact for the
employees. If you are in upper management, make sure your supervisors/managers are provided with
the best and necessary training options.
Provide employee benefits
With the changing nature of the workforce and industries, the nature and expectations of employee
benefits have also evolved. Employee benefits such as student loan management, dental care coverage,
etc., go a long way in making employees happy. Benefits such as these positively affect their intent to
stay
