Talent management tool: regretted attrition

This is a regretted attrition worksheet that prices the leavers the company wanted to keep, for a team of any size. Enter the average headcount over the year, the people who left, how many of them you would have kept, the average salary of a regretted leaver and your own assumption for replacement cost as a share of salary, and it returns turnover for the year, regretted turnover as a share of headcount, regretted leavers as a share of all leavers, the cost of one regretted leaver and the cost of the year's regretted attrition. Every count and the assumption are yours; the worksheet publishes no replacement-cost rate. Free, on the page, no account; the paid plan keeps every leaver against their last placement on the grid.

Turnover and regretted turnover, the two rates the review should have predicted

Twelve leavers from an average headcount of eighty is turnover of 15%; five of them regretted is regretted turnover of 6%. The first is the number every HR lead reports; the second is the one the talent review exists to bring down, because a regretted leaver is by definition someone the grid placed well. The worksheet works both from your counts and asks nothing about why anyone left.

Regretted leavers as a share of all leavers

Five regretted of twelve leavers is 41%: fewer than half the departures were the ones the company minded, which says the review is finding the right people and the retention plan is not keeping them. A share near zero says the reverse. The worksheet shows the share so the review can read which problem it has.

The cost, at your own replacement assumption

Replacement cost is usually taken as a share of the leaver's salary, covering recruiting, ramp and the output lost while the seat is empty, and the share is an assumption. At your own 50% of a $62,000 salary each regretted leaver costs $31,000 and the year's five cost $155,000. Change the share to your own figure and the cost moves with it; the worksheet publishes no rate.