About the Cost of Employee Turnover Calculator
This cost of turnover calculator estimates what it costs when an employee leaves and has to be replaced. It adds up five groups of cost: separation (exit admin and any severance), the vacancy (overtime, temporary cover or lost output while the seat is empty), hiring, onboarding and training, and the productivity lost while the new hire gets up to speed. The result is a cost per departure, a percentage of salary and an annual total for your expected number of leavers.
HR leaders use the figure to build a business case for retention work such as pay adjustments, manager training, flexible working or better onboarding. Finance teams use it to put a number on attrition in workforce plans. Turnover cost is often quoted as a share of salary, but the share varies widely with seniority and how long a role takes to fill and learn, so working from your own inputs gives a more defensible number than a rule of thumb.
Enter costs that actually change because someone left. Vacancy cost should be net of the salary you save while the role is empty. Ramp-up productivity is the new hire's average output, as a percentage of a fully productive employee, over the ramp-up period. Lost productivity is valued at salary plus your benefits loading.
With the default inputs, the cost per departure is $28,500.00. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the cost of employee turnover calculator
- 1Enter the salary of the role and your benefits loading.
- 2Add separation costs and how long the role will be vacant, with the net weekly cost of covering it.
- 3Enter hiring and onboarding costs for the replacement.
- 4Estimate how many months the new hire takes to reach full productivity and their average output meanwhile.
- 5Enter expected departures per year to see the annual cost of turnover.
Formula and method
The calculator adds up the direct and indirect costs of replacing one employee. Separation, hiring and onboarding are entered as amounts. Vacancy cost is the number of weeks the role stays open multiplied by the net weekly cost of covering it. Lost productivity covers the months a new hire takes to reach full output. During that time you pay the full loaded salary but get only part of the output, so the gap is the monthly loaded cost × months × (1 − average productivity).
This is a bottom-up method in the spirit of the separation, replacement and training cost models used in HR research. It deliberately leaves out harder-to-measure effects such as lost client relationships, lower team morale, knock-on resignations and lost institutional knowledge, so treat the result as a conservative estimate.
- loading
- Benefits and payroll cost as a percentage of salary
- ramp months
- Months until the new hire is fully productive
- ramp productivity
- Average output during ramp-up, as a share of full productivity
Worked examples
Mid-level professional on $60,000
Loaded monthly cost is $60,000 × 1.3 ÷ 12 = $6,500. At 50% productivity for 4 months, $13,000 of output is lost. Adding $1,500 separation, 6 × $1,000 vacancy, $5,000 hiring and $3,000 onboarding gives $28,500, which is 47.5% of salary. Ten leavers a year cost $285,000.
Entry-level hourly role
Loaded monthly cost is $32,000 × 1.2 ÷ 12 = $3,200, and losing 40% of output for 2 months costs $2,560. With $300 separation, $1,200 vacancy, $1,200 hiring and $1,500 onboarding, each leaver costs $6,760, or 21% of salary. Across 25 departures that adds up to $169,000.
Senior engineer on $150,000
A 12-week vacancy at $3,000 a week costs $36,000, the agency fee is $30,000, and six months at 40% productivity loses $16,250 × 6 × 0.6 = $58,500. In total one departure costs $134,500, almost 90% of salary.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to replace an employee?+
It depends mostly on seniority, time to fill and time to productivity. Easy-to-fill entry-level roles may cost a modest fraction of salary to replace. Senior and specialist roles can cost close to, or more than, a full year's salary once agency fees, long vacancies and slow ramp-ups are counted. Your own inputs give the most reliable figure.
What costs are included in employee turnover?+
The main ones are separation (exit admin, severance), vacancy (overtime, temporary staff, lost sales), hiring (advertising, agency fees, interview time, checks), onboarding and training, and lower productivity while the new hire learns the job. Indirect costs such as lower morale and lost client relationships are real but harder to measure.
How do I estimate lost productivity?+
Estimate how many months a new hire takes to work at full speed and their average output in that time. A role that takes four months to learn, at 50% average output, loses two months of loaded salary. Ask managers for realistic figures for each role family.
Should I subtract the salary saved during a vacancy?+
Yes. While the seat is empty you are not paying that salary, so enter the vacancy cost net of those savings. If the work is simply not done and revenue is lost, use the lost profit. If colleagues cover it on overtime, use the overtime premium.
How can I reduce turnover costs?+
Two approaches work: reduce the number of leavers through competitive pay, career paths, manager quality and flexibility, and reduce the cost of each one through faster hiring, structured onboarding and documented knowledge. Each departure prevented saves the full cost shown above.