Employee turnover cost calculator
Add a row for each group of roles that left. Enter how many people, their average salary, and a replacement-cost multiplier. Use a lower multiplier for roles that are quick to fill and quick to learn, and a higher one for senior or specialized roles.
Starting numbers are the worked example from the article (15 departures, $100,000 average salary). Replace them with your own.
Estimate. Default values are based on Ko & Trevor (2026), Journal of Management, and Gallup. Adjust them to reflect your organization. This line prices lost output at salary and sits outside the Gallup multiple.
Total cost, one year
$1,500,000
Three years, nothing changed
$4,500,000
Replacement cost (departures × salary × multiplier)$1,500,000
Formula: departures × average salary × replacement-cost multiplier. Multipliers run from 0.5 to 2.0 times annual salary, the range Gallup reported in 2019. The replacement figure does not include lost institutional knowledge or the effect on the people who stay, so the real cost runs higher than any calculation here.
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