Free calculator · Turnover cost
What does losing one person really cost?
Enter your data and change the assumptions when you know them better than we do. The calculator shows the cost of turnover in three scenarios, from the most prudent to the most complete.
Your data
Your assumptions
The starting values are prudent estimates for operational and staff roles. If you have your own data, use it.
Cost of each person who leaves
The cost over one year
10 departures a year
Conservative
€45,000
€4,500 each
Only costs that produce an invoice or logged hours: recruiting, selection, onboarding.
Realistic
€125,769
€12,577 each
Conservative plus vacancy and onboarding. This is the scenario to use in a business case.
Complete
from €300,000 to €450,000
if the roles leaving are skilled or managerial
Realistic plus lost know-how, extra load on colleagues, mistakes and the risk of further departures. There is no single figure: estimates reach 100–150% of salary for skilled or managerial roles.
What keeping someone is worth
A €25,000 project pays for itself by avoiding 2 departures in a year (you currently have 10).
Each person who stays instead of leaving is worth about €12,577 in the realistic scenario.
Under the conservative scenario it would take 6.
Numbers show where to look. Why people leave, only people can tell.
Let's talk →How the costs are calculated
One week of work is the annual salary divided by 52. Vacancy is the weeks with nobody in the role. Onboarding is the ramp-up weeks times the share of productivity that is missing. Recruiting and onboarding are a percentage of salary.
We use salary as a measure of the value of lost work: it is a prudent estimate, since what a person produces is usually worth more than what they cost.
Italian estimates put the real cost of a departure between 30% and 50% of annual salary. According to Adecco–Jobpricing research, vacancy alone averages 26% of salary, about €15,000. For skilled and managerial roles the cost can reach 100–150%.
Sources: Adecco Group and Jobpricing, estimates on the cost of vacancy and turnover in Italy; HR literature on direct costs, vacancy and ramp-up curves.