Cost of a Regretted Exit
A four-line worksheet to price one regretted exit: recruiting, ramp time, lost output and manager time. Your own numbers, so finance can check them.
Cost of a Regretted Exit
To calculate the cost of employee turnover, price one regretted exit across four lines: recruiting, ramp time, lost output and manager time. Use your own records and your managers’ estimates. Then multiply by the number of regretted exits in the last 12 months. It takes one afternoon.
What is a regretted exit?
A departure you didn’t want. Someone you would have kept and would hire again. Start with one real example from the last year, in a role you know well, so you can check every input.
Who should fill it in?
Three people, about 15 minutes each. A finance partner for pay and loaded cost. The hiring manager for ramp time and output. HR for the recruiting records.
How do you price each line?
Recruiting. Fees, job ads, recruiter time, interview hours and background checks. Price people’s time at loaded hourly cost: salary plus benefits and payroll costs, divided by hours worked. Finance has this figure.
Ramp time. Weeks to full speed, times weekly pay, times the share of output still missing during the ramp. The manager estimates the share. Mark it as an estimate.
Lost output. Weeks the seat sat empty, times what the role produces in a week. If the output isn’t a visible number, price the work that didn’t get done or that someone else covered.
Manager time. Hours spent interviewing, onboarding, handing off and covering the gap, times loaded hourly cost.
How do you show it to your CFO?
Bring the sheet, not a slide. Four rows and a total, with a source next to each row and every estimate marked. Ask the CFO to change any number they disagree with. A number the CFO has adjusted is a number the CFO owns.
What do you do with the number?
Compare any spending on improving employee connectedness and belonging (that’s what’s measured in the Love of Workplace Index®) to the cost of one exit, not to zero. The conversation moves from feelings to arithmetic. The number tells you what the problem is worth. It doesn’t tell you why people left. For that, you need what employees say in their own words.
How does your culture look from the outside? Your free Most Loved Workplace® Opportunity Report shows what candidates and AI tools can find, and what’s missing.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is a regretted exit?
A departure the company didn’t want: someone it would have kept and would hire again.
What is loaded hourly cost?
Salary plus benefits and payroll costs, divided by hours worked.
Why use my own numbers?
Finance can check them line by line. An outside average is harder to defend.
How often should I run it?
Once on a real exit, then each quarter on that quarter’s regretted exits.
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