Employee turnover: what it is and how to track it
Employee turnover expresses how often people leave a company and are replaced. It matters to employers because departures carry the cost of recruiting, training and a temporary drop in output. This page explains what turnover is, how to measure it simply in your own company, and how to interpret it — without invented benchmarks.
What turnover covers
Turnover describes people moving out of the company and being replaced. A distinction is drawn between departures at the employee’s initiative and at the employer’s; for managing stability, voluntary turnover is usually the more interesting of the two, because working conditions can influence it.
How to measure it
The basic indicator compares departures over a period against the average headcount. What is worth watching is the trend over time and the differences between teams or roles, rather than comparison with someone else’s numbers. This page deliberately does not state a "usual" level.
What decision follows
Once you measure turnover you can see where it is highest and whether it is rising. That is the input for targeted action — in recruitment, in onboarding, or in working conditions. Without measurement the problem is hard to manage.