Guide
How to calculate staff turnover
Get your number in ten seconds, then find out what it means: the formula, seasonal staff, the mistakes that skew it, and how you compare.
Your staff turnover rate
42.9%
Roughly 4 in every 10 people left during the year.
18 leavers ÷ 42 average employees × 100
Now see what it's costing you → See how you compare ↓The formula
One sum, two numbers.
Your turnover rate is the share of your team that left over a period, usually a year.
Count your leavers
Everyone who left during the year, for any reason.
18 people left
Find your average headcount
Add the start and end of the year, and halve it.
(40 + 44) ÷ 2 = 42
Divide, then multiply by 100
That's your turnover rate for the year.
18 ÷ 42 × 100 = 42.9%
Example: a restaurant group with 40 staff in January, 44 in December, and 18 leavers in between.
Seasonal staff
Busy summers break the quick method.
Start and end of the year can both land in your quietest months. If your headcount swings with the seasons, count your staff at the end of every month and take the average of all twelve.
Show the numbers
| Month | People |
|---|---|
| January | 30 |
| February | 30 |
| March | 32 |
| April | 36 |
| May | 42 |
| June | 48 |
| July | 52 |
| August | 52 |
| September | 44 |
| October | 38 |
| November | 34 |
| December | 34 |
Start and end only
56.3%
18 leavers ÷ 32 × 100
Monthly average
45.8%
18 leavers ÷ 39.3 × 100
Same business, same 18 leavers, more than ten points apart. The monthly figure is the honest one.
Other measures
Three more numbers worth knowing.
Your overall rate mixes people who chose to go with people whose contracts ended. These split it apart.
Voluntary turnover
People who chose to leave ÷ average employees × 100
The one that tells you most about how people feel about working for you, because it leaves out dismissals, redundancies and contracts ending.
New-starter turnover
Joined and left within 12 months ÷ people who joined × 100
If this is high, look at recruitment and induction first. In adult social care in England, Skills for Care found 34.0% turnover among care workers in their first year in the role, against 15.3% for those with 20 years or more (2024/25).
Monthly turnover
Leavers that month ÷ average headcount that month × 100
Good for spotting a bad month early. For a yearly figure, add up twelve months of leavers rather than multiplying one month by 12.
Common mistakes
Four ways to get a misleading number.
Using your headcount on a single day
Use the average over the year, and the monthly average if you're seasonal.
Counting moves between your own sites
Only count people who actually left the business.
Changing what you count each year
Decide once whether seasonal and fixed-term staff are in, and stick to it.
Multiplying one month by twelve
Add up the last twelve months of leavers instead.
What's normal
How does your rate compare?
Your rate from the top of the page, against the most reliable UK figures we know of.
Your own number will probably be lower than the industry churn figures. Those come from a household survey (CIPD analysis of ONS Annual Population Survey data, 2022 to 2023) and include casual and seasonal work ending and people leaving work altogether. The care figure is measured from employer records, the way you'd measure it yourself (Skills for Care, 2024/25), so it's the most like-for-like.
More useful than any benchmark is your own trend. A rate that's climbing year on year, or one site that loses people far faster than the others, tells you more than a national average ever will.
Next
The rate tells you how many. Not what it cost, or why.
Questions
Staff turnover questions
What is a good staff turnover rate?
How do I calculate monthly staff turnover?
Should I include people who were dismissed?
Do seasonal staff count?
What's the difference between turnover and attrition?
Find out why people leave, before they go
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