What is the cost of attrition?

A challenging question to answer. Firstly, there are both visible and invisible costs associated with attrition, according to Steve Connolly, Principal Consultant at Analysys Mason. Steve gave an insightful strategic overview to the cost of attrition at the recent Attrition Boot Camp held at St James London to a room of eager individuals, from various sectors, with a common goal – how to lower attrition rates in call centres.

Attrition is spread across several different departments i.e. operations, training, IT and HR to name but a few. The average attrition rate varies greatly dependent on how companies are measuring attrition and if they are being rather creative with their figures! The average attrition rate stands at about 25% and Steve maintains that 10% is healthy and perhaps the best a company can hope for.

To lower the rate of attrition an organisation really needs to have a clear, real and visible career path as this is one of the principal factors of employee engagement.

Some of the invisible costs include low morale, an increase in sickness and absence in general, a reduction in productivity which in turn creates a loss of sales, loss of customers and an impact on the brand.

To conclude Steve maintains that companies need to focus less on the word ATTRITION and more on the principal of ENGAGEMENT.

To find out more about how we can help you address attrition in the workplace, contact Katherine Wiid a Retention Specialist at Recrion www.recrion.co.uk on telephone number +44 1780 484910.