Employee Turnover Cost Calculator
Calculate what it really costs when someone leaves your creative team: hiring, recruiting, onboarding, ramp-up productivity and lost knowledge.
What turnover really costs
The visible bill (job ads, recruiter fees) is the small part. The expensive part is the months the role sits empty, the new hire’s reduced output during onboarding, and the knowledge that leaves with the person. For a senior creative, the real cost is 1.5–2× their annual salary.
That’s why the most mature companies review pay proactively: a 10% raise is far cheaper than absorbing 1.5× a salary in turnover. The economics are crystal clear; the psychology, on the other hand, tends to avoid the conversation until it’s too late.
How to reduce turnover
- • Annual pay review: indexed to inflation plus a market adjustment. Before they ask.
- • Monthly 1:1s with their manager: spot the warning signs before someone actually leaves.
- • A clear career path: what the person needs to reach the next level.
- • A sustainable workload: burnout is the number one reason people leave creative teams.
- • Interesting work: creatives leave for places with a better project pipeline before they leave for better pay.
When to let someone go
Not all turnover is bad. If someone wants to leave for a role you can’t offer (management, a new industry, a different city), forcing them to stay only delays the inevitable and lowers the quality of their work. “Bad” turnover is the avoidable kind: someone leaving over pay or burnout that you could have prevented.