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Turnover and attrition

What is non-regretted attrition?

Definition

Non-regretted attrition is a departure the company is neutral about or relieved by, usually a poor fit or a sustained performance problem.

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A non-regretted exit is one you would not have fought to prevent.

Typical cases are a poor fit for the role, a sustained performance problem, or someone whose skills the business no longer needs. Unlike a regretted exit, it does not cost you performance, skills or relationships you wanted to keep. The person may have resigned or been let go: regret is a separate tag from who chose.

It is the counterpart of regretted attrition. Together the two tags cover every exit.

A healthy team still has some non-regretted exits.

Counting it in the same bucket as regretted attrition makes a healthy team look unstable and pushes managers to keep people they should let go.

Some non-regretted attrition is a sign of a team that manages performance honestly. Pushing it to zero usually means people who should have moved on are still in roles where they are struggling.

You measure it as a share of all exits.

Formula

Non-regretted share = non-regretted exits ÷ all exits × 100

Tag each exit when it happens, ideally at the exit interview, with the same two options every time. The regretted and non-regretted shares always add up to 100%.

Here is a worked example with round numbers.

Take an invented sales team with an average headcount of 40 that lost 8 people in a year. Managers tagged 5 of the exits as non-regretted and 3 as regretted.

The non-regretted share is 5 ÷ 8 × 100 = 62.5%. Overall turnover of 8 ÷ 40 = 20% looks alarming on its own, but the regretted rate is 3 ÷ 40 = 7.5%, and that is the figure that measures the loss.

A steady trickle is normal and a sudden rise points at hiring.

Some non-regretted exits every year usually means performance problems are being dealt with. A sudden rise, especially among people hired in the same period, is worth tracing back to how they were hired with a cohort analysis.

These are the common mistakes with non-regretted attrition.

  • Relabelling an exit as non-regretted after the fact to make the regretted number look better.
  • Assuming every involuntary exit is non-regretted. A layoff can remove people you wanted to keep.
  • Ignoring a high non-regretted share. Many poor fits from the same hiring period point at the hiring process.
  • Treating it as free. Each exit still carries a cost of turnover when the seat is refilled.

Find out what one wrong hire costs.

Many non-regretted exits are hires that did not work out. The free calculator puts a number on what each one cost, from lost productivity to the replacement.

Calculate the cost of a bad hire

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These related terms are in the glossary too.

  • Regretted attrition

    Regretted attrition is a departure the company did not want: someone whose performance, skills or relationships you would have paid to keep.

  • Functional turnover

    Functional turnover is a departure that leaves the organization better off, typically a low performer or a poor culture fit choosing to move on.

  • Involuntary turnover

    Involuntary turnover is a departure the company initiated: a termination, a performance exit, or a layoff.

  • Cost of a bad hire

    The cost of a bad hire is what a hire who does not work out costs you in total, from sourcing and onboarding through lost productivity, manager time, exit and re-hiring.

  • Exit interview

    An exit interview is a structured conversation with a departing employee about why they are leaving and what would have changed their mind.

  • Employee turnover

    Employee turnover is the movement of people out of a company over a set period, counted as the employees who leave and are replaced.

Back to the HR glossary, where all 52 terms are defined.