Employee turnover report template
A one-page turnover and attrition report with the headline numbers, a split by team, the reasons people left and the decision you need, to fill in, copy or download.
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Employee turnover report template
Template from https://www.teampredict.ai/templates/turnover-report
Last updated
A turnover report shows who left, from where and why.
A turnover report, which many teams call an attrition report, is the page leadership reads each quarter about people leaving. A good one answers four questions in order: how many left, which teams they left from, why they left, and what you propose to do about it.
The headline is the turnover rate: separations divided by average headcount, multiplied by 100. Average headcount is the headcount at the start plus the headcount at the end, divided by two. The report then splits that number, because voluntary exits, regretted exits and one team's exits each tell a different story.
Here is how to use the employee turnover report template in five steps.
How to use it
- 1Fix the definitions
- 2Fill in the headline numbers
- 3Split by team
- 4Add the reasons
- 5End with a decision
Fix the definitions. Write down what counts as a separation and how you work out average headcount, and keep both the same every period.
Fill in the headline numbers. Enter the headcount at the start and the end, the separations, and how many were voluntary and regretted. The rates follow from those.
Split by team. A company-wide rate hides the team where the problem is. List each team with its own headcount and separations.
Add the reasons. Take the primary reasons from your exit interviews or your exit tracker and count them.
End with a decision. Close with what you will do and what you need. A report with no ask gets read and forgotten.
Here is a worked example with invented names.
Take an invented company, Osterlow Engineering. It starts the quarter with 240 employees and ends it with 250, and 12 people leave. Average headcount is (240 + 250) ÷ 2 = 245, so turnover is 12 ÷ 245 × 100, about 4.9% for the quarter.
Nine of the 12 exits are voluntary, which is about 3.7%, and six are tagged regretted. On its own that looks calm. The split by team shows that the field service team, with an average of 40 people, had six separations: 15% in one quarter, and five of the six regretted exits.
Worked example
Osterlow Engineering, an invented company: one quarter
- Headcount, start and end240 and 250, average 245
- Separations12, of which 9 voluntary and 6 regretted
- Turnover rate12 ÷ 245 × 100 ≈ 4.9% for the quarter
- Voluntary turnover rate9 ÷ 245 × 100 ≈ 3.7%
- Field service team6 separations on 40 people, 15%, 5 regretted
- Primary reason in that teamManager, 4 of 6
The ask
A round of skip-level meetings with the field service team before next quarter
Four of the six field service leavers named their manager as the primary reason. The report ends with one ask: a round of skip-level meetings with the field service team before the next quarter.
These mistakes spoil a turnover report.
- Comparing a quarterly rate with an annual one without annualizing it first, which makes the quarter look far too low.
- Dividing by the headcount at the start or the end instead of the average, which skews the rate in a company that is growing or shrinking.
- Reporting one company-wide figure with no split by team.
- Mixing layoffs into the voluntary numbers, so a restructuring reads as a retention problem.
- Listing numbers with no reasons and no ask.
One limit applies to every turnover report. The turnover rate is a lagging number: it moves late, so it can only confirm what already happened. Leading indicators move before the outcome: engagement scores, absenteeism and flight risk signals. If you track one of them, add it to the report.
What moves first
Leading
- Engagement scores
- Absenteeism
- Flight risk signals
Move before the outcome
Lagging
Turnover rate
Can only confirm what already happened
People ask these questions about turnover reports.
These glossary terms explain the ideas behind it.
The turnover rate is the percentage of your workforce that left during a period.
Voluntary turnover is a departure the employee chose: a resignation, a retirement, or a move to another employer.
Regretted attrition is a departure the company did not want: someone whose performance, skills or relationships you would have paid to keep.
Headcount and average headcount
Headcount is the number of employees on the payroll at a point in time. Average headcount is the average across a period, and it is the denominator in most turnover and retention formulas.
Attrition is headcount lost when employees leave and the role is not backfilled, so the position disappears from the org chart.
These pages on this site go deeper.
These templates pair well with this one.
Exit interview tracking spreadsheet
One row per leaver, eight columns, and a short review for the quarter.
Employee retention plan template
Four measures, three reasons, the roles you cannot lose and the actions with owners.
Twelve questions a leaver answers in writing, in about ten minutes.
Work out your own turnover rate.
Enter your headcount at the start and end of the period and the number of separations, and the free calculator runs the formula and shows the annualized figure.
Calculate your turnover rateFree, no signup required.
Back to the HR templates, where all 22 are listed.