What does losing an employee actually cost you?
The real cost of turnover reaches well beyond the recruiter's invoice — vacancy, onboarding, the months of ramp-up and the knowledge that walks out the door. Enter one role and we'll estimate the full figure.
Takes ~1 minute · Estimates only · Figures stay in your browser until you choose to share them
Full Cost Estimate
Beyond the obvious
Cost Breakdown
Six cost categories
Annual Exposure
If it happens again
Retention Upside
What it's worth
About this tool
True Cost of Employee Turnover
When someone resigns, the recruiter's invoice is the part you can see — and it's rarely the biggest number. The real cost of losing an employee is scattered across the weeks the seat sits empty, the onboarding and supervision a replacement needs, the months before they're fully productive, and the client relationships and hard-won context that walk out the door with the person leaving. Because most of it never appears on a single line item, owners routinely underestimate what turnover is actually doing to the business. The True Cost of Employee Turnover calculator pulls those hidden costs into one figure, so you can see the full scale of a single departure rather than just the bill from the agency.
How it works
You enter a few details about the role — the annual salary (including super), how complex or senior the position is, how long it typically takes to fill, and how you recruit (job boards, a mix, or an agency). From those inputs the tool builds an estimate across six categories: recruitment, vacancy cost while the seat is empty, onboarding and training, ramp-up to full productivity, knowledge and relationship loss, and administrative offboarding costs. It presents the all-in total, shows it as a percentage of the role's salary, breaks the cost down category by category (largest first), and projects your annual exposure if departures at this level recur — alongside the estimated yearly value of even a modest improvement in retention. Every figure is a salary-relative assumption, not a measured cost for your business: the tool is upfront that role complexity and time-to-fill drive the estimates, and that your real numbers will vary with industry, seniority and how the exit is handled. Treat the total as a directional sense of scale, not a precise quote.
Who it’s for
Australian SME owners and managers who want to understand the true, all-in cost of losing a team member — and what better retention is actually worth.
- The cost of turnover reaches far beyond recruitment fees — vacancy, onboarding, ramp-up to productivity, and lost knowledge and relationships typically make up the larger share, and none of it shows on an invoice.
- The tool estimates six distinct cost categories from a single role's salary, complexity, time-to-fill and recruitment method, then expresses the total as a share of that salary so you can see the full scale at a glance.
- It also frames the upside: your annual exposure if departures recur at this level, and the estimated yearly saving from even a modest lift in retention — often more than the cost of stronger onboarding and people processes.
Frequently asked questions
Does this use my actual costs or estimates?
It's an estimate. The calculator builds each cost category from salary-relative assumptions and the role details you enter — it doesn't pull real figures from your payroll or accounts. That's deliberate: it gives you a fast, directional sense of scale before you invest time gathering precise numbers. Your real costs will vary with your industry, the seniority of the role, how quickly you fill it, and how the departure is managed, so treat the total as a well-reasoned starting point rather than a quote.
Why is the total so much higher than what I paid the recruiter?
Because recruitment is usually the smallest visible slice of a much larger picture. The tool also accounts for the reduced output while the seat sits empty, the onboarding and supervision a new hire needs, the months of ramp-up before they're fully productive, and the knowledge, context and client relationships lost when an experienced person leaves. Those are real costs to the business even though they never land on an invoice — which is exactly why turnover is so easy to underestimate.
How does role complexity change the estimate?
Complexity and seniority mainly drive the ramp-up and knowledge-loss figures. A senior or specialised person takes longer to reach full productivity and carries more institutional knowledge and client relationships, so the cost of losing them scales accordingly. A more junior role fills faster and hands over more cleanly, so its estimate sits lower. Time-to-fill works the same way — a longer vacancy means more weeks of reduced output before the replacement even starts.
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