Articles worth reading
What other people found about turnover.
12 real sources, each with what it says in our words and a link to the original. Titles are exactly as the publishers wrote them.
$1trillion
lost every year to voluntary turnover
Read the original (opens in a new tab)This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion
Gallup, March 13, 2019
Gallup puts the yearly cost of people quitting on their own at $1 trillion for U.S. businesses. Most of it never shows up on one line of the P&L. This is the number behind our Turn Tax.
10.4x
how much more powerful toxic culture is than pay at predicting who loses people
Read the original (opens in a new tab)Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation
MIT Sloan Management Review, January 11, 2022
The authors found a toxic corporate culture is 10.4 times more powerful than compensation in predicting a company's attrition, and pay ranked only 16th among the topics they tested. It is why we ask what working there is like before we look at pay.
70%
of the difference in team engagement comes from the manager
Read the original (opens in a new tab)Employees Want a Lot More From Their Managers
Gallup, April 8, 2015
Gallup found that managers account for about 70% of the variation in how engaged their teams are. If you want to change who stays, you change what managers do. We look at turnover by manager before we look at anything else.
20%
of a worker's pay, the typical cost to replace them
Read the original (opens in a new tab)There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees
Center for American Progress, November 16, 2012
After reviewing case studies, researchers found a typical cost of about 20% of pay, and far more for senior roles, up to 213% in the highest cases. Treat 20% as the floor, not the forecast. Turn Tax prices it by role, across 13 cost categories.
52%
of people who quit say it could have been prevented
Read the original (opens in a new tab)This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion
Gallup, March 13, 2019
More than half of people who left on their own say their manager or company could have done something. About half say no one talked with them about their future in the three months before they went. That is the window the Flight Risk Score works in.
$223billion
what culture-driven turnover may have cost over five years
Read the original (opens in a new tab)SHRM Reports Toxic Workplace Cultures Cost Billions
SHRM, September 25, 2019
In its report The High Cost of a Toxic Workplace Culture, SHRM estimates that turnover tied to culture may have cost organizations as much as $223 billion in five years. Nearly one in five people left a job over culture. It rarely shows up in an exit report, so the cost hides.
75%
of employee turnover is mostly preventable, says Work Institute
Read the original (opens in a new tab)75% of Employee Turnover is Preventable: Here's Where to Start
Work Institute, April 21, 2026
Based on its own research, Work Institute says nearly 75% of turnover is mostly preventable. If most of it can be prevented, most of it is a choice, not bad luck. That is why we start with who is at risk, not just who already left.
2.6x
as likely to be looking for a new job, when burned out
Read the original (opens in a new tab)Employee Burnout, Part 1: The 5 Main Causes
Gallup, July 12, 2018
Gallup's five main causes of burnout are unfair treatment, unmanageable workload, unclear roles, too little communication and support from the manager, and unreasonable time pressure. None of them is a pay problem, and burned-out employees are 2.6 times as likely to be seeking a different job.
50%
or more of the U.S. workforce are quiet quitters, by Gallup's count
Read the original (opens in a new tab)Is Quiet Quitting Real?
Gallup, September 6, 2022
Gallup calls quiet quitting a symptom of poor management, and points to regular one-on-one conversations between managers and their people as the way back. Those are the conversations our Honest Read and Flight Risk Score are built around.
94%
would stay longer if the company invested in their career
Read the original (opens in a new tab)New Report shows talent development is playing an increasingly strategic role in today's economy
LinkedIn, February 27, 2018
LinkedIn's 2018 Workplace Learning Report found that 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development. Growth does not need a raise to work, and it costs far less than replacing someone.
1 in 10
people have the talent to manage, says Gallup
Read the original (opens in a new tab)Why Great Managers Are So Rare
Gallup, March 25, 2014
Gallup's research finds about one in 10 people have the talent to manage, and another two in 10 show some of it. That makes the manager the first place to look when a team keeps losing people.
$10trillion
lost to low engagement worldwide, about 9% of global GDP
Read the original (opens in a new tab)State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report
Gallup, April 2026
Gallup says global engagement fell to 20%, the lowest since 2020, and manager engagement fell to 22%. Engagement is the early signal and quitting is the late one. The Flight Risk Score is built to read the early one.
Figures are as each source reports them. We summarize in our own words and link to the original so you can read it yourself.
Start with a conversation
Start small. See results in 7 days.
Send us 7 standard columns from your HR system, usually a few clicks to export, for a small group of your employees. No contract or commitment. If it does not surprise you, walk away.