When an employee leaves an organization, the cost to replace her may be higher than you think: In the private sector, it can be as much as 200% of her annual salary.
Listen to an interview with Booz Allen Senior Executive Advisor Ron Sanders on Federal News Radio.
And costs of attrition go beyond dollars and cents. There are hiring and training expenses; the cost of diminished productivity; and the loss of an employee’s experience and institutional knowledge. Combined, these factors can reduce an agency’s operational capacity and performance, and impact how it implements policies and delivers services.
In the federal government, employee attrition is historically low. But agencies can still benefit from a better understanding of who is leaving and why. Such analyses reveal important clues about the health of a workplace environment and of the agency itself. They also help workforce planners develop strategies to retain employees, as well as procedures to transfer critical knowledge while an individual is still employed.
“Beneath the Surface: Understanding Attrition at Your Agency and Why it Matters,” a joint study by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Partnership for Public Service (PPS), explains how attrition impacts agency missions, operational capacities, workplace health—and the employees themselves.
The study analyzes federal attrition and its key drivers and provides an analytic framework that managers, workforce planners, and human resources professionals can use to better understand turnover at their agency—and its consequences.
According to the study, both opportunities and challenges can result from attrition. For example, employee turnover offers promotion opportunities for junior employees. But it can also reveal shortcomings in a supervisor’s management skills or weak hiring practices within an organization.
“Beneath the Surface” was based on an extensive literature review; feedback from focus groups; and interviews with workforce planners and HR professionals. The team also analyzed attrition data from the Center Personnel Data File and information from the 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey.
Booz Allen Senior Vice President Dave Mader, Senior Executive Advisor Ron Sanders, Associate Drew Lopez, and Senior Consultants Kiman Choe, Angela Peat, Mahreen Rashid, and Sabina Shrestha contributed to this study.
