Employee Turnover Rate Calculator

Enter the headcount at the start and the end of the period and how many people left. You get the turnover rate with the formula, the voluntary and involuntary split, a yearly projection and, if you add it, the retention rate. This page is about employee turnover, not the turnover of an investment portfolio.

Headcount and leavers

Everyone who left the payroll in the period: quits, dismissals, layoffs, retirements.

Optional details

Leave any of these empty if you don't track them.

For the retention rate: leavers who were already on the team on day one.

Results

Turnover rate

10.0%

5 ÷ 50 × 100 = 10.0%

Annualized rate

10.0%

Average headcount

50

Retention rate

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Add the leavers who were there at the start.

Voluntary turnover

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Add the voluntary or involuntary leavers to split the rate.

Involuntary turnover

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Turnover by team

Compare teams or regions. The total adds up the people, it does not average the rates.

TeamStartEndLeaversRate
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Total000–
Up to 20 teams.

What you type is not sent to ParrotNotes. Team names stay on this page and are not saved.

How to calculate turnover rate

Turnover rate = people who left ÷ average headcount × 100. The average headcount is the start plus the end of the period, divided by two.

Example: a sales team starts the year with 48 people and ends it with 52, and 5 people left during the year. The average headcount is (48 + 52) ÷ 2 = 50, so the turnover rate is 5 ÷ 50 × 100 = 10%.

Count everyone who left the payroll in the period, whether they quit, were let go or retired. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics computes its separations rate the same way: "dividing the number of separations by employment and multiplying that quotient by 100."

Voluntary and involuntary turnover

Split the leavers into those who chose to go and those the company let go. The BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) uses three groups: quits, "employees who left voluntarily, with the exception of retirements or transfers to other locations"; layoffs and discharges, "involuntary separations initiated by the employer"; and other separations, which "include retirements, transfers to other locations, separations due to employee disability, and deaths."

Voluntary turnover is the number most teams watch: it is the one a manager can change. Enter the voluntary leavers and the calculator gives both rates on the same average headcount, so they add up to the total.

Monthly, quarterly and annual turnover

A monthly rate looks small next to an annual one. To compare, the calculator projects a month × 12 and a quarter × 4 (a custom period × 365 ÷ its days). That is a simple projection that assumes the rest of the year goes the same way.

For a real annual figure, use the year's total leavers over the year's average headcount. Adding twelve monthly rates gives nearly the same answer when headcount is steady, and drifts when the team grows or shrinks fast.

Turnover rate vs retention rate

They are not mirror images. Turnover counts every leaver, including people hired during the period who then left. Retention looks only at the people who were there on day one: retention rate = (start headcount − leavers who were there at the start) ÷ start headcount × 100.

With 48 people at the start and 4 of them gone by the end, retention is 44 ÷ 48 = 91.7%, even if a fifth leaver was a new hire. Fill in the optional field to see it.

Turnover in sales teams

In a sales team every leaver takes a territory's history with them: the buyer's priorities, the promises made, the deal that was close. Track the rate per team in the table below, and plan the handover before the next resignation.

The results are planning numbers. Companies define leavers and headcount in different ways (contractors, interns, internal transfers); say which you used when you report a rate.

Source (read 8 October 2026):

For sales leaders and staffing reps: sales rep turnover: keep the account knowledge, field sales management, sales onboarding, staffing sales.

The rate tells you how many left. The conversations tell you why.

Exit interviews and stay conversations are where the reasons come out: the manager, the territory, the pay plan. Record the one-on-one in ParrotNotes, with the other person's agreement, and get the summary and action items, so the pattern is visible across the team. Free for 100 minutes of recording a month.

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Turnover rate questions