Articles

Why do Habits Fail?

This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion Annually

A trillion dollars. That’s what U.S. businesses are losing every year due to voluntary turnover. And the most astounding part is that most of this damage is self-inflicted.

Here’s how it breaks down for an individual organization: The annual overall turnover rate in the U.S. in 2017 was 26.3%, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary — and that’s a conservative estimate. So, a 100-person organization that provides an average salary of $50,000 could have turnover and replacement costs of approximately $660,000 to $2.6 million per year.

It’s About More Than Money! Voluntary turnover costs money. But, as any leader or manager knows, turnover has many costs that never register directly on a spreadsheet. Losing your best people means losing your reliable winners, your constant innovators and your most effective problem solvers.