HR & People
Turnover Rate aliases: attrition rate, separation rate
The share of the workforce that leaves over a period.
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
Two forks collide here. First, "turnover" versus "attrition": many orgs
use them as synonyms, but a common distinction is that turnover counts all
separations (roles usually backfilled) while attrition counts losses where
the role is retired and not backfilled. Second, the denominator: SHRM uses
separations / average headcount, but plenty of dashboards use beginning
headcount or ending headcount instead. And composition splits voluntary
from involuntary. Same word, materially different numbers.
The trap
Annualizing a single month by x12 turns a one-off layoff into a fake ~40% run-rate.
In the Metric Library
- The full trap, worked on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: SHRM · BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)