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Lepaya
lepaya.com › blog › how-to-calculate-employee-retention-rate
What is an Employee Retention Rate and How to Calculate It
The employee retention rate calculation ... it’s the number of individual employees who remained employed throughout the whole measurement period divided by the number of employees at the beginning of the measurement period x 100...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/humanresources › employee retention rate calculation
r/humanresources on Reddit: Employee Retention Rate Calculation
June 21, 2023 -

Hello, wondering if someone more experienced in HR Analytics could help me clarify a formula for calculating employee retention rates?

I'd also like to clarify:

  • I am seeing contradicting information online from new hires should be counted to no, new hires should not be counted - what is the right way to measure this?

  • Can employee retention rates be over 100%?

Thanks!

Top answer
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Analytics Manager - HR here. Yes, there is a lot of contradictory information out - it is not you. This leads to one of my biggest frustrations with leaders who pull random shit and try to use it as a benchmark :) You will often times see retention rate mixed up with turnover, often because HR departments like the sound of retention and see it as a positive - so a lot of the retention rates you see are weird inverse but not quite accurate turnover statistics. So what is retention? Basic premise: On january 1, 2022, you had 100 employees. Today, OF THOSE ORIGINAL 100, you have 80. Your YTD retention is therefore 80/100. Unlike turnover, you do not factor anyone that joined during that period of time. As an equation: Retention = Number of employees active at the end of your period that were also employed at the start of the period/Number of employees at the start of the period. So the max retention rate is 100%. Another piece to note is that we are talking about headcount, not FTE (another common mistake). So what is this about a period? Retention can be calculated for any period you want really, don't know why you would want to, but you could technically calculate a 1 day retention or a 50 year retention. So using the above formula, you just plug your end and start dates. First year retention/new hire retention. This is a common one. First year retention looks only at those employees with less than one year from the hire date. So basically just filter your population, same formula/concept. To clearly answer this: I am seeing contradicting information online from new hires should be counted to no, new hires should not be counted - what is the right way to measure this? If your start period is Jan 1, 2022 and end period is Dec 31, 2022, no one hired starting on or after Jan 2, 2022 is counted. Anyone including hires in their formula is doing some weird turnover hybrid. Turnover is calculated by: Number of terminations/(avg of headcount in the period) Which means that if you started with 100, hired 10, no one termed, your denominator would be 105, so new hired would count. Here is how you get over 100% You start with 100, hire 200, but 250 people leave. Your calculation becomes: 250 terms/(100 starting - 50 ending) = 250/50 or 500% turnover. Assuming all 50 of the ending were also part of your starting group, your retention would be 50%. If only 25 of those 50 were part of the original 100, then your retention would be 25%
People also ask

What is the basic formula for calculating employee turnover rate in Excel?
The basic formula is (Number of Employees who left/Average Number of Employees) x 100. In Excel, set up columns for month, starting balance, new employees, departing employees, ending balance, and turnover. The average number of employees is calculated as (Number of Employees at Beginning + Number of Employees at End)/2.
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sourcetable.com
sourcetable.com › how-to-excel › how-to-calculate-employee-turnover-rate-in-excel
How To Calculate Employee Turnover Rate In Excel
How do you calculate employee retention rate?
To calculate employee retention rate: Choose a start date and an end date. Record how many employees you had at the start. Subtract the number of new hires between the start and end date from the number of employees you have at the end. Divide that number by how many employees you had at the start, then multiply by 100. Employee Retention Rate = ((Employees at End Date − New Hires Between Start and End Date)​ / Employees at Start Date) x 100
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builtin.com
builtin.com › recruiting › employee-retention-rate
Employee Retention Rate: What It Is and How to Calculate It | Built In
What is employee retention rate?
Employee retention rate is the percentage of employees who stay with a company over a specific period of time. It shows how well a company keeps its staff and can reflect employee satisfaction and company stability.
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builtin.com
builtin.com › recruiting › employee-retention-rate
Employee Retention Rate: What It Is and How to Calculate It | Built In
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ExcelDataPro
exceldatapro.com › home › excel templates › hr metrics templates › download employee retention rate calculator excel template
Download Employee Retention Rate Calculator Excel Template - ExcelDataPro
September 24, 2020 - Applying the retention Formula, 80 / 86 X 100 = 93.02 % Retention Rate · Now to calculate the Attrition Rate, 86 – 80 = 6 / 86 X 100 = 6.98 % Attrition Rate · You can use our ready template to calculate the attrition rate.
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Lattice
lattice.com › articles › how-to-calculate-employee-retention-rate
How to Calculate Employee Retention Rate | Article | Lattice
August 15, 2025 - Then, multiply that number by 100 to get your employee retention rate. This is expressed as a formula below.
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Built In
builtin.com › recruiting › employee-retention-rate
Employee Retention Rate: What It Is and How to Calculate It | Built In
January 15, 2020 - Retention rate is calculated by dividing the number of employees on the last day of a given time period by the number of employees on the first day. The formula is:
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ForUsAll
forusall.com › 401k-blog › calculate-employee-turnover-and-retention
How To Calculate Employee Turnover and Retention Rates - 5 Useful Formulas | ForUsAll Blog
Retention equals** number of employees who stayed for the whole time period*** divided by the number of employees you had at the start of the time period. We then **multiply the result by 100 to get our retention rate. ** ... *You can also cut the ‘multiply by 100’ part of the retention ...
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
Retention Rate Explanation, Formula and Calculation in Excel || Employee Retention Rate - YouTube
Employee Retention Rate, Retention Rate Formula, calculating Retention in Excel.#HRAnalytics #HRDashboard
Published   April 6, 2021
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HRMorning
hrmorning.com › articles › calculate-employee-retention-rate
Employee Retention Rate: An Easy Formula To Calculate It
September 17, 2025 - The basic formula for calculating employee retention is the number of individual employees who remained employed – let’s say 36 – for the entirety of the specified period – let’s say 12 months – divided by the number of employees ...
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Sourcetable
sourcetable.com › how-to-excel › how-to-calculate-employee-turnover-rate-in-excel
How To Calculate Employee Turnover Rate In Excel
Use the formula: (Number of Separations / Average Number of Employees) * 100. Calculate the average number of employees by adding the headcount at the start and end of the period, then dividing by two.
Published   October 30, 2024
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Blink
joinblink.com › intelligence › employee-retention-rate
How to calculate your employee retention rate (+ examples) | Blink
From there, you can quickly calculate your retention rate. Find how many employees left your company in a period. Subtract that number from your total headcount at the start of the period.
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Indeed
indeed.com › home › hiring resources › calculating retention rate (with 3 examples)
Calculating Retention Rate (With 3 Examples)
5 days ago - (Total number of employees at the start of the time period) – (the number of employees who left during the time period) = (the number of original employees who remain at the end of the time period) Using your final value from the first part, calculate the final retention rate with the last part of the formula:
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The Bricks
thebricks.com › resources › guide-how-to-calculate-retention-rate-in-excel
How to Calculate Retention Rate in Excel
Retention Rate = ((Number of customers at the end of the period - Number of new customers during the period) / Number of customers at the start of the period) * 100 · Now, let’s see how we can bring this formula to life in Excel.
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Drlogy
drlogy.com › home › calculator › faqs › how do i calculate retention rate in excel?
How do I calculate retention rate in Excel? | Drlogy
September 29, 2025 - Monitoring turnover, conducting ... retention. The formula for turnover rate is: Turnover Rate = ((Number of Employees Who Left / Average Number of Employees) * 100)....
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Indzara Support
support.indzara.com › support › solutions › articles › 62000214232-how-the-retention-rate-and-the-turnover-rate-is-calculated-on-the-retention-dashboard-
How to calculate the retention rate and the turnover rate : Indzara Support
Retention Rate: (Number of Exits from Employees active at the beginning of the period /Number of Employees active at the beginning of the period) * 100 · Following is the formula used for the turnover rate:
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LinkedIn
linkedin.com › all › hr metrics
How do you create a retention dashboard in Excel to visualize your HR metrics?
June 6, 2023 - Retention rate = (Number of employees ... of employees at start of period · You can use this formula to calculate your retention rate for each cohort and time period in your data worksheet. You can also calculate your turnover rate, which is the opposite of retention rate, by subtracting it from 100%. ... When visualizing HR metrics in Excel: Right ...
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Ahpnet
toolkit.ahpnet.com › Dealing-with-Stress-in-the-Workplace › Frustrated-Employees › How-the-Behavioral-Health-Field-Can-Alleviate-Frus › How-to-Determine-your-Retention,-Turnover,-and-Vac.aspx
Recruitment & Retention - How to Determine your Retention, Turnover, and Vacancy Rates [2.1.1.a.2]
Vacancy rate. The number of “stayers” (employees who remain at the end of calculation period) divided by the number of employees you had at the beginning of your calculation period times 100 equals your retention rate.
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Peoplebox
peoplebox.ai › home › employee retention › how to calculate employee retention rate?
How to Calculate Employee Retention Rate
July 15, 2025 - Employee retention refers to the percentage of employees who remain with an organization over a specific period, while employee turnover measures the rate at which employees leave the organization. Essentially, retention focuses on keeping employees, whereas turnover highlights the departures. Both metrics are important for understanding workforce dynamics. ... To calculate employee retention in Excel, set up your data with columns for employee IDs, start dates, and end dates (blank if still employed).
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Wall Street Prep
wallstreetprep.com › home › retention rate
Retention Rate | Formula + Calculator
September 18, 2024 - The retention rate formula subtracts the number of new customers from the number of ending customers, which is then divided by the number of beginning customers.