What is included in the cost of employee turnover?

Three buckets: the money paid to recruiters or job boards to find a replacement, the output lost while the seat sits empty, and the onboarding drag while the new hire ramps to full speed. This calculator adds all three into one number. It leaves out softer costs like lost team morale and knowledge that walks out the door, so the real figure tends to run higher.

How much does it cost to replace an employee?

A common rule of thumb is one-half to two times the departing salary, and it climbs with seniority and how hard the role is to fill. For an €80,000 employee with a 20% agency fee, eight weeks to fill, and a three-month ramp, this model lands near €38,000. Plug in your own numbers rather than trusting a single benchmark.

How do I reduce employee turnover costs?

Two levers. Cut the number of people who leave (better management, pay, and growth paths beat a foosball table every time), and cut the cost of each departure by hiring faster, keeping a warm bench of candidates, and shortening ramp with good docs and onboarding. Compare that spend against the departure bill this tool prints.

The Resignation Receipt

Culture isn't soft. Losing people is hard cash. See the bill.

The cost of employee turnover is what you pay to replace someone who leaves: recruitment fees, the output lost while the seat sits empty, and the onboarding drag before the new hire runs at full speed. Add those three lines and you get the total. Replacing an €80,000 employee with a 20% agency fee, eight weeks to fill, and a three-month ramp costs around €38,000. This calculator prints that bill as an invoice so you can size a retention budget against it.

How it's calculated

Three costs, added into one bill:

Recruitment fees = salary x (fee % / 100)
Vacancy loss = (salary / 52) x weeks the seat is empty
Onboarding drag = (salary / 52) x (ramp months x 4.3) x 0.5
Total cost = recruitment + vacancy + onboarding

Worked examples

Same assumptions each row (20% fee, 8 weeks to fill, 3-month ramp), varying salary:

Annual salary	Recruitment	Vacancy	Onboarding	Total cost
60.000 €	12.000 €	9.231 €	7.442 €	28.673 €
80.000 €	16.000 €	12.308 €	9.923 €	38.231 €
120.000 €	24.000 €	18.462 €	14.885 €	57.346 €

How it works

Enter the departing employee's salary (annual).

Set the recruiting fee percentage (20% for agencies, 0% for internal).

Enter time to fill the position (weeks).

Enter ramp-up time for the new hire (months to 100% productivity).

The tool calculates the total departure tax as an invoice.

Why it matters

When an employee quits, you don't just save their salary. You pay a 'Departure Tax.' You pay recruiters. You pay for an empty seat producing zero output. You pay for a new hire who takes 3 months to learn the codebase. This tool calculates that tax. Use this number to justify your retention budget or your offsite. It's cheaper to keep them happy than to pay this bill.

The Math

Recruitment Fees = Salary × (Fee % / 100)
Vacancy Cost = (Salary / 52) × Weeks Empty
Ramp Drag = (Salary / 52) × (Ramp Months × 4.3) × 0.5
Total Cost = Recruitment + Vacancy + Ramp

Assumptions: Empty seat = 100% productivity loss. Ramping employee = 50% productive on average.