Employee attrition impacts companies in several ways. It lowers morale, reduces productivity, and can negatively impact company culture. It also incurs high costs, including the cost of recruiting and costs associated with onboarding and training. Attrition is of particular concern for HR leaders today, as the “Great Resignation” has seen the largest turnover in 20 years.  

According to Employee Benefit News, the average total cost to replace a single employee is equivalent to 33 percent of their annual salary. For all these reasons and more, companies should aim to limit turnover by paying careful attention to their people, being mindful of those at high risk for attrition, and making every effort to mitigate that risk.

What is Bob’s Attrition Indicator?

bob’s Attrition Indicator is offered as part of the Core HR package and helps companies identify which employees are at high risk for attrition and then take steps to prevent it. The different indicators are compiled from several sources and selected for their accuracy, clarity, and data availability within Bob.

Creating value from the Attrition Indicator 

The Attrition Indicator provides managers and HR with a tool for identifying people at high risk for attrition. While some indicators are based on an employee’s personal information—their age or number of children—and cannot be changed or fixed, others can be reviewed and rectified. The Attrition Indicator gives managers a holistic view of their people and their risk of attrition, alerting them to take the necessary steps to retain them. This could be through scheduling a 1:1 conversation to see how they feel or by offering incentives to stay with the company, such as a salary increase or promotion. 

It’s important to note, however, that the Attrition rate Indicator is based on statistical trends and cannot reflect an individual employee’s mindset. An employee with a high risk of attrition may have no intention to leave, while an employee at low risk may be actively searching for their next opportunity.

To view the Attrition Indicator for a specific person, managers or HR can click on their name from the Employee Directory. Beneath their general information, you will see a red, yellow, and green bar with the label Attrition Indicator. Click on it to view more.

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Understanding Bob’s attrition risk indicators

The Attrition Indicator lists 13 different indicators that are used universally for all employees. Each one has a color tag that describes the level of risk, as follows: 

  • Green: the employee is at low risk of attrition for this indicator
  • Orange: the employee is at some risk of attrition for this indicator
  • Red: the employee is at risk of attrition for this indicator
  • Grey: no relevant employee data found for this indicator
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The levels of risk were assigned using the following parameters:

PERSONAL INFO

  • Age: employees aged 35 or more are low attrition risk
  • Children: employees with children are low attrition risk

MANAGER

  • Tenure: employees with a manager who has been in the company for more than two years are at a lower risk of attrition
  • Recently changed: a manager change in the past 180 days increases employee attrition risk

TEAM

  • Team size: employees in teams with less than five employees reporting to the same manager have a higher risk of attrition
  • Recent team voluntary attrition: employees in teams with a high rate of attrition in the past 180 days are at greater risk of attrition

POSITION AND SENIORITY

  • Employees with the same title: employees who share the same title with up to four other employees are at a lower risk of attrition
  • Manages others: employees with direct reports are at a lower risk of attrition
  • Direct reports: employees who manage large teams are at a lower risk of attrition
  • Seniority percentile: employees who have been at the company longest are at a lower risk of attrition

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

  • Time in the current position: employees who have had the same role for more than four years are at risk of attrition
  • Time with current salary: employees who haven’t had a salary increase for more than two and a half years are at risk of attrition

TIME OFF

  • Recent requests: employees with more than five requests for time off in the past 90 days are at greater risk of attrition. The number of days taken in each request does not affect the attrition risk.
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Review your company’s overall state of attrition risk

Besides viewing the attrition indicators for an individual employee, you can also create a report that shows your company’s overall attrition risk.

From Bob’s Directory, click on the column picker on the top right, and from the pop-up, search for the following: 

  • Number of ‘low risk’ indicators
  • Number of ‘some risk’ indicators
  • Number of ‘at risk’ indicators

Save the view by clicking on the save icon. To download the report as either .xlsx or .csv file, select the download icon. 

Act early, before it’s too late

Attrition comes at a high cost. It lowers employee morale and productivity and hiring new people is expensive. Bob’s Attrition Indicator helps managers and HR be mindful of attrition, alerting them to those at high risk so that they can find ways to retain them before it’s too late. 

Ruth Stern

From Ruth Stern

Ruth is a content manager at HiBob. When she isn’t working, she spends her free time planting flowers in her garden and playing the piano.