Do you monitor employee turnover for different jobs or employee groups in your organization? If you don't, you're not taking advantage of valuable information that could save you money.

Turnover refers to the number of employees who have voluntarily or involuntarily left a given job or group of jobs in an organization during a specific period of time. The "turnover rate" is the ratio of this number to the total number of employees in the job or job group.

Monitoring employee turnover is an easy way to check your organizational health. Low turnover normally (but not always!) means a fairly healthy organization. On the other hand, high turnover usually is symptomatic of underlying problems, such as inadequate selection and training programs or unhealthy management practices.

Turnover can have positive effects in a company if the people leaving are poor performers or troublemakers. High employee turnover, however, typically means bad financial news for a company because employees who have left need to be replaced. And replacing employees can involve thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in administrative, training, and management costs.

Employee retention problems can have detrimental effects if nothing is done to address the hidden causes. That's why it's important to monitor this critical indicator over time. If you know that employee turnover is high or is rising sharply, you are more likely to investigate the problem and take appropriate, timely action.

Please provide all requested information for the job or group of interest. We'll use your answers to estimate the rate at which employees are leaving your organization. Don't worry . . . taking this simple health test doesn't hurt at all.

• Our selection products, training services and performance management products can help you reduce your turnover costs.
• Contact us to learn how we can help you develop retention strategies for addressing turnover issues in your organization.
• Use our Cost Per Hire Calculator and Human Resource Investment Calculator to find out how much money is going down the drain if you hire and train people who don't have what it takes to be successful in your company.