How to use this calculator
Retention and turnover sound like opposites, but they answer different questions. Turnover counts every departure, including people who joined and left in the same year. Retention follows a fixed group of employees and asks how many are still with you. It's the cleaner measure of whether your current people are staying.
Enter the starting group and how many of them remain. Add new hires to see early retention, which often shows problems with hiring or onboarding before they show up anywhere else. Our onboarding guide covers the first 90 days.
- Count employees on the first day of the period.
- Count how many of those same people are still employed on the last day.
- Optionally enter new hires from the period and how many stayed past 90 days.
- Compare by team, manager, and location.
How it's calculated
Retention rate = employees from the starting group still employed at the end / employees at the start x 100
90-day new hire retention = new hires still employed after 90 days / new hires x 100
New hires during the period are left out of the main retention rate, because they weren't in the starting group.
Worked example
A logistics company started the year with 180 employees, and 158 of them were still there in December. Retention was 87.8 percent.
It also hired 40 drivers and warehouse associates, and only 34 made it past 90 days, an 85 percent early retention rate. Exit interviews showed new hires felt unprepared for their first shift, so the company added a first day instructions email and an onboarding buddy.
Rules to know
Retention is most useful when you slice it. Compare by manager, team, tenure band, and performance rating. Losing average performers at a normal rate is very different from losing your top performers. Combine the numbers with exit and stay interviews to understand why people leave.
This is general information for US employers, not legal or tax advice. Rates and rules change and vary by state and city, so confirm current figures with the agency or a qualified advisor.
Common mistakes
- Including new hires in the starting group.
- Reporting company-wide retention only, which hides problem teams.
- Ignoring early departures in the first 90 days.
- Treating retention of low performers as a win.
Email templates that go with this
Once you have the number, these templates help you explain it to employees, candidates, or managers.
Where to go from here
A calculator answers one question. The right process and software keep the numbers right every pay period.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate employee retention rate?
What's a good retention rate?
Is retention the same as 100 minus turnover?
What is new hire retention?
Written by the HRTally Research Team
Our guides are written and reviewed by people with hands-on US HR, payroll, and HR technology experience. Legal and tax facts are checked against primary sources, such as the Department of Labor, IRS, EEOC, and USCIS, and linked at the end of each guide. Vendors never review or pay for our editorial content.