Recent release | 03 Mar 2014
The Cost of Brain Drain
Firms have long understood that losing staff is a key risk to success, but the financial cost of staff turnover has received little attention.
Working with Unum, this report analyses the financial impact of staff turnover across five key sectors (IT/Tech, Accounting, Legal, Media/Advertising and Retail). These costs are split into two main components. Firstly, and most importantly, is the cost of lost output while a new worker gets up to the standard expected of them (“optimal productivity”). The second, which is probably more familiar, is the logistical cost of finding and absorbing a new worker.
These costs vary substantially across three key variables – the sector in question, the size of the firm hiring a new employee, and the background of the worker being recruited.
Our report for Unum used a bespoke survey dataset as well as official data from the Labour Force Survey to analyse the costs firms in five key sectors face when they replace professional workers. The report attracted extensive national press coverage, including in the Financial Times, the Independent and the Telegraph, as well as in several recruitment and HR related publications.
Related Services
Post
Employment nowcast suggests limited impact from NICs rise
Our sentiment data-based nowcast, developed with Penta, suggests UK employment growth has continued to slow in recent months.
Find Out More
Post
Identifying future manufacturing hot spots in Japan
Japan's industries, which are exposed more to international demand than to tepid domestic demand, are often concentrated in certain cities. This makes these cities more dynamic than others, a feature masked when only looking at national data. Understanding the industrial landscape helps identify growth opportunities across various sectors, as job creation and incomes drive spending.
Find Out More
Post
US Tariff effects – Here, there, but not yet everywhere
The impact of President Donald Trump's trade war is more visible in some data than others. While tariffs had their fingerprints all over Q1 GDP, it was only in the details of the April jobs report that some tariff effects could be discerned.
Find Out More