Cost of Attrition Calculator

Enter your headcount, average CTC and attrition rate to see what turnover costs a year — and what a target improvement is worth. The replacement-cost multiplier is yours to set, because that assumption matters more than any other input.

Your numbers

Headcount

Average annual CTC

₹12,00,000 per employee

Annual attrition rate — 17%

India overall was 17.1% in 2025 (Aon). Use your own trailing twelve months if you have it.

Replacement cost — 50% of CTC

Published estimates span 20% to 200%. 50% is a defensible conservative starting point for a mixed professional workforce.

Target attrition rate — 15%

What a realistic improvement would be worth.

Annual cost of attrition

₹4.08 cr

₹4,08,00,000

Departures a year

of 400 employees

Cost per departure

₹6.00 L

50% of average CTC

Share of annual payroll

8.5%

Payroll ₹48.00 cr

Value of reaching your target

₹48.00 La year

Moving from 17% to 15% changes departures from 68.0 to 60.0 a year, holding the replacement-cost assumption constant on both sides. This delta is far more robust than the absolute figure above — the multiplier largely cancels out.

The same attrition, priced four ways

Present a range rather than a point estimate. A board that sees you have not cherry-picked will trust the mid-case.

20% of CTC — Hard costs only₹1.63 cr

50% of CTC — Hard costs plus partial ramp₹4.08 cr

100% of CTC — Full loaded cost₹8.16 cr

200% of CTC — Senior and specialist roles₹16.32 cr

Where the cost per departure sits — illustrative split

These proportions are a Helion allocation, not a survey finding. Only the lines marked Hard will ever appear in your ledger — which is why finance instinctively underestimates this number.

External recruiting spendHard	₹1.92 L
Ramp to full productivitySoft	₹1.80 L
Vacancy and coverageSoft	₹1.20 L
Internal hiring timeSoft	₹60,000
Separation and settlement adminHard	₹48,000

Where these numbers come from

The published replacement-cost range, why the sources disagree, and what the model leaves out.

Read the full analysis →

This calculator applies a replacement-cost multiplier to average cost to company. Published estimates of replacement cost range from about 20% to 200% of annual salary depending on what is counted; those estimates are largely US-derived and their transferability to India is untested. The component split shown is an illustrative allocation by Helion, not a survey finding. The model prices all departures identically and therefore does not distinguish regretted from unregretted attrition, does not credit replacement upgrades, and excludes revenue effects for client-facing roles. Treat the output as a planning estimate, not a measured cost. This is general information, not financial advice.