I asked a COO what his attrition was costing him.
He knew his rate. 25%. Not terrible for the sector, he said. 750 agents. Normal for a BPO.
What he hadn’t done — what almost nobody does — was put an actual number on it.
750 agents. 25% attrition. £5,000 replacement cost per head. That’s £937,000 a year. Walking out the door. Every year. Before overtime to cover gaps. Before the productivity dip while new hires ramp. Before the SLA risk of running below full competence. Before the secondary attrition building in the colleagues covering the gaps.
He didn’t have a retention problem. He had a million-pound leak he couldn’t see because nobody had done the maths.
The recruitment bill is the visible fraction. The real number is typically 3 to 5x that, once indirect costs are counted.
Once you calculate the actual exposure, the conversation changes. It stops being an HR agenda item and becomes a financial one. And a 15% reduction in attrition pays back the investment within three months at most organisations.
The full breakdown — including sector benchmarks and how to calculate your own number — is linked in the first comment.