What is attrition rate?
Attrition rate is the percentage of your employees who left during a period. HR teams in India usually track it every month and report it for the year. A monthly rate of 2% means 2 of every 100 employees left that month.
Most Indian companies use attrition to mean everyone who left, for any reason. Some textbooks use attrition only for jobs that are not filled again, and turnover for jobs that are. Pick one meaning, write it next to the number, and use it every month. A rate that changes its meaning between reports is worse than no rate.
The rate tells you how many people left. It does not tell you why. The last part of this guide covers how to find the reasons, with exit interviews and check-in calls.
Attrition rate formula
Attrition rate = employees who left ÷ average number of employees × 100
Average number of employees = (employees at the start + employees at the end) ÷ 2
Use the average, not the start count, because headcount moves during the period. If you hired 50 people this month, dividing by the start count makes your attrition look higher than it is.
Count a person as a leaver on their last working day, not on the day they resigned. With notice periods of 30 to 90 days, a resignation in March is often an exit in May. Counting on the last working day keeps your numbers in line with payroll and the full and final settlement.
- Count: resignations, terminations, people who stopped coming without notice (absconding), retirements, and people who joined and left inside the same period.
- Decide once and write it down: contract and temporary staff, interns, and people whose fixed-term contract ended. Many companies report them separately.
- Do not count: transfers to another team or group company, people on long leave, and people serving their notice who have not left yet.
Attrition rate calculator
Enter your headcount at the start and the end of the period and the number of people who left. The calculator shows the attrition rate for that period. For a month or a quarter, it also shows the yearly rate if every period went the same way.
Attrition rate for the month
2.9%
6 left ÷ 205 average employees × 100
Yearly attrition rate
35.1%
2.9% × 12, if every month is like this one
Average employees = (employees at the start + employees at the end) ÷ 2. Count everyone who left in the period, including people who joined and left inside it.
How to calculate attrition rate, with examples
Monthly example. Your support team had 200 people on October 1 and 210 on October 31. Six people left during October. Average employees = (200 + 210) ÷ 2 = 205. Attrition rate = 6 ÷ 205 × 100 = 2.9% for October.
Yearly example. Your company had 480 employees on April 1, 2025 and 520 on March 31, 2026. During the year, 96 people left. Average employees = (480 + 520) ÷ 2 = 500. Attrition rate = 96 ÷ 500 × 100 = 19.2% for the year.
Year to date. It is the end of September and 45 people have left since April 1. Your average headcount over those six months is 500. That is 45 ÷ 500 × 100 = 9% so far. To turn it into a yearly figure, multiply by 12 and divide by the months that have passed: 9% × 12 ÷ 6 = 18% a year.
If your headcount moves a lot during the year, for example in seasonal or bulk hiring, take the average of the 12 month-end headcounts instead of only the start and the end. It gives a fairer average.
In Excel or Google Sheets. Put the start headcount in A2, the end headcount in B2 and the number of leavers in C2. In D2, type =C2/((A2+B2)/2)*100 to get the attrition rate. Add a row for each month or each team, and copy the formula down.
Monthly vs yearly attrition rate
A monthly rate is good for spotting a problem early, such as a team that lost four people in four weeks. A yearly rate is what leadership, investors and benchmark reports use. Report both, and say which one a number is.
To turn a monthly rate into a yearly one, multiply it by 12. A monthly rate of 1.5% is about 18% a year. To turn a quarterly rate into a yearly one, multiply it by 4. This assumes the rest of the year goes the same way, so label it as a yearly run rate, not the actual yearly figure.
The actual yearly figure is the total number of leavers in the 12 months, divided by the average headcount for the year. It is usually close to the sum of the 12 monthly rates, but not exactly the same. When the two disagree, use the actual figure.
Some calculators compound the monthly rate instead, so 2% a month becomes 21.5% a year. That answers a different question: how many of the people you had on day one are gone by the end of the year. The usual attrition rate counts every leaver, including replacements who also left, so multiplying by 12 matches it better.
Types of attrition and how to calculate each
One total number hides the story. Split it into the types below. The same formula works for each one: the leavers of that type, divided by the average headcount, times 100. Early attrition is the exception, because it divides by the number of people who joined.
| Type | Who it counts | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| Total attrition | Everyone who left, for any reason | All leavers ÷ average employees × 100 |
| Voluntary attrition | People who chose to leave: resignations and absconding | Voluntary leavers ÷ average employees × 100 |
| Involuntary attrition | People the company let go: terminations and layoffs | Involuntary leavers ÷ average employees × 100 |
| Early attrition | New hires who left within 90 days of joining | New hires who left within 90 days ÷ people who joined × 100 |
| Regretted attrition | Leavers you wanted to keep, such as good performers | Regretted leavers ÷ average employees × 100 |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
What is a normal attrition rate in India?
Total attrition in India was 18% in 2026, up from 16.2% in 2025, according to Aon's yearly survey of more than 1,200 companies. About 4 points of that was involuntary, meaning the company let people go. The rest were people who chose to leave.
The rate changes a lot by sector. Life insurance and NBFCs lose a third to a half of their staff each year, while large IT companies report 13% to 14%. Compare your number with your own sector and roles, and with your own past years, not with the all-India average.
| Sector or company | Attrition rate | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| All sectors | 18% (16.2% in 2025, 17.1% in 2024) | Total attrition, 2026 | Aon salary and turnover survey, October 14, 2026 |
| All sectors, involuntary only | 4% (3.4% in 2025) | Exits started by the employer, 2026 | Aon, via People Matters, October 2026 |
| Life insurance | 51.6% | Total attrition, 2026 | Aon, via People Matters |
| NBFCs | 37% | Total attrition, 2026 | Aon, via People Matters |
| Banking | 22% | Total attrition, 2026 | Aon, via People Matters |
| Real estate and infrastructure | 21.7% | Total attrition, 2026 | Aon, via People Matters |
| Retail | 20.5% | Total attrition, 2026 | Aon, via People Matters |
| Technology consulting and services | 18.4% | Total attrition, 2026 | Aon, via People Matters |
| Technology platforms and products | 13.8% | Total attrition, 2026 | Aon, via People Matters |
| TCS | 13.3% | Last 12 months, to September 2026 | Business Today, October 8, 2026 |
| Wipro | 13.8% | Voluntary, IT services, last 12 months, to September 2026 | HRKatha, October 2026 |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
The number does not tell you why people leave
Two teams can both have a 20% attrition rate for different reasons. In one, a single manager is driving people out. In the other, a competitor down the road pays more. The fix for one does nothing for the other.
Two things tell you the reasons. Exit interviews ask each leaver why they went, after the resignation is accepted. Check-in calls ask current employees, at day 30, day 90 or six months, whether they plan to stay, so you hear about a problem before the resignation. Our guides to exit interview questions and employee check-in questions cover what to ask.
Goodfit makes both calls for you. Its AI phones each leaver or employee in the language they choose and records the call. You get the transcript, the main reason in the person's own words, and a report that ranks reasons by team and manager. Each finished call costs ₹100. A company of 500 people with 18% yearly attrition has about 90 leavers a year, so exit calls for all of them cost about 90 × ₹100 = ₹9,000 a year. Calls where the person is connected for less than 2 minutes are free.
How to reduce attrition
Start with the reasons, then work on the biggest one. These steps work for most Indian teams, from offices to stores and support centers.
- Split the rate by team, manager and tenure. One team or one manager often accounts for a large share of leavers. A company-wide program will not fix a single bad manager.
- Fix early attrition first. If many people leave in their first 90 days, the job was not what they expected. Say the real shift timings, targets and pay in the job description and the interview, and check that training prepared them.
- Ask before people resign. Call new hires at day 30 and day 90, and run stay interviews with longer-serving staff. Ask whether they see themselves here in a year and what would change their mind. A 30-60-90 day check-in plan gives you the timing.
- Ask every leaver why, and act on the answer. Run an exit interview with everyone who leaves, not only senior staff. When pay comes up again and again for one role, compare it with the market and fix the band.
- Track the rate every month. Put the monthly rate, the voluntary rate and the top three exit reasons on one page that leadership sees each month. A number that someone reviews every month gets attention.
Frequently asked questions
What is the formula for attrition rate?
Attrition rate = number of employees who left ÷ average number of employees × 100. The average number of employees is the headcount at the start of the period plus the headcount at the end, divided by 2. For example, 10 leavers with an average of 250 employees is 10 ÷ 250 × 100 = 4%.
How do you calculate monthly attrition rate?
Take the number of people who left during the month and divide it by the average headcount for the month, then multiply by 100. The average headcount is the headcount on the first day plus the headcount on the last day, divided by 2. Count leavers on their last working day, not the day they resigned.
How do you convert monthly attrition to yearly attrition?
Multiply the monthly rate by 12. A monthly rate of 2% gives a yearly run rate of about 24%. This assumes every month goes the same way. For the actual yearly figure, divide the total number of leavers in the year by the average headcount for the year.
What is a good attrition rate in India?
There is no single good number, because it depends on your sector and roles. As a reference, Aon found total attrition in India of 18% in 2026, with retail at 20.5%, banking at 22% and technology products at 13.8%. A rate below your sector average, and falling year on year, is a good sign. Compare your rate with your own past years too.
What is the difference between attrition and turnover?
In most Indian companies, the two words mean the same thing: the share of employees who left. Some textbooks use attrition only for jobs that are not filled again, and turnover for jobs that are filled again. Whichever meaning you use, write it next to the number and keep it the same every month.
Do employees serving notice period count in attrition?
Not yet. Count a person as a leaver on their last working day, not when they resign. Until then, they are still on the headcount. This keeps attrition in line with payroll and the full and final settlement, and it stops the same person being counted in two different months.