The true cost of attrition calculator

Compute the fully loaded annual cost of attrition for a UK contact centre. Defaults reflect the National Living Wage at 37.5 hours per week. Edit any input to model your own operation. Companion to The true cost of attrition.

Headline result

£—

annual cost of attrition · edit inputs below to refresh

Per leaver

£—

Leavers / year

—

Loaded cost / agent

£—

Attrition % of wage bill

—

A. Agent compensation

Builds the fully loaded annual cost of one agent. Defaults: UK National Living Wage (April 2025) £12.21/hr × 37.5 hrs/wk × 52 wks ≈ £23,810 base salary.

Hourly rate (£)

Hours per week

Weeks per year

Annual bonus (£)

e.g. attendance bonus, performance bonus pool share.

Employer pension contribution (%)

Employer NI rate (%)

UK rate from April 2025.

NI secondary threshold (£)

Other benefits (£/yr)

Healthcare, life cover, sick pay top-up, etc.

Base annual salary—

+ Bonus—

+ Pension—

+ Employer NI—

+ Benefits—

Fully loaded annual—

Fully loaded hourly—

On-cost uplift—

B. Other roles (team leader, trainer, senior manager)

Salary plus a single “on-cost uplift” (covers NI, pension, bonus and benefits combined). Defaults assume modest UK packages. Hours each role spends per leaver/new hire convert salaries into per-leaver cost.

Team leader

Annual salary (£)

On-cost uplift (%)

TL : agent ratio (1 to)

Used to allocate base TL cost per agent (separate from onboarding time below).

Hours TL spends per new hire

Extra coaching, 1:1s, ride-alongs. 32 ≈ 4 hrs/wk × 8 wks.

Trainer

Annual salary (£)

On-cost uplift (%)

Training duration (weeks)

Class size (trainees per class)

Senior manager / HR

Annual salary (£)

On-cost uplift (%)

Hours per leaver

Probation reviews, escalations, HR admin.

TL fully loaded annual / hourly—

Trainer fully loaded annual / hourly—

Sr mgr fully loaded annual / hourly—

TL cost allocated per agent (via ratio)—

C. Per-leaver direct & productivity costs

Costs incurred for each leaver / replacement. Productivity loss during ramp-up is usually the largest single component.

Recruitment cost (£)

Advertising, recruiter time, background checks.

Equipment / onboarding admin (£)

Vacancy days (calendar)

Days from leaver out to new hire fully productive.

Vacancy cover multiplier

1.0 = lost productivity only; 1.5 = overtime; 2.0 = agency.

Nesting weeks (post-training)

Nesting productivity (%)

Early-tenure weeks

Early-tenure productivity (%)

Quality / customer impact (£)

CSAT, errors, rework, revenue impact. Conservative estimate.

D. Operation size

Total agent headcount (FTE)

Annual attrition rate (%)

Per-leaver cost breakdown

Component	£	% of total
Total per leaver	—	100.0%

How to use this. Start with defaults, then change one input at a time to see what drives the number. The most sensitive levers are usually the ramp-up curve (length and productivity %), team leader hours per new hire, and the vacancy multiplier. Use the “Copy summary” button to paste the headline figures into a business case.

UK NLW note. The default £12.21/hr is the National Living Wage from April 2025 for workers aged 21 and over. Update to the current rate (or your operation’s actual rate) for an accurate result.