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Microlesson · 5-min read

Costs Associated with Labour Turnover

# Cost Due to Labour Turnover

## Why Compute This?

Labour turnover isn't just a workforce metric — it has a monetary cost. Both letting people go and bringing replacements on board generate costs that the organisation absorbs. Cost accounting splits these into two buckets.

## (A) Cost Due to Separation

Costs borne when an employee leaves:

1. Settlement costs — payment of Provident Fund, Gratuity, leave encashment, notice-period dues, etc.

2. Loss of profit due to the time gap between separation and the replacement actually becoming productive (the seat is empty or under-staffed).

## (B) Cost Due to Accession (New Hiring)

Costs borne when bringing in a new employee — whether a replacement or a new joinee:

1. Recruitment costs — advertising, agency fees.

2. Training costs — onboarding, skill development.

3. Interview and selection costs — assessment, panel time.

## Computing Loss of Profit from Idle Time

When seats remain unfilled or under-productive, the company loses the profit those hours would have generated. Two equivalent formulas:

If profit per hour is given:

$$\text{Loss} = \text{Hours lost} \times \text{Profit per hour}$$

If profit per unit and standard time per unit are given:

$$\text{Loss} = \frac{\text{Hours lost}}{\text{Standard time per unit}} \times \text{Profit per unit}$$

The second formula essentially converts hours lost into units lost, then multiplies by profit per unit.

## Important Note on Splitting Joiners

When the question provides both new joinees and replacements mixed together:

1. First, fill the seats vacated by separations → these are Replacements.

2. Second, all remaining hires are New Joinees.

This ordering matters because separation-related costs and accession-related costs may be tagged to different categories of hires.

Worked example

### Example 1

Example — Loss of profit from idle time

  • 200 hours of productive time were lost due to turnover.
  • Profit per hour = ₹30.

Loss of profit = 200 × ₹30 = ₹6,000.

Same example with unit data

  • 200 hours lost; standard time per unit = 30 min (½ hr); profit per unit = ₹15.

Units that would have been produced = 200 ÷ ½ = 400 units.

Loss of profit = 400 × ₹15 = ₹6,000. (Same answer, different path.)

### Example 2

Splitting joiners in a cost problem

During the year: 40 separations, total hires = 70.

Replacements (fill vacated seats first) = 40.

New Joinees (remaining) = 70 − 40 = 30.

Now apply per-head costs: e.g., training cost ₹2,000/head ⇒ training spend = 70 × ₹2,000 = ₹1,40,000 (applies to all accessions, both R and N).

⚠️ Common exam mistakes

  • Counting recruitment/training cost only for new joinees — replacements also need recruitment and training.
  • Forgetting the loss-of-profit component of separation cost. It is often the largest cost but easy to miss because no cheque is written for it.
  • Using selling price instead of profit when computing loss from idle hours. The loss is the contribution / profit foregone, not the revenue.
  • Not applying the 'replacements first, new joinees second' rule when both are provided together in a mixed total.
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