New Hire Retention Rate (12-month)
Percentage of new hires still employed at 12 months
What is New Hire Retention Rate (12-month)?
New hire retention rate at 12 months is the percentage of a cohort of new hires who are still employed a year later. It shows how well the organisation keeps the people it recruits.
Losing new hires within a year wastes the money spent on hiring and onboarding, so this rate reflects the quality of both.
How this KPI is measured
- Function
- Human Resources
- Sub-function
- Talent Retention
- Industry
- All Industries
- Type
- Lagging
- Impact
- People
- Unit
- %
- Measurement frequency
- Annual
- Formula
- (New hires still employed at 12 months / Total new hires in cohort) × 100
How to calculate it
Divide new hires still employed at 12 months by total new hires in the cohort, and multiply by 100.
For example, if 100 people were hired in a year and 82 were still employed 12 months after their start dates, the rate is 82%.
Follow each hiring cohort individually, and split by source, manager and role.
Where it is used
Judging hiring and onboarding quality
See if hires stay.
Comparing sources
Find channels that bring lasting hires.
Finding manager issues
Spot teams with early leavers.
How to improve it
Tips and common mistakes
- Follow hires by cohort so timing is fair.
- Split by source and manager.
- Read with the 90-day rate.
More Human Resources kpi library
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