Technical Talent Attrition Rate
Voluntary turnover rate specifically among software engineers, data scientists, and product managers
What is Technical Talent Attrition Rate?
Technical talent attrition rate is the percentage of technical staff, such as engineers and developers, who leave voluntarily. It shows how well a technology company keeps the people who build its products.
Technical people are in high demand and costly to replace, so losing them can slow product delivery.
How this KPI is measured
- Function
- Human Resources
- Sub-function
- Talent Retention
- Industry
- Software / Technology (SaaS)
- Type
- Lagging
- Impact
- People
- Unit
- %
- Measurement frequency
- Quarterly / Annual
- Formula
- (Technical voluntary leavers / Average technical headcount) × 100
How to calculate it
Divide technical voluntary leavers by average technical headcount, and multiply by 100.
For example, if 24 technical staff left voluntarily and average technical headcount was 200, the rate is 12%.
Track by team, level and skill, and combine with exit feedback and market pay data to understand why people go.
Where it is used
Protecting delivery capacity
Reduce loss of key skills.
Reviewing pay and growth paths
Compare with market.
Managing team health
Find struggling teams.
How to improve it
Tips and common mistakes
- Look at attrition by team, since problems are often local.
- Manager quality is a major factor.
- Track regretted losses.
More Human Resources kpi library
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