First Year Attrition Benchmarks for 2026
Roughly one in five new hires walks away within the first few months, and Gallup's workplace research puts the cost of replacing each one at between half and two times their annual salary. Yet most HR teams cannot say whether their own first year attrition is good or bad. This guide gives you the 2026 benchmarks, the formulas behind them and the actions that move the numbers.
Quick Answer
Healthy first year attrition sits below 15% for most roles in 2026, with best-in-class employers under 10% and problem employers above 25%. The most dangerous window is the first 90 days, where roughly half of all early exits occur. Track it by cohort, role and source of hire to find the cause.
What These Benchmarks Are and Why They Matter
First year attrition is the percentage of people hired in a given period who leave, voluntarily or otherwise, within 12 months of their start date. It differs from overall turnover because it measures the quality of your hiring and onboarding, not the general health of your workforce. A company with 12% overall turnover can still hide 30% first year attrition behind a loyal long-tenured core.
Benchmarks matter because early exits are the most expensive kind. You have paid for sourcing, screening, interviewing and onboarding, and you have received almost nothing back. SHRM's benchmarking research puts the average cost per hire at roughly $4,700, and that figure excludes the lost productivity of a vacant seat and the manager time spent training someone who then leaves.
The benchmarks below are working ranges that synthesise published survey findings and typical employer data. Treat them as reference points for comparison, not as targets to hit at any cost. A 5% rate in a role where some churn is healthy may signal you are keeping the wrong people.
Use them in three ways: to size the problem against your peers, to decide where to investigate first, and to set a credible reduction target for the next 12 months. Whichever you choose, agree the definitions with finance and your HRIS owner before you start. Decide whether internal transfers count as leavers, whether fixed-term contracts that end on schedule are excluded, and how rehires are treated, because a number that changes definition every quarter cannot be trusted by anyone.
The 7 First Year Attrition Benchmarks Every HR Leader Should Track in 2026
1. Overall first year attrition rate
Benchmark: the typical employer loses between 15% and 20% of new hires within 12 months, best-in-class teams stay under 10%, and anything above 25% signals a structural hiring or onboarding problem.
Calculate it by dividing the number of hires from a given cohort who left within 12 months by the total number of hires in that cohort, then multiplying by 100. Use cohorts based on start date, not calendar year, otherwise a heavy hiring quarter will distort the result.
This is your headline number, and it is worth reporting to the board alongside cost per hire. A rising rate usually trails a change in hiring volume, because teams that hire fast tend to relax selection standards. When a company doubles its hiring plan in a year, the extra recruiters and hiring managers are often newer themselves, interviews become less consistent and the shortlisting that once took a careful afternoon is squeezed into minutes. The attrition shows up six to twelve months later, long after the cause has been forgotten. Gallup has also reported that around half of employed adults are watching for or actively seeking a new job, which means your new hires are always one recruiter message away from leaving.
Track it monthly on a rolling basis so that you can spot a cohort that is going wrong while there is still time to intervene. Pair the rate with the absolute number of leavers, because a 20% rate on 10 hires is two people, while the same rate on 500 hires is a hundred empty seats and a very different conversation.
2. The 90-day exit rate
Benchmark: roughly 40% to 50% of first year leavers exit within the first 90 days, and an average employer should aim to keep 90-day attrition below 6% of new hires.
The first quarter is when expectations meet reality. People who leave early usually discover that the role, manager or culture differs from what was promised during the interview. This is a selection and onboarding failure, not a retention failure, which is why it is the fastest benchmark to improve.
Review every 90-day exit with the recruiter and the hiring manager together. Ask what was said in the interview that did not match the job, and whether the candidate had enough information to make a good choice. Realistic job previews, honest descriptions of difficult parts of the role, and a conversation with a future peer all reduce this number.
If your 90-day rate is high but your 12-month rate is moderate, your problem lies in the hiring process. If both are high, look at the manager and the workload. Also check how many of these exits happened before the end of probation, because a leaver in week three costs you far less than one in month eleven, and the pattern tells you whether people are leaving the company or leaving a specific team.
3. Voluntary versus involuntary split
Benchmark: in a healthy organisation, roughly 60% to 70% of first year exits are voluntary and 30% to 40% are employer-initiated, and a split heavily skewed towards involuntary exits points to weak screening.
Involuntary exits include performance dismissals, probation failures and role eliminations. A high share of dismissals means you hired people who could not do the job, which is the clearest signal your screening and interview process is failing. A high share of resignations suggests the experience, pay or management is the culprit.
The split also tells you where to spend. Weak screening is fixed with better scorecards, structured interviews and work samples. Weak retention is fixed with better onboarding, pay benchmarking and manager training. Treating one problem with the other's solution wastes budget. A company that responds to dismissals with a perks programme, or to resignations with tougher interviews, will see the numbers stay stubbornly where they were and then conclude that nothing works.
According to CIPD's research on retention and turnover, organisations that record and analyse leaving reasons systematically are better able to tackle the root causes, yet many still rely on free-text exit forms that nobody reads.
4. Attrition by source of hire
Benchmark: employee referrals typically show first year attrition 25% to 40% lower than job board hires, and agency placements fall in between.
Different sourcing channels produce different retention curves. Referred candidates arrive with an insider's view of the job, so they are less likely to be surprised. Job board hires often come from a larger and less qualified pool, where speed and volume can override fit.
Break your first year attrition down by source to find which channels deliver durable hires, not just cheap ones. A channel with a low cost per hire and a 35% first year loss rate is more expensive than a channel with a higher upfront cost and a 10% loss rate once you count replacement.
LinkedIn's Talent Blog has repeatedly highlighted the value of referrals and internal mobility for retention. If you are not running a structured referral programme, this benchmark is usually the best argument for starting one. Keep the incentive modest and pay it in two stages, for example half on start and half after six months, so that the reward is tied to retention rather than to a signature.
5. Attrition by hiring manager
Benchmark: in most organisations, 20% of managers account for more than half of first year exits, and a manager with double the company average first year attrition is a risk that needs a conversation.
People join companies and leave managers. Gallup found that about half of employees who leave voluntarily say their manager or organisation could have done something to prevent it, and that their most common frustrations concern management and development.
Report first year attrition per hiring manager each quarter, with a minimum cohort size of five hires to avoid noise. Share it privately with the manager and their leader, together with context such as team size and role difficulty. In many cases the cause is mundane: no onboarding plan, no regular one-to-ones, unclear expectations. Before you draw conclusions, check whether the same manager also has the hardest roles, the heaviest workload or the least experienced team, since a fair comparison separates difficult circumstances from poor management.
This benchmark is uncomfortable, but it is also one of the most actionable. Coaching a handful of managers often moves the company average more than any company-wide initiative.
6. Attrition by role family and seniority
Benchmark: frontline and hourly roles commonly see first year attrition of 30% to 50%, professional and technical roles 12% to 20%, and senior leadership hires 15% to 25% within 18 months.
Role type changes the baseline dramatically. A retail or hospitality employer should not compare its first year attrition with a software firm's. Compare like with like, using industry and role-family data from sources such as national statistics agencies and sector bodies.
Seniority matters in the opposite direction from what many expect. Senior hires often fail because of cultural mismatch, unclear mandate or weak support, and their exits are far more costly. SHRM's executive cost-per-hire data shows senior hires costing several multiples of the average, so a failed leadership hire erases a large budget.
Build separate targets for each role family. A single company-wide target hides high churn in frontline roles behind stable professional teams, and it sets an unrealistic goal for roles with naturally higher turnover. Where you can, also compare against your own history for the same role, because a three-point improvement year on year is more meaningful than a gap against an industry average built from different employers.
7. Early performance and engagement signals
Benchmark: employees who rate their onboarding as excellent are far more likely to stay, and only about 12% of employees strongly agree their organisation does a great job of onboarding, according to Gallup.
This is a leading indicator, not a result. Attrition tells you what happened. Early signals tell you what is about to. Pulse surveys at 30, 60 and 90 days, ramp-up milestones, manager check-in completion rates and early performance ratings all predict who is likely to leave.
A simple model works well: ask three questions at each checkpoint (Do you understand what is expected of you? Do you have what you need to succeed? Would you recommend working here?) and flag anyone who scores low for a conversation within a week. Early intervention is cheap compared with a replacement. Keep the process light, because new hires who face a long survey in week two will resent it, and a short, honest conversation with their manager often reveals more than any form. Record what you learn and feed it back to recruiters so that the next job advert describes the role as it really is.
According to McKinsey's research on employee retention, employees who leave often cite feeling undervalued and lacking a sense of belonging far more than pay, which is something an attentive first 90 days can address directly.
How to Get Started
Begin with one clean number. Export every hire from the last 24 months, with start date, source, role, hiring manager and leave date, then calculate first year attrition by cohort. Most teams discover that their data is messier than expected, and fixing that is itself a useful result.
Next, split the number by the five cuts above: 90-day exits, voluntary versus involuntary, source, manager and role family. You will usually find that two or three segments explain most of the loss. Pick the single biggest segment and run a focused 90-day experiment, such as a realistic job preview for one role or a structured buddy scheme for one team.
Finally, work backwards into your hiring process. If involuntary exits dominate, the cause lies in selection. A structured scorecard, consistent CV screening and a work sample typically cut early failures, because you are testing for the real job instead of the interview. Review the result after two quarters and expand what works. Share the findings openly with hiring managers, because first year attrition improves fastest when the people who make the hiring decisions can see the consequences of those decisions. Revisit the benchmarks every six months, and add new cuts, such as location or contract type, as your data matures and your questions get sharper.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good first year attrition rate?
A good first year attrition rate is below 15% for most professional roles, and best-in-class employers stay under 10%. Frontline and hourly roles run higher, often 30% or more. Compare yourself against your own industry and role mix, since an average across all sectors can mislead you.
How do you calculate first year attrition?
Divide the number of employees from a hiring cohort who left within 12 months of their start date by the total number hired in that cohort, then multiply by 100. For example, 6 leavers from 40 hires gives 15%. Use start-date cohorts instead of calendar years to avoid distortion from uneven hiring.
Why do new hires leave in the first year?
The most common reasons are a mismatch between the job as advertised and the job as experienced, poor onboarding, an unsupportive manager and unclear expectations. Pay matters, but it is rarely the top reason for early exits. Many leave in the first 90 days, which points to hiring and onboarding quality.
How much does first year attrition cost?
Replacing an employee commonly costs between half and two times their annual salary, according to Gallup, and early exits sit at the high end because recruitment and onboarding investment is lost. For a £40,000 role, that suggests a cost between £20,000 and £80,000 per leaver. Reducing early exits by a few people can repay a retention programme quickly.
How can better screening reduce first year attrition?
Better screening matches candidates to the real demands of the role, so fewer people are surprised or struggle after they start. Structured scorecards, consistent CV evaluation and skills-based assessment reduce involuntary exits and poor-fit resignations. AI-assisted screening helps by applying the same criteria to every applicant, so strong fits are not missed in a high-volume pipeline.
What is the difference between first year attrition and turnover?
Turnover measures all departures across your whole workforce in a period, while first year attrition measures only the share of a specific hiring cohort that leaves within 12 months. Turnover shows general health, and first year attrition shows hiring and onboarding quality. A company can have low turnover and still lose a third of its new hires.
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