Voluntary Separation Rate
2022 National Average Value
17
%
What is the Voluntary Separation Rate?
The Voluntary Separation Rate is the percentage of employees that voluntarily leave the organization each year.
What is the average value of Voluntary Separation Rate?
According to the Saratoga Workforce Index, the national average Voluntary Separation Rate in 2022 was 17%.
What is Voluntary Separation Rate by industry?
The Voluntary Separation Rate varies across industries. To get benchmarks for your industry, please contact the Saratoga team.
Where can I get Voluntary Separation Rate benchmarks?
The annual Saratoga HR and Workforce Benchmarking Study releases the Voluntary Separation Rate benchmark for over 20 different industries each year. The national average is released as part of the annual Saratoga Workforce Index.
How is Voluntary Separation Rate calculated?
The Voluntary Separation Rate is calculated by dividing the number of employees who voluntarily left the organization by the total number of non-contingent employees in the organization. This includes candidates who accepted an offer but voluntarily opted out prior to the start date and retirements. It excludes employees on disability and leave of absence, college interns, and transfers.
What does a low Voluntary Separation Rate mean?
A low Voluntary Separation Rate may indicate effective retention strategies and a positive culture within the organization. However, it could also be a sign of "quiet quitting" that may negatively impact productivity and innovation. Understanding what percent of overall turnover is voluntary can provide insights into hire quality, culture, and effectiveness of management processes.
What does a high Voluntary Separation Rate mean?
A high Voluntary Separation Rate could be due to employee engagement factors such as dissatisfaction with immediate supervisors; frustration with compensation, benefits or advancement opportunities; or a toxic culture or feeling excluded. It could also be a function of the broader job market - such as with the "Great Resignation."
What other benchmarks are relevant to Voluntary Separation Rate?
About the Saratoga Workforce Index
The Saratoga Workforce Index is an indispensable reference of national averages of 30 commonly requested HR metrics. Based on PwC Saratoga’s annual workforce benchmarking study of over 1000 metrics spanning hundreds of companies and over 20 industries, the Saratoga Workforce Index is your “quick start” guide to workforce benchmarks.
Download the guide to see the national averages for all of these:
- 90 Day Total Turnover Rate
- Average Number of Direct Reports
- Cost per Hire
- Director Headcount Ratio
- Executive Headcount Ratio
- Finance FTE Ratio
- First Year of Service Turnover Rate
- General & Administrative Function Voluntary Separation Rate
- Hire Rate
- HR FTE Ratio
- Information Technology FTE Ratio
- Labor Cost Revenue Percent
- Layers
- Learning & Development Investment per Employee
- Legal FTE Ratio
- Management Headcount Ratio
- Manager Headcount Ratio
- Offer Acceptance Rate
- One to Three Years of Service Voluntary Separation Rate
- Promotion Rate
- Racial/Ethnic Minority Headcount Percent
- Racial/Ethnic Minority Promotion Rate
- Racial/Ethnic Minority Voluntary Separation Rate
- Revenue per FTE
- Time to Accept
- Time to Start
- Turnover Rate
- Vacancy Rate
- Voluntary Separation Rate
- Women Executive Headcount Percent
- Women Headcount Percent
- Women Promotion Rate
- Women Voluntary Separation Rate
Need industry-specific benchmarks?
We provide these values as a reference point for discussions. However, given the high variance across industries, sizes and revenue, these national averages should NOT be used to make important business decisions or used in any formal reporting.
If you intend to use benchmarks for business decisions, please join Saratoga as a full member so you can have access to more specific comparison groups for each industry, revenue, size, profit/non-profit status and more. With a full membership, you’ll have access to over 1,000 metrics that are much more accurate and specific than a national average. The membership process is relatively simple, mostly automated and reasonably priced with a clear ROI.
Referencing Saratoga Workforce Index Data
If you choose to refer to these metrics in any of your materials, whether internally or externally, we ask that you include the following statement:
Excerpted from the Saratoga Workforce Index. © 2023 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, all rights reserved. Data is for discussion purposes only and cannot be used for investment decisions or financial evaluations.
You may include up to five metrics in any internal or external publication without any additional permissions. Contact us at saratoga@pwc.com if you want to use more than five or would like to reproduce the Saratoga Workforce Index in its entirety.
About Saratoga
Saratoga workforce and HR benchmarks provide reference points for executive-level discussions, context for people dashboards, and data to inform workforce and HR decisions. Hundreds of companies across over 20 industries trust Saratoga each year to supply over 1,000 validated workforce benchmarks around turnover, diversity, staffing, productivity, efficiency, fairness, and more.
Request a demo of Saratoga to get access to industry-specific benchmarks for up to 1000 benchmarks.