Replacing staff with a £25k+ salary in the retail sector costs businesses £673m every year, says a new report.
Research from Oxford Economics and Unum revealed that firms were paying out £20,114 per employee which was attributed to the cost of lost output and logistical costs or recruiting and absorbing a new worker.
The findings found that, on average, workers take 23 weeks to reach top productivity which has an attached cost of £16,240 per employee – the most dominant cost factor for replacing a departing employee. Other costs include hiring temp workers (£2,749) and management time spent interviewing candidates (£464.)
Peter O‘Donnell, CEO at Unum described the costs as “startling” and encouraged businesses to place more emphasis on retaining talent. “People stay with companies that demonstrate they value – and care for – their employees,” he said.
The report found that retail employees are the quickest at reaching their optimum productivity level when compared to employees from the legal, IT & Tech, media & advertising and accountancy industries.
Hiring a new employee was the most costly for an IT & Tech firm – costing just over £31,000 each or £1.8bn a year.
