The Ultimate List: HR Indicators to Measure Employee Movement and Turnover

After diving into workforce demographics and organizational structure, followed by equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), our HR indicator series continues with another foundational pillar: employee movement and turnover.

In today’s uncertain economic context, understanding who joins, who leaves, and why has become essential. Tracking internal and external flows within your organization not only helps with workforce planning, but also allows you to assess the effectiveness of your retention, onboarding, and development strategies.

So which indicators should you monitor to capture these dynamics? This third article in the series brings you a brand-new list of metrics to help answer that question—and many more.

Movement (24)

• Number of hires
• Number of exits
• Net hiring ratio
• Number of internal movements
• Number of promotions
• Number of transfers
• Number of demotions
• Average time to first promotion
• Average time to promotion
• Percentage of employees promoted
• Internal mobility rate
• Promotion rate
• Promotion rate by gender
• Promotion rate by diversity group
• Promotion rate by hierarchical level
• Tansfer rate
• Demotion rate
• Career progression ratio
• Average years to reach the next hierarchical level
• Average years to reach a managerial position
• Average years to reach an executive role
• Intern-to-permanent conversion rate
• Averageg time to reach full productivité after hiring
• Percentage of employees with at least one role change over X years

Retention & Turnover (46)

Volume et categorization of departures (9)

• Number of involuntary departures
• Number of voluntary departures
• Number of resignations
• Number of retirements
• Number of departures within one year
• Number of departures withing 90 days
• Number of departures post-promotion
• Number of departures after returning from extended leave (e.g., maternity, sick, sabbatical)
• Number of departures following an internal move

Turnover rates (19)

• Turnover rate
• High performer turnover rate
• High potential (key talent) turnover rate
• Annualized turnover rate
• Voluntary turnover rate
• Annualized voluntary turnover rate
• Resignation rate
• New hire resignation rate
• Retirement rate
• Involuntary turnover rate
• Annualized voluntary turnover rate
• Involuntary turnover of new hires (1 year)
• 1-year turnover rate
• 90-day turnover rate
• Turnover rate of remote vs on-site employees
• Turnover rate by department
• Turnover rate by job group
• Turnover rate by age group
• Turnover rate by generation

Employee retention (11)

• Number and percentage of regrettable departures
• Retention rate
• Retention rate of high performers
• Retention rate of high potentials
• Retention rate after a salary increase
• Retention rate after training courses
• 6-month or less new hire retention rate
• New hire retention rate (1 year)
• Retention rate by tenure group
• Retention rate by manager
• Retention rate of employees from different diversity group

Turnover costs (4)

• Turnover cost
• Turnover cost by job group
• Turnover cost of key talent
• Average turnover cost

Reasons and Impact Analysis (3)

• Distribution of departure reasons
• Satisfaction rate of remaining employees after major exits
• Rehire rate of former employees

As with all other HR domains, movement and turnover should never be analyzed alone. It’s essential to cross-reference your findings with indicators related to demographics, EDI, or training. Doing so helps you better understand who is leaving, when, and under what circumstances.

By leveraging these insights, you’ll shift from gut feeling to strategic intelligence—and build more resilient, human-centered, and high-performing workplaces.

Stay tuned: our next article will explore another key dimension of HR management. Because yes… we’re not done with the lists just yet! 😉