Weighing Trade-Offs Between Attrition and Performance

Citation: Housman M. Weighing Trade-Offs Between Attrition and Performance, San Francisco, CA: Evolv, Inc., 2014.

Abstract: In business, certain trade-offs are inevitable. Whether these decisions are made deliberately or inadvertently, the outcomes of these trade-offs often reflect the culture and priorities of the organizations weighing them. To that end, large employers focused on improving workforce profitability have two competing workforce outcomes to weigh: performance and attrition. What is the relationship between these metrics, and is there a trade-off to be made between performance and attrition?

In order to answer this question, we analyzed performance data feeds that included over 18 million observations covering more than 9,000 employees. We found a clear pattern in the data. The “high customer satisfaction” supervisors had employees that experienced lower survival and left quickly. Meanwhile, the “low customer satisfaction” supervisors have employees that experience higher survival and stay longer. What an organization prioritizes depends on its objectives. Given the trade-off that does exist, organizations would be well-advise make these decisions in a data-driven and evidence-based manner.