Why one turnover figure for the whole hotel says very little
A hotel that sees a sizeable share of its people leave every year is nothing unusual in hospitality. That is exactly why a single overall percentage says so little. It lumps seasonal staff whose contracts end as agreed together with a receptionist who walks out after three weeks. It averages a stable front office against a housekeeping team where someone leaves every month. If you want to reduce turnover, you first have to take it apart. You do not need HR software for that: a list of starters and leavers from the past twelve months is enough to begin.
Number 1: basic turnover over twelve months
Count how many people left in the past twelve months and divide that by the average number of employees over the same period. A few choices make the figure usable:
• Count people, not FTE: a part-timer who leaves still leaves a gap in the rota and a hiring process behind.
• Use an average: for example, take the headcount at the end of each month and divide by twelve. A single reference date is misleading in a seasonal hotel.
• Use a rolling period: recalculate every month over the last twelve months. A single month fluctuates too much to tell you anything.
Number 2: split voluntary, involuntary and planned departures
Not every departure is a problem. Put each leaver into one of three groups:
• Voluntary: the employee resigns. This is the figure you can influence most.
• Involuntary: you end the employment, for example during or after probation. A high figure here often points to a problem in selection.
• Planned: a seasonal or fixed-term contract ends as agreed. This is part of your business model and you count it separately.
Agree who does the classification and record it at the moment someone leaves. Months later, nobody remembers exactly what happened.
Number 3: early leavers in the first 90 days
For many hotels this is the most revealing number. Take everyone who started in the past twelve months and count how many of them were gone within 90 days, for whatever reason. If a large share leaves in the first weeks, the cause is rarely pay or the atmosphere in the team. Usually the picture of the job was wrong, the shifts were different from what was promised or the first week was poorly prepared. Those are things you can fix in the job ad, the interview and the onboarding plan.
Number 4: the stability of the team
Turnover tells you how many people go, not who stays. That is why a second view helps: what share of the people employed twelve months ago still works for you today? A hotel can have high turnover and still a stable core, because the same few roles keep being refilled. That calls for a different approach than a team where experienced people are leaving too. In the first case you look at those specific roles; in the second at leadership, rotas and pay.
Look per department and per manager
Put every figure side by side per department as well: front office, housekeeping, food and beverage service, kitchen and maintenance. Often most of the turnover sits in one or two departments. Look per manager too, with tact. If people leave within a few months under one supervisor and not under another, that is worth a conversation.
Watch out for small numbers. In a team of six, one departure is already almost 17 percent. So do not draw conclusions from a single quarter, and look at the trend over the year.
Link turnover to what it costs and why people leave
Numbers only become useful when you put them next to two other sources. The first is what turnover costs you: open days per vacancy, overtime, agency hours and the onboarding time of new people. You can read how to work that out in what an open hotel vacancy really costs. The second is why people leave. For every voluntary departure, record the main reason in a few fixed categories, such as rota, pay, manager, workload, commute or another job in the sector. A good exit interview gives you that information.
Worked example: a hotel with an average of 60 employees
In the past twelve months, 27 people left. Basic turnover is then 45 percent. That sounds alarming, but split up it looks different: for 9 people a seasonal contract ended as planned, the hotel ended 4 employments and 14 people resigned. Voluntary turnover is therefore just over 23 percent.
The real signal is in the new people. Of the 20 starters in that period, 7 were gone within 90 days, 35 percent. And 10 of the 14 voluntary departures came from housekeeping, mainly new people leaving. The conclusion is not that the whole hotel has a turnover problem, but that hiring and onboarding in housekeeping need to improve. That is a much smaller and more concrete job.
Checklist for general managers and HR
• Do you have a list of all starters and leavers from the past twelve months?
• Do you calculate turnover in people, over a rolling twelve-month period?
• Is every departure classified straight away as voluntary, involuntary or planned?
• Do you know what share of new people leaves within 90 days?
• Do you know what share of last year's team still works for you?
• Can you see the figures per department and per manager?
• Is a fixed reason recorded for every voluntary departure?
• Do you discuss the figures with heads of department every quarter?
When AXXAZ Hospitality helps
AXXAZ Hospitality supplies reliable hospitality staff to hotels across Europe. While you tackle the causes of turnover in a department, we can provide experienced people in housekeeping, reception, service or the kitchen, so your coverage does not depend on overtime from the team that is left. It all starts with a clear staffing brief. Get in touch.
In one sentence
Measure turnover in people over twelve months, split voluntary, involuntary and planned departures, look separately at leavers in the first 90 days and at team stability, and review everything per department.
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