Why Every Employee That Leaves is Regrettable

I know of a company that splits attrition into two categories: regrettable and non-regrettable. 

"We are either sad that you are leaving or happy to see you go."

Within the "sad you left" category there are sub-categories: what can we do for you to stay, or it's okay that you are leaving and you can come back if your other opportunity doesn't work out.

If you have to split employees up into these kinds of categories something is severely broken. That something is the recruiting process. 

If a company has standards that the recruiting process upholds, EVERY employee that leaves should be regrettable.

If you have a good performance review process, there will naturally be people that will not perform. No hiring process is perfect. 

But you hope that those people are the exceptions and not the rule.

There have been a number of studies on the costs of turnover and it's not a small number.

"Experts estimate it costs upwards of twice an employee’s salary to find and train a replacement. And churn can damage morale among remaining employees..."

When times are good and margins are fat, the costs are easy to overlook. 

But I would argue that if you really care about your people, those costs are unacceptable.