How To Calculate Employee Voluntary Retention Rate in Xero | Arithmix
Learn how to calculate employee voluntary retention rate in Xero with our step-by-step guide. Discover the importance of tracking retention rates and how to use Xero to streamline the process. Optimize your HR strategy and improve employee satisfaction with this essential tool.

Employee voluntary retention rate is an important metric that helps businesses understand how well they are retaining their employees. It is a measure of the percentage of employees who choose to stay with the company over a given period of time. Calculating this rate can be a bit tricky, but with the right tools and techniques, it can be done easily and accurately. In this article, we will explore what employee voluntary retention rate is, when it is valuable to calculate it, and how to calculate it in Xero.
What Is Employee Voluntary Retention Rate?
Employee voluntary retention rate is a measure of how many employees choose to stay with a company over a given period of time. It is calculated by dividing the number of employees who choose to stay with the company by the total number of employees at the beginning of the period. This rate is expressed as a percentage and is an important metric for businesses to track because it can help them understand how well they are retaining their employees.
There are two types of employee retention rates: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary retention rate measures the percentage of employees who choose to stay with the company, while involuntary retention rate measures the percentage of employees who are forced to stay with the company due to factors such as lack of job opportunities or economic conditions.
When Is It Valuable To Calculate Employee Voluntary Retention Rate?
Calculating employee voluntary retention rate is valuable for businesses in a number of ways. First, it can help businesses identify areas where they may be losing employees and take steps to address those issues. For example, if a business has a high voluntary retention rate in one department but a low rate in another department, they may want to investigate why employees are leaving that department and take steps to improve the work environment or offer better compensation packages.
Second, calculating employee voluntary retention rate can help businesses identify trends over time. By tracking this metric over several periods, businesses can see if their retention efforts are improving or if they need to make changes to their retention strategies.
How to Calculate Employee Voluntary Retention Rate in Xero
Xero is a cloud-based accounting software that can be used to calculate employee voluntary retention rate. To calculate this rate in Xero, follow these steps:
- Export a list of all employees at the beginning of the period you want to measure.
- Export a list of all employees at the end of the period you want to measure.
- Compare the two lists to identify which employees have left the company and which have stayed.
- Divide the number of employees who have stayed by the total number of employees at the beginning of the period.
- Multiply the result by 100 to get the employee voluntary retention rate as a percentage.
For example, if a company had 100 employees at the beginning of the year and 90 of those employees stayed with the company throughout the year, the employee voluntary retention rate would be 90/100 x 100 = 90%.
Calculating employee voluntary retention rate in Xero can help businesses track this important metric and make informed decisions about their retention strategies.
How Do You Calculate Employee Voluntary Retention Rate in Xero
Xero itself isn’t naturally geared towards letting you calculate complex metrics like Employee Voluntary Retention Rate. As an alternative, teams typically use products like Arithmix to import data from Xero and build out dashboards.
What is Arithmix?
Arithmix is the next generation spreadsheet - a collaborative, web-based platform for working with numbers that’s powerful yet easy to use. With Arithmix you can import data from systems like Xero, combine it with data from other systems, and create calculations like Employee Voluntary Retention Rate.
In Arithmix, data is organized into Tables and referenced by name, not by cell location like a spreadsheet, simplifying calculation creation. Data and calculations can be shared with others and re-used like building blocks, vastly streamlining analysis, model building, and reporting in a highly scalable and easy to maintain platform. Data can be edited, categorized (by dimensions) and freely pivoted. Calculations are automatically copied across a dimension - eliminating copy and paste of formulas.
Arithmix is fully collaborative, giving your entire team access to your numbers and the ability to work together seamlessly.

Calculating Employee Voluntary Retention Rate in Arithmix
Calculating metrics like Employee Voluntary Retention Rate is simple in Arithmix. Once you've created your free account, you’ll be able to import your Xero data, and use it to create natural language formulas for metrics like Employee Voluntary Retention Rate.
Arithmix is designed to give you the power to build any calculations you want on top of your Xero data, while also being easy to use and collaborate on. You can share your dashboards with users inside and outside of your organisation, making it easy to empower your whole team.
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