Agent attrition rate is the percentage of agents who leave a team over a given period, calculated as departures divided by average headcount for that period.

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‍Why it matters

Contact centers see some of the highest turnover of any industry, and high attrition costs more than just recruiting. New agents ramp slower, make more errors, and need more coaching, which shows up in FCR and CSAT. It can also be self-reinforcing, since an understaffed team asks remaining agents to do more, which raises burnout and pushes attrition higher still.

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‍How teams break it down

Voluntary attrition, the agent chose to leave, and involuntary attrition, performance or conduct issues, point to different fixes and get tracked separately. Voluntary attrition concentrated in the first 90 days usually points to a hiring or onboarding problem rather than pay or workload, since agents who make it past that window tend to leave for different reasons.