Skip to the main content.
Talk to an expert
Talk to an expert
Featured Offer
Ambitious 50 →
6 months of Hire and Engage free for businesses under 50 people.

Hey Compono!

A coach that actually gets you.

Get 10 minutes free, then $15 a month. Cancel anytime.

Get Started ≫
Free tools for HR leaders

HR business case builder

Put your own numbers in, get a business case out. The costs most HR tools cannot see, consolidated into one defensible document.

Your numbers

Australian average is about 16% (AHRI)
Only about 20% are engaged globally (Gallup)
Annual exposure, consolidated
 
Share
What does this business case include?

A consolidated annual estimate of people-cost exposure (preventable turnover, disengagement drag) plus the visible spend on current tools, presented in conservative and likely columns with a three-year phase-in. Every assumption is shown with its source.

How we calculated this

The model combines three published benchmarks, applied conservatively: preventable turnover (a share of departures at 1.5 times salary replacement cost), disengagement drag (a conservative share of salary for the disengaged portion of the workforce, per Gallup), and the money already spent each year on hiring tools and assessments. Every rate is shown with its source, and the conservative and likely columns bracket the estimate honestly. Benefits phase in over three years, which is what makes the numbers believable.

New to the term? Read the plain-English definition of people analytics in the HR Glossary.

Assumptions
  • Preventable turnover uses 63% of departures (Work Institute, 2025 Retention Report) at 1.5 times salary, the mid-point of Gallup's one-half to two times range and the figure Bentleys Australia uses. If your exits skew junior, the true multiple is lower and so is your number.
  • Disengagement drag applies 18% of salary to everyone who is not engaged, Gallup's productivity figure. It does not use the higher figure for the actively disengaged, so a workforce with a hostile core is under-priced.
  • Turnover defaults to AHRI's 16% Australian average and engagement to Gallup's roughly 20% global figure. Both are placeholders. Put your own numbers in or the case is someone else's.
  • The conservative column halves every figure, and Year 1 books only a quarter of the exposure, rising to 60% in Year 2 and the full figure in Year 3. A case that claims full benefit in month one does not survive a finance review, so the phase-in is deliberate.
  • Current tools spend is shown next to the exposure, not added to it. It is money already leaving the building that carries the same blind spot; the case treats it as redirectable, not as a saving.
Sources

What to do about it

Treat the figure above as the size of a problem your current stack cannot see, rather than a saving you can bank. It turns the next HR platform conversation from "nice to have" into a decision about where the money already goes. These steps are for whoever is writing the case, whether or not they sign it.

1

Replace every default with your own figure before you print

Headcount from the org chart, turnover from the HRIS, engagement from the last survey, salary from payroll. A case built on your data survives a hard question; a case built on defaults is a brochure with your logo on it. Note the date and source of each figure in the margin.

2

Lead with the conservative column

Put the halved figure in the executive summary and the likely figure in the appendix. Finance will discount whatever you claim, so discount it first and keep the credibility for the numbers that matter.

3

Attach the exit list to the rate

Take the last 12 months of leavers, mark the ones you believe were preventable, and put your count next to the 63%. If your share is lower, use yours. A smaller number you can defend beats a larger one you borrowed.

4
Where a tool helps

Test the current stack against the two exposures

List what you spend on hiring tools, assessments, surveys and job boards, and next to each write which of the two lines it actually reduces. Most will reduce neither. That table is the argument for redirecting spend rather than adding to it.

5

Set the year-two measures now

Voluntary exits by cause, engagement by team, regretted hires per quarter, and what you spend on the tools meant to prevent them. Write the baseline down this month, because in 18 months someone will ask whether the investment worked, and the case that can answer is the one that gets renewed.

Step 4 needs a platform
that sees both risks.

Compono is a talent intelligence platform: an applicant tracking system and an employee engagement platform built on the same people data. Most HR platforms cover the process risk (payroll, records, leave, compliance) and have no read on the two exposures the case just priced, the hire that would not fit and the team drifting toward the exit.

Step 4 asks you to test each tool against those two lines. Compono is built to sit on both: fit measured before the offer, engagement and culture read while people are still on the payroll, so next year the exposure above is measured rather than estimated. That is what a business case is for.

Talk to us
Compono
$34M
saved by VicRoads over two years

Common questions

Where do the benchmark rates come from?

Published research: Gallup for engagement economics, widely used replacement-cost multipliers for turnover, and preventable-turnover shares from retention research. Each default is editable, so the case runs on your judgement, not ours.

Can I use this with my CFO?

That is what it is for. The conservative column exists so the case survives scrutiny. Print or save the generated document and adapt it to your own template.

Does Compono see my numbers?

No. Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.

This page is general information, not legal advice. We check figures annually and update them on a best-efforts basis, but employment rules change and we cannot promise everything here is current or complete. Before you act on it, confirm the detail with the relevant authority in your country or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.

Next step

Business case

Build the business case

Turn this number into a document your CFO can question line by line.

Open the builder →Related tool

Hr tech requirements builder

Keep the same numbers moving. The next calculator picks up where this one stops.

Run it next →HR Glossary

People analytics

The plain-English definition, with the calculators and rules that sit around it.

Read the definition →Talk to us

Bring us your number

A 30-minute conversation about what it means for you, not a demo script.

Talk to us →