Unhappy-leaver benchmark check.
Some turnover is healthy. The share of leavers who go because they were unhappy is not, and it varies a great deal between organisations in the same sector.
On this page
Choose your sector and enter the share of your leavers who left unhappy; see where you sit against comparable UK organisations. Nothing is stored.
The benchmark at a glance
The median is the middle organisation in each group. The middle half is where half of the organisations sit; a quarter are lower and a quarter higher.
| Group | Left unhappy | Would recommend | Would work there again |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private sector | 52% medianmiddle half 48–59% range 15–67% | 73% medianmiddle half 62–79% range 44–95% | 70% medianmiddle half 61–78% range 56–87% |
| Public sector, education & not-for-profit | 51% medianmiddle half 49–54% range 38–57% | 68% medianmiddle half 61–71% range 50–83% | 62% medianmiddle half 60–71% range 50–84% |
| NHS trusts | 44% medianmiddle half 42–47% range 33–53% | 69% medianmiddle half 65–75% range 56–81% | 67% medianmiddle half 63–74% range 60–77% |
How to work out your figure
An unhappy leaver is someone who says dissatisfaction – with the job, the organisation or both – was a factor in their decision to go. Everyone else left for life reasons: a move, a course, retirement, a partner’s job, an offer they were not looking for. Take the leavers who answered your exit questionnaire, count the ones who left unhappy, and divide. Use answers, not headcount: the unhappy share of people who never responded is unknown, not zero.
Read it alongside your completion rate. A low unhappy figure on a 20% response often means the dissatisfied leavers did not answer. If you do not know the figure at all, that is the more important finding.
Why the unhappy share matters more than turnover
Headline turnover mixes the departures you could not have prevented with the ones you could. The unhappy share isolates the second group – the people you recruited, trained and then lost to something inside your control. The spread between organisations in the same sector, under the same labour market, is the evidence that it can be moved. To put a cost on it, try our free employee turnover calculator.
Where the comparison comes from
Exit questionnaires completed through LastOpinion, our leaver survey, using the same core questionnaire in every organisation. An organisation is included only if at least 50 leavers completed it in the period, and a group is shown only when it holds at least 5 organisations. No organisation is named.
- Private sector: 13 organisations, 2,279 leavers; the latest rolling 12 months for each organisation, ending between May 2026 and September 2026.
- Public sector, education & not-for-profit: 7 organisations, 810 leavers; the latest rolling 12 months for each organisation, ending between June 2026 and September 2026.
- NHS trusts: 10 organisations, 3,063 leavers; the latest rolling 12 months for each organisation, ending between June 2026 and September 2026.
The figures refresh as our reporting cycle adds new months, so they will move a little over time. They are a reference point, not a target.
Source: great{with}talent leaver benchmark, built from LastOpinion exit questionnaires. See also Why people leave: a year of UK exit data and What would have kept them?. To get your own figures, LastOpinion has a free 30-day trial on real leavers.
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