The Retention ROI Snapshot, A Simple Way to See the Real Cost
A CEO asks why a high performing manager left.
The spreadsheet shows a clean backfill line.
On the floor, you can feel the drag. Handovers stall. Escalations creep up. People start job searching at lunch.
This is what happens when a real cost is treated as a tidy vacancy.
This week is the week to put numbers to that leak.
No 40 page business case. Just a simple worksheet and signals you already collect.
If you missed the set-up, start with The Hidden Cost of Unsupported Managers and Five Tiny Systems That Change Your Week.
What to measure, fast
These eight inputs show the real cost of losing or exhausting a key manager. You can collect them in one hour using rostering, payroll and incident logs.
Weeks of vacancy
Backfill type, casual, agency, overtime, internal cover
Overtime hours and premium rate
Orientation time for the new hire
Productivity ramp percentage for the first 8 to 12 weeks
Rework hours caused by unclear handover or parked decisions
Escalations count per week
Decision lag, median days from issue to decision
Use last quarter’s actuals. No assumptions.
Research on nurse turnover in Australia shows the average total cost of replacing one FTE can sit around AUD $49,000, with a wide range depending on context. When you add agency, overtime, supervision time and lost productivity, you are rarely talking about a small number.
This information simply lets you see that cost in your own service, with your own data.
If you are ready to move beyond guesswork, download the Retention ROI Snapshot template. It gives you a clear, defensible estimate of what one manager departure really costs, including vacancy, backfill, ramp and rework.
Copy, paste, calculate
Paste this into your notes. Replace bracketed items with your numbers.
Retention ROI worksheet
Salary of role*: [AUD $_____ per year]
(*If you want to align with finance, use the fully loaded FTE cost, including super and on-costs.)
Weekly salary baseline: = Salary ÷ 52
Vacancy weeks: [__]
Vacancy salary impact: = Weekly salary × Vacancy weeks
Backfill hours: [__]
Backfill premium: [__ % or $ rate]
Backfill cost: = Backfill hours × Premium rate
Overtime hours: [__]
Overtime premium: [__ % or $ rate]
Overtime cost: = Overtime hours × Premium rate
Orientation time, new hire: [__ hours]
Orientation cost: = Hours × Supervisor hourly rate
Productivity ramp, first 8–12 weeks: [__ % below full]
Ramp cost: = Weekly salary × Ramp % × Weeks
Rework hours from unclear handovers: [__]
Rework cost: = Hours × Average hourly rate
Escalations per week: Pre [] → Post []
Decision lag, median days: Pre [] → Post []
Total cost of the gap: [Sum all cost lines above.]
Now compare:
Cost of the gap versus the cost to support one manager with structured mentoring over the same period.
You will have a local, defensible ratio. No external benchmarks or generic “turnover costs twice the salary” estimates. Just your numbers, in your setting.
What to expect when you support managers
Across earlier cohorts of this mentoring model we saw the same pattern repeat.
From our end-of-program mentor surveys:
100 per cent agreed or strongly agreed the mentoring program met their expectations
70 per cent found the eLearning platform helpful, with most of the remainder unsure because they had not needed to use it
Around 64 per cent of mentors who answered said they wanted to participate in a future intake
In one national cohort, every mentee completed the full 20 week program, averaging around eight mentoring conversations each, despite the pressure of COVID and sector upheaval.
These are not abstract engagement scores. They tell you something important. When mentoring is structured, supported by light digital tools and well matched, experienced people stay in the work, stay with the program and are willing to give more of their judgement to the next wave of leaders.
In practice this looked like:
Facility managers who stopped carrying every decision alone and started logging and clearing decision debt each week
Clinical leaders who redesigned one huddle with their mentor and immediately cut repeat escalations
New managers who stayed through the hard first year because they had one person helping them think, not just cope
These outcomes align with what we know about retention. Keeping one experienced manager and helping them move through decisions faster is worth far more than the cost of their mentoring support.
They do not need a large new program. They need cadence and follow through around the leaders you already rely on, so you are not paying the full cost of churn every time someone reaches breaking point.
Lead with less chaos.
Individual leaders, join as a mentee. | Executive teams, partner as an organisation to support your managers with structured mentoring.
Make the improvement visible
Once you start supporting managers, you need proof it is working. Use these four signals to show progress without waiting for annual surveys.
Three line updates appear on high risk shifts
What is happening. What could go wrong. What I need.
Expect shorter back and forth and faster alignment.Friday flow checks count jams, then test one change
What moved easily. What jammed. What we will test next week.
This keeps improvement close to the work, not stuck in a project plan.Decision debt list clears two items by Friday
Small, visible wins reduce lag and prevent escalation.Peer pods stress test blind spots
Twenty minutes. One real problem each. One question each. Stop.
Link back to the how-to. Five Tiny Systems That Change Your Week.
Use constraints to speed change
These are small levers. They protect energy and reduce rework.
Constraints can feel uncomfortable. Used well, they speed up execution and protect energy.
Cap problem solving to twenty minutes, then run a test instead of another debate.
Keep handovers to one page, with the three line summary at the top.
Label meetings as decision or discussion. Set the invite accordingly and cancel anything that is neither.
These are small levers. They reduce rework, they protect attention, and they make it easier for managers to keep doing good work.
What this gives executives
When you run this Retention ROI Snapshot you get:
A local cost baseline you can defend in any budget meeting.
A short list of weekly operational signals that show whether support is working.
A clear comparison between the cost of drift and the cost of mentoring.
The real question is no longer whether you can afford to support your managers. It is whether you can afford not to.
Ready to run the numbers with support? Spots are limited.
Secure your place or join the waitlist for the next public cohort. Prefer to mentor? Express you interest here.
The question is not whether you can afford mentoring. It is whether you can afford unsupported managers.
About the Author
Samantha Bowen is the Founding Director of Hyphae Network. She helps leaders in aged care, health, and community services build simple systems that hold under pressure. Her mentoring programs have supported more than 400 leaders across Australia. Her work focuses on practical structure, steady teams, and results you can feel on the floor.
FAQs
How is this ROI method different?
It uses your local data, not generic benchmarks. You measure vacancy, backfill, rework, escalations and decision lag. Then compare that cost to the cost of structured mentoring. If you want more precision, use your finance team’s loaded FTE cost for the role, rather than base salary, so your numbers line up with internal models.
What if I cannot get perfect numbers?
Direction beats precision. Start with the last quarter. Update the worksheet monthly. Decisions improve as your data improves.
What changes first with mentoring?
Confidence moves first. Systems follow. Expect clearer handovers, fewer escalations and faster small decisions within six weeks.
Who should run the worksheet?
Your operations or finance lead can assemble inputs in one hour using rostering, payroll and incident logs. Leaders can validate the numbers in a short review.