attritio

Attritio is a theoretical construct in organizational analytics that refers to the cumulative impact of attrition—voluntary departures, dismissals, and non-return of former participants—on the operational capacity and performance of a system.

The term blends attrition with the Latin-like suffix -io, drawing on practices in management science to name abstract measures. It is used to describe a measurable effect rather than a single event, emphasizing how departures translate into lost productivity, knowledge, or capacity over time.

Attritio quantifies the loss of productive potential over a period by weighting departures according to the criticality of the affected roles and by considering how effectively replacements are brought in. A simple calculation is Attritio(t) = Σ_i [r_i(t) × c_i × (1 − e_i(t))] × Δt, where r_i is the attrition rate for segment i, c_i its criticality weight, e_i the replacement efficiency, and Δt the time interval. Higher values indicate a larger impact on system performance.

Applications of Attritio include human resources planning, workforce risk assessment, and analysis of customer or user churn in product ecosystems. By linking attrition with operational consequences, it supports scenario planning, budgeting, and resilience analysis.

Limitations include definitional ambiguity, dependence on accurate and consistent data, and potential cross-domain comparability issues. Practitioners are advised to use Attritio alongside qualitative assessments and other performance metrics to gain a comprehensive view of organizational or system risk.

See also: attrition, churn, turnover, attrition bias.