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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsA veterinary practice may have a turnover problem when departures are persistently high, clustered in one role or tenure band, or connected to workplace conditions employees say are unsustainable. The reliable way to find out is to calculate a consistent 12-month rate, split it by role and type of separation, and then test the numbers against staff experience.
There is no current, universal veterinary threshold that settles the question for every practice. The most directly comparable figure available here is an AAHA benchmark reported in 2021, so it is a reference point—not a pass/fail rule.
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Calculate annual turnover from every separation
Use a 12-month measurement period and count everyone who left during it. Include voluntary resignations, involuntary terminations, employees who never showed up after accepting a job, and people who left after only a few days or weeks. Excluding difficult cases makes the rate look better while hiding the recruiting and onboarding work your practice actually had to repeat.
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The basic calculation is:
Annual turnover rate = (total separations during the previous 12 months ÷ average number of employees during those 12 months) × 100
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The numerator is a count of people, not shifts or full-time-equivalent hours. The denominator is the average headcount over the same period. If your staffing level changes substantially, use an average of regular monthly headcounts rather than relying only on the first and last day of the year; whichever method you choose, document it and use it again when you compare periods.
AAHA’s worked example
AAHA illustrates the calculation with 10 separations and an average team size of 30. Ten divided by 30, multiplied by 100, produces a 33% annual turnover rate. That example is arithmetic, not a claim that 33% is normal or acceptable for every practice. AAHA’s April 29, 2021 article provides the example and the counting guidance.
Record the denominator clearly
Keep a simple monthly headcount sheet showing employees active at the same point in each month. Note whether a person is counted once, even if they change roles, and keep contractors or relief clinicians outside the employee denominator unless your practice has decided to include them consistently. A changing definition can create a false improvement or deterioration that has nothing to do with retention.
Use the veterinary benchmark carefully
AAHA’s Compensation and Benefits data, described in its 2021 article as drawing on information from more than 600 practices, put average veterinary team turnover at 23% per year. The article recommends aiming for 23% or less and describes a target near 13% as aspirational. Those figures are useful historical context, but they are not a newly measured, universal standard for every veterinary workplace today. The reviewed sources do not establish a newer directly comparable annual rate.
| Figure | What it measures | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 23% annually | Average veterinary team turnover reported from AAHA Compensation and Benefits data in a 2021 article covering more than 600 practices | Use as a dated comparison point, alongside your own trend and role-level results; do not treat it as a current universal cutoff |
| 13% | An aspirational target suggested in that same 2021 article | It is not a validated threshold that proves a practice is healthy when reached |
| 33% | AAHA’s worked example: 10 separations divided by an average team of 30 | Use to check your arithmetic, not to label a rate normal or abnormal |
| 30% planned to leave | Intent reported by respondents to AAHA’s 2023 survey, reported in 2024; 14,856 people responded after the survey was sent to more than 110,000 in the veterinary community | It signals stated intent among respondents, not observed turnover in your practice or a workforce-wide annual rate |
The 30% figure is especially easy to misuse. Someone can plan to leave and remain for years, while another employee can resign without ever reporting that intention. Treat intention as an early-warning signal to investigate, never as a substitute for your separation count. See AAHA’s Staff Retention Survey report for the survey context and limitations.
Decide whether the number represents a problem
Start with your own pattern, not a single comparison. A practice at 24% may be improving from 40%; a practice at 15% may still be losing every experienced technician in one department. Review at least three consecutive 12-month periods when records permit.
- Trend: Is the rate rising, falling or staying elevated?
- Concentration: Is one role, location, shift or manager responsible for most departures?
- Timing: Do people leave in their first 90 days, after a scheduling change, or after a predictable tenure point?
- Type: Are resignations driving the rate, or are dismissals and failed starts indicating a hiring or fit problem?
- Operational effect: Are vacancies forcing overtime, reducing appointment capacity, delaying care or increasing errors?
- Experience: Do current employees describe the same conditions that appear in departure records?
A high rate that is concentrated in a single job family requires a different response from a moderate rate spread evenly across the practice. Likewise, a one-time acquisition, relocation or retirement wave should be annotated rather than silently blended into ordinary turnover.
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Calculate turnover by role, not only for the whole team
Practice-wide averages can conceal a serious problem. Calculate the same formula separately for veterinarians, veterinary technicians and nurses, client-service staff, kennel or animal-care staff, managers and any other group large enough to interpret responsibly. Use the same 12-month dates and the same rules for what counts as a separation in every group.
For each role, record four fields: separations, average headcount, calculated rate and the number of those separations that were voluntary. Add hire date and last day for early-tenure analysis. A role with two departures can show a high percentage when its average headcount is small, so report the count beside the rate rather than presenting a percentage alone.
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Separate voluntary, involuntary and failed starts
Voluntary resignations often point toward conditions employees believe they can escape, while involuntary departures may indicate performance, conduct, selection or onboarding issues. A candidate who accepts a position but never arrives is operationally different from a technician who leaves after five years, even though both belong in the annual separation count. Keep those categories separate in your internal log so the overall rate remains complete and the diagnosis remains useful.
Look for the causes employees actually experience
The percentage tells you how much movement occurred; it does not tell you why. AAHA recommends using exit interviews, adding retention questions to performance reviews and reserving dedicated one-to-one time for candid feedback. Use the same core questions across interviews so patterns can be compared, while allowing employees to describe issues in their own words. The guidance appears in AAHA’s turnover article.
Ask about six practical retention factors
AAHA’s 2023 survey identified six leading factors associated with retention discussions: teamwork; the ability to practice modern or sound medicine; meaningful work; fair compensation; scheduling or duty flexibility; and feeling appreciated. Use these as prompts, not as a predetermined diagnosis. Relative importance differs by role and workplace, and employees may define the same word—such as flexibility or appreciation—in very different ways. The factor set and role differences are discussed in AAHA’s 2024 survey report and the Phase 2 methodology.
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- Teamwork: Do handoffs, treatment-area support and conflict resolution work on the busiest days?
- Sound medicine: Can clinicians follow current standards, obtain needed equipment and raise safety concerns without retaliation?
- Meaningful work: Can employees connect routine tasks to patient welfare, client trust and professional growth?
- Fair compensation: Do employees understand how pay, overtime, benefits and raises are determined, and do they regard the package as fair?
- Scheduling and duties: Are shifts, on-call expectations, breaks and task allocation predictable enough to sustain life outside work?
- Appreciation: Do supervisors recognize effort specifically and consistently, including work that clients never see?
Ask departing employees what changed, what they expected when they joined and what might have persuaded them to stay. Ask current employees the same questions privately. Compare their answers with scheduling records, vacancy duration, overtime, complaints and performance-review notes. A manager’s explanation can be sincere and still differ sharply from the team’s experience.
Interpret differences by role
Veterinarians, technicians, client-service representatives and animal-care employees do not face identical workloads or control over schedules. A practice can offer a benefit that clinicians value while leaving technicians with unpredictable closing duties. Analyze responses by role and, where appropriate, by shift or site. AAHA Chief Medical Officer Jessica Vogelsang, DVM, summarized this gap in the 2025 Phase II findings: “We have veterinary professionals who work in the same practice, have identified the same factors as key retention and attrition drivers, and in many cases, they even define those factors the same way. But when it comes to how their experience of those factors compares to what they expected when they entered the profession, it varies drastically by role.” AAHA’s March 10, 2025 announcement provides the quotation and context. The broader Phase 2 work is described at AAHA’s Stay, Please: Phase 2 page.
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Use the following sequence whenever you review turnover, whether the rate is rising or you simply lack reliable records.
- Set the period. Choose the previous 12 complete months and write down the start and end dates.
- Freeze the definitions. Decide what counts as an employee, separation, failed start, transfer and role. Apply those definitions to every month.
- Build the separation log. For every departure, record role, start date, last day, voluntary or involuntary status, and whether the person left during onboarding or the first 90 days.
- Calculate the overall rate. Divide all separations by average headcount and multiply by 100. Keep the unrounded count and denominator so the calculation can be audited.
- Calculate role rates. Repeat the calculation for each job group and show counts beside percentages.
- Compare like with like. Compare the same 12-month window with prior windows, and compare roles using identical separation rules. Use the dated 23% AAHA figure only as context.
- Collect testimony. Offer structured exit interviews, include retention questions in performance reviews and schedule private one-to-ones for current employees.
- Triangulate. Check whether comments align with schedules, overtime, vacancy duration, training records, compensation reviews and incident reports.
- Choose a testable response. State which condition you will change, which group it affects and what measure will show progress. Avoid promising that one policy will solve every departure.
- Recalculate on a set cadence. Review monthly leading indicators and recalculate the rolling 12-month rate at least quarterly, preserving the same definitions.
Common measurement mistakes
- Counting only resignations: Dismissals, no-shows and very short-tenure employees still consume recruiting and onboarding capacity and belong in the total.
- Using ending headcount as the denominator: A year with major vacancies can look artificially severe or mild. Use the average headcount for the period.
- Mixing periods: Do not compare a calendar-year numerator with a fiscal-year denominator.
- Hiding role differences: A stable overall percentage can coexist with a damaging technician or client-service rate.
- Calling intention turnover: The AAHA 30% result describes survey respondents who planned to leave, not people who actually left.
- Applying the 2021 benchmark as a rule: The 23% figure is dated and not a current universal standard.
- Assuming one fix fits all: Pay, appreciation, teamwork, clinical autonomy, meaning and flexibility can matter differently across roles.
- Collecting feedback without privacy: Employees who fear identification may withhold the information needed to explain a pattern.
What a useful conclusion looks like
Your practice has enough evidence to call turnover a problem when the rate is elevated or worsening, a specific group is bearing disproportionate losses, or employee accounts identify conditions that are disrupting care and retention. The next decision is not whether to chase a magic percentage. It is which departure pattern to address first, how employees describe it, and how you will know whether the change worked.
Keep the complete separation count, the average-headcount calculation, role-level rates and staff feedback together. That combination distinguishes a temporary staffing event from a recurring retention problem and gives practice leaders a defensible basis for action.
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