Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator

The purpose of this CODN calculator is to provide decision-makers with insight into the potential costs of doing nothing. Please note that the tool does not include long-term disability (LTD), short-term disability (STD), or workers' compensation board (WCB) disability costs. Consequently, any figure it produces is likely understated.
Instructions: Enter numbers in each of the white input boxes to estimate your organization's Cost of Doing Nothing (CODN). This calculates what these issues are costing your organization if nothing changes.
Company Information
Tangible Risk Factors
Absenteeism
Average # of sick time days/year
$1,603,333
Burnout Risk ¹
Estimate the percentage of the workforce who may be experiencing burnout.
$340,000
Uncontested Discipline ²
# of incidents of each year
$10,000
Harassment Investigations
# of incidents of each year
$100,000
Voluntary Turn Over ³
Estimated number of employees lost per year due to poor employee experience and stress.
$1,500,000
Tangible Risk Total
$2,153,333
Intangible Risk Factors
Gossip
Percentage of employees engaging in gossip
$2,340,000
Average hours per week gossiping
Incivility (Rudeness) ⁴
% of workforce experience incivility per week
$520,000
Unproductive Supervisor Conversations ⁵
Estimate the average number of unproductive supervisor conversations per month.
$775,000
Percent of Employees involved ⁶
Presenteeism ⁷
What percent of employee daily give 70% or less their best effort daily.
$4,212,000
Intangible Risk Total
$7,847,000
Risk Total
$10,000,333
Intangible
Tangible
10.00 M
$7.85M
$2.15M
Estimated Risk Cost
52.00 M
Estimated Payroll
19.2%
Cost of Doing Nothing as a percentage of Total Payroll

Footnotes

  1. ¹ For this estimate, we'll use $5,000 per employee. Note: According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, employee burnout costs employers between $4,000 and $21,000 per employee each year. ↩
  2. ² With no grievance or debate, estimate an average time per incident of three hours each for the employee, HR, and manager. ↩
  3. ³ Estimated Replacement & Retraining costs 1.5 times salary. Math: If 10 employees lost × (1.5 × $50K + ½ × $25K = $75K). ↩
  4. ⁴ Average distraction—when employees share their experience with others—results in a time loss of two hours per event. ↩
  5. ⁵ Average cost calculated at 3 hours per event. ↩
  6. ⁶ Average lost in employee's productivity due to frustration and spill over effect (i.e., talking about event with peers) estimate each interaction 3 hours total lost time. ↩
  7. ⁷ Research suggests that 27% employees self report giving about 70% of their best effort daily due to feeling unwell. ↩