Employee Turnover / Attrition Dashboard – Power BI
Jack – The recruiting hamster
Meet Jack. He is a recruiter at East Coasters Inc. In the first quarter of 2019, so far 17 people in Engineering, 12 people in R&D, 9 people in Customer Care and 7 people in Finance have left East Coasters. Jack could only manage to replace 12 of them. What should he do?
Buy Panadol, lots of it.
Jokes aside, people in HR know very well that the recruitment hamster wheel must go on. But you know what makes the HR manager’s life a little better? If you know employee turonver looks, you can manage it better.
So on that note, let’s see how you can create an interactive, fun and useful Employee Turonver dashboard using Power BI.
Quick demo of the HR Turnover dashboard
Before learning how to create this, just take a look at this beauty.

Start with data
Typical staff recruitment and turnover data looks like this:
- Employee details (name, designation etc.)
- Where they work (department, branch etc.)
- Date of join
- Date of leaving
- Reason for leaving
Let’s assume this is how our data looks like. We have two sets of it. One for recruitment and another for leaving.
Download sample data
Load data and transform thru Power Query
Now that we have our data, let’s load it in to Power BI workbook. Open Power BI, click on Get data and point to your employee data set (in this case, the data came from an Excel file, for you this can be a SQL query, Oracle database or angry data dump from a bored data analyst in IT)
While at Power Query, it is a good idea to split the data in to dimension and fact tables. The exact set of tables depend on your input data. In our case, I have created below tables.
- Fact Tables
- Recruitments data – called staff
- Leavers data – called leavers
- Dimension Tables
- Branches – dBranch
- Departments – dDept
- Designations – dTitle
- Gender – dGender
- Calendar (generated thru Power Query List.Numbers function) – calendar
The process of creating these tables is fairly straight forward. If you are not sure how to make them from your source tables, watch the video at the end of this article.
Load data and Model it in Power BI
At the end of this process, load data to Power BI and link up tables. Here is my data model. Dimension tables are in the middle.

Create some measures
Now that our data model is ready, let’s dax. I meant Data Analysis eXpressions, you silly. You can measure and analyze recruitment and leaver data in any number of ways. Since Power BI allows us to interactively explore and visualize data, I find that even simple measures can deliver powerful results (as you will see in the dashboard).
Here are a few measures you can create:
(Refer to data model diagram above if you are not sure what a field refers to)
Leaver Count = COUNTROWS(leavers)
Joinee Count = COUNTROWS(staff)
Tunrover % = DIVIDE([Leaver Count], [Joinee Count], blank())
Total Staff to date =
CALCULATE(
[Joinee Count]-[Leaver Count],
FILTER(
ALLSELECTED('calendar'[Date]),
ISONORAFTER('calendar'[Date], MAX('calendar'[Date]), DESC)
)
)
While the above 4 measures are simple, the next one is a bit tricky. So if you dax with two left hands, then ignore the next one. You can still create powerful reporting.
The next measure tells us about top 2 branches and their contribution to overall turnover.
Top 2 branch leavers total =
var t2 = topn(2,dBranch,[Leaver Count],DESC)
var t2_names = CONCATENATEX(t2, dBranch[Branch], ", ", [Leaver Count], DESC)
return
"Top 2 branches ("& t2_names &") account for " & format(divide(SUMX(t2, [Leaver Count]), CALCULATE([Leaver Count], all(dBranch)),0),"0%") & " of leavers"
Let’s get graphic
So our data is ready, measures are clicking. Time to place them in some visuals to see whats going on with our turnover. There are many options when it comes visualizing this kind of data. Just play with Power BI and keep what you like.
Here are a few options.
New Joinees vs. Leavers over time

Leavers by branch and gender

This next one is stacked bar chart with gender, branch and [leaver count]. We can then overlay a card visual with [top 2 branch leavers total] measure to see more info about top 2 branches.
Or a few cards with statistics
You can add multi-row cards to display statistics. When mixed with visual filters on relative date, you can get same measures in different context. See below for some inspiration.


See top 10 designations of leavers


You can never go wrong with a black dress or good old fashioned table. A simple table of turnover % by job title (designation) will always look flash. But what if you have 100s of jobs. Simple, apply Top N filter and you can look at things that matter most.
Complete Turnover Dashboard
click to enlarge

Download Power BI workbook
Click here to download the Power BI workbook.
Video tutorial – Employee Attrition Dashboard
If you are still not sure how everything works, check out this simple tutorial. Make sure you follow along in Power BI for best results. The video explains how to transform data in Power Query, how to generate custom calendar, how to create data model, measure development, visual selection and formatting. It is quite in-depth and yet not too long. Check it out below. Or watch it on my YouTube channel.
Are you HR + Power BI?
Do you work in HR and use Power BI? How do you measure and analyze turnover? Please share your thoughts and tips in the comments box. Even if you don’t work in HR, I am sure you find this example very useful for Power BI, Power Query and dashboard development.
More Power BI examples
If you have just started with Power BI and want to learn how to use the tech, check out below resources.
15 Responses to “Highlight Employees by Performance Rating – Conditional Formatting Challenge”
While this might solve the question Shelly asked, there is another option that might be more useful - a pivot table could make a list of people who fall into the various categories, so, if you needed to simply see who got in the top bracket to give them a bonus, you would have that list
Simply sorting by the rankings would work too, but you would knock them out of alphabetical order.
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The solution I chose makes use of the percentile formula.
The percentile formula returns the value representing the K-th percentile of a range of values. The range of values is the first criteria, and K is the second criteria in the formula.
I applied Conditional Formatting according to the formulas in the order below:
5% =$C6>=PERCENTILE($C$6:$C$33,0.95) Dark Blue
15% =$C6>=PERCENTILE($C$6:$C$33,0.85) Light Blue
65% =$C6>=PERCENTILE($C$6:$C$33,0.1) Green
10% =$C6>=PERCENTILE($C$6:$C$33,0.05) Light Red
5% =$C6<PERCENTILE($C$6:$C$33,0.05) Dark Red
The issue I noted with this approach is that Zambi was not highlighted in my solution as it is in the solution provided. Unless I am mistaken, and I very well may be, the 10th percentile for this data set is at 2.21, so Zambi would fall above the 10th percentile with a PR of 2.3.
The first step to this was figuring out the 'buckets'; what scores should fall into each range. In attempting to match the formatting of the spreadsheet, I determined the buckets below.
5% = 95% to 100%
10% = 90% up to but not including 95%
65% = 10% up to but not including 90%
10% = 5% up to but not including 10%
5% = under 5%
After that, it is a relatively simple matter to plug the necessary values into the conditional formatting formulas as shown above.
One final consideration is that while the buckets above match the color banding on the spreadsheet, I believe that the original request suggests a different color banding with 6 buckets shown below.
Top 5% = 95 to 100% Dark blue
Top 10% = 85 up to but not including 95% Light blue
Top 65% = 35 up to but not including 85% Green
Bottom 10% = 10% down to but not including 5% Light Red
Bottom 5% = 5% or under Dark Red
This leaves one final bucket of 10 to 35% (exclusive of both values) that is not highlighted and so would remain white.
Thank you Chandoo and Shelly for an interesting and useful exercise. This is certainly a valuable technique to have in my reporting bag of tricks.
Use of PERCENTILE is a smarter way of doing it. Below is my solution.
First 5 % = Apply conditional formatting (Dark Blue) as highlight ">=" =PERCENTILE(C:C,0.95)
Next 15% = Apply conditional formatting (Lighter Blue) as highlight between =PERCENTILE(C:C,0.95)-0.01 and =PERCENTILE(C:C,0.8)
Next 65% = Apply conditional formatting as highlight (Olive Green) between =PERCENTILE(C:C,0.8)-0.01 and =PERCENTILE(C:C,0.15)
Next 10% = Apply conditional formatting as highlight (Lighter Red) between =PERCENTILE(C:C,0.15)-0.01 and =PERCENTILE(C:C,0.05)
Bottom 5% = Apply conditional formatting (Red) as less than =PERCENTILE(C:C,0.05)
I agree, this is a challenge faced by HR managers every year and use of percentile formulae is the most popular solution which permits further processing like making bell curve, applying increments based on segmentation etc.
Hi Chandoo,
I came at the same solution as yours (not looking at yours first) but I have hard coded the conditions in the conditional formatting. For example:
=AND($C6>=$D$10,$C6<$D$9)
I have done the same thing 5 times for each condition. This makes the formatting independent of the order of specification. I think it will work better across versions of excel.
To copy the same thing in all sheets, Shelly can copy these formatted cells with format painter and apply it to the relevant cells in next sheet and so on! I know 700 sheets will be difficult but I dont know of any other way to apply conditional formating rules to the whole sheet.
First i have used percentile formula in the next column of "percentile Threshold" where E5, E6.. is input to colour code.
The idea behind doing this is to replicate the formula for any range and any threshold
=PERCENTILE($C$3:$C$30,1-E5)
=PERCENTILE($C$3:$C$30,1-E6)
=PERCENTILE($C$3:$C$30,1-E7)
=PERCENTILE($C$3:$C$30,1-E8)
=PERCENTILE($C$3:$C$30,1-E9)
Now i have given logic to different employee by applying "if Formula"
=+IF(J3>=$G$5,1,IF(J3>=$G$6,2,IF(J3>=$G$7,3,IF(J3>=$G$8,4,5))))
where 'J" referes to PR and "G" refers to percentile derived from above mentioned formula.
once again it is replicable (just change reference points)
Now comes the major part of Conditional Formatting, i have used "use a formula to determine which cells to be formatted"
Formula =$j=5, format "required colour" Applies to "$I$3:$J$30"
plus put tick on stop if true
This solves the query, important point that this is repeatable and can be done for n number of departments
Thanks !
I had done some reading on it and in Excel 2010 a new function has been introduced, percentile.exc. Attaching a video which also talks why the old percentile function shouldn't be used as it acts erroneous at times. Might be worth a watch Chandoo,
http://www.itechtalk.com/thread10579.html
@Deepa
Quit correct.
Where ever you use statistical spreadsheet functions and are using excel 2010 you should use the new versions of the functions as MS did a lot of work to speed up and fix errors in the old functions.
Warning: If you use the new Excel 2010 statistical functions in Named Formulas most of them will crash excel so do keep that in mind.
Hello Chandoo,
When i first read the challenge file, i thought, the color that need to be applied for a given rule, also need to be picked dynamically as given in rule set. But in the solution file, i found that color is hard Coded. So in case, someone has same data, but wants different colors, he/she needs to goto manage rules and change colors.
Let me know if my understanding is correct, and if yes, can we also make the color to be applied dynamic?
Thanks
Kishore
HI I ALSO USED THE PERCENTILE FUNCTION. HOWEVER, I WENT A STEP FURTHER AND USING THE SMALL() FUNCTION I SORTED THE DATA BY PERCENTILE SO THE COLOSCHEME WOULD BE GROUPED BASED ON THE VALUE. THIS WAY IT IS BETTER AND EASIER TO VIEW.
[...] recently posted a challenge to help a reader with a [...]
Hi, i have got doubt regarding to the percentages that has been put in chandoo's spreadsheet, i cant understadn how he put directly. can some one please explain how chandoo put the percetages straight way that i stated below..
5%
15%
60%
10%
5%
I have stumbled on this post as the solution has been already given so I have taken the liberty to record a video where I show the implementation of it as well as adding a filtering feature which I hope can prove to be useful.
Thank you
http://www.xlninja.com/2012/06/28/how-to-use-excel-to-highlight-employee-performance-rating/
[...] scriu nici macar un cuvant din urmatorul articol. Astazi mi-am citit mailul si hopa challenge de la Chandoo. Cum puteam sa refuz asa ceva si m-am apucat de citit, iar dupa 5 min i-am spus sotului ca pe asta [...]
Question for Chandoo:
I came to your site late but am totally loving these challenges 🙂
I guess it all boils down to how the bins are set up.
I agree with the PERCENTILE.INC function.
pls help me understand where I am wrong.
I have determined following the bins:
bottom 5% <=2.00 (F6:F33 <=PERCENTILE(range,.05))
lower 15% (5+10) <= 2.40 (F6:F33 <=PERCENTILE(range,.15))
lower 80% (5+10+65) <=3.46 (F6:F33 <=PERCENTILE(range,.80))
lower 95% (5+10+65+15) <=4.00 (F6:F33 =PERCENTILE(range,.95))
top 5% <=4.20 (F6:F33 <=PERCENTILE(range,1.00))
I find that only Tom is highest scorer and unique top 5% achiever.
I notice that Chandoo has included Christy and Daniel in top 5% achievers. How can there be 3 people in top 5% out of a population of 28 (5% of 28 = 1.4, i.e. only one person can achieve that status)?
I tried different ways but cannot get to that distribution.
Rest of the work is simply organizing the conditional formatting rules with Stop If True box checked.
Thanks for your insights