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What Does Knowledge Loss Actually Cost You?

Every departing employee takes undocumented knowledge with them. Plug in your team's numbers and see the annual damage.

$75,000

Average annual compensation for your team

$40000$200,000
20%

Industry avg: 18-25% for knowledge workers

5%50%
12 weeks

Weeks until a new hire is fully productive

4 weeks26 weeks
60%

% of critical processes that live in people's heads

10%90%

Your Numbers

Departures / Year

7

At 20% turnover

Cost Per Departure

$22,154

$9K ramp + $14K knowledge loss

Annual Knowledge Loss

$155,077

240 hours of reduced output per departure

Understudy ROI

13x return

$12K/yr → saves $143K/yr

Capture knowledge before it walks out the door

Understudy turns conversations into playbooks. No blank pages, no wiki formatting — just talk, and it organizes.

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The Research Is Clear

42%

of company knowledge is held only in employees' heads

Source: Panopto Workplace Knowledge Study

$47K

average cost to replace a knowledge worker

Source: SHRM Retention Report 2025

6 months

for new hires to reach full productivity without documentation

Source: Harvard Business Review