It is a well known management axiom that what gets measures gets managed. Wages and training costs are measurable. Bu the most important costs of all, those deriving from poor service, rarely get measured.

Measurement lays the foundation for a number of activities, such as engineering and development. Measuring wages and other operating costs allows us to redesign jobs to be performed at a lower cost. It allows managers, other than those directly involved in operations, to decide whether wages paid for a certain job are too high or too low. 

But only cost measurement is not enough. We must also try to measure the value for customers of our expenditure. If you emphasis costs over customer value you is hard to measure. Studies that measure the cost of turnover must do more than estimate what it will take to recruit and train new hires. 

They must also place a value on the reduced productivity that will affect customers for a period of time after a position is fulfilled.