Journal of Information Systems and Informatics
Vol 8 No 4 (2026): August

Comparative Evaluation of Machine Learning Models with Class Imbalance Techniques for Employee Turnover Prediction

Rudi Setiawan (Trilogi University)
Gatot Tri Pranoto (Trilogi University)
Zed Abdullah (Trilogi University)
Satria Abadi (Sultan Idris Education University)



Article Info

Publish Date
22 Aug 2026

Abstract

Employee turnover prediction remains challenging in Human Resource (HR) analytics because class imbalance can reduce the ability of machine learning models to identify employees at genuine risk of leaving. This study develops and evaluates a comprehensive machine learning framework that balances minority-class detection and false-positive control. A publicly available HR dataset containing demographic, organizational, performance, and training-related attributes was analyzed using seven algorithms: Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, Multilayer Perceptron, Random Forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost. Cost-sensitive learning and three resampling methods, SMOTEENN, ADASYN, and Tomek Links, were compared through stratified 10-fold cross-validation. Performance was evaluated using ROC-AUC, PR-AUC, Balanced Accuracy, Matthews Correlation Coefficient, G-Mean, Sensitivity, and Specificity, followed by threshold adjustment and SHAP analysis. Original LightGBM achieved the highest discrimination performance (ROC-AUC = 0.5975 ± 0.0546; PR-AUC = 0.2020 ± 0.0426), while cost-sensitive LightGBM produced the most balanced results (Balanced Accuracy = 0.5221 ± 0.0303; MCC = 0.0499 ± 0.0685). SHAP identified Department Type, Current Employee Rating, Training Cost, and Age as key predictors. Overall, integrating cost-sensitive learning, threshold optimization, and explainability improved model interpretability and practical utility for evidence-based HR decision-making processes in employee retention management and planning.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

isi

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT

Description

Journal-ISI is a scientific article journal that is the result of ideas, great and original thoughts about the latest research and technological developments covering the fields of information systems, information technology, informatics engineering, and computer science, and industrial engineering ...