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What an unfilled vacancy costs you
The question is not what an employee costs. The question is what their absence costs. It takes a minute to find out.
The result
- Margin
- 100,000 ₴
- Less salary
- −20,000 ₴
- Less marketing
- −20,000 ₴
- Less operating costs
- −10,000 ₴
- Net income per month
- 50,000 ₴
- Per month
- 50,000 ₴
- Over a year if left open
- 600,000 ₴
How it is calculated
The calculation comes from an article on what an unhired employee costs. The default numbers are the example from it — averages across many companies.
- Margin = sales target × markup percentage.
- Subtract salary, marketing and operating costs from the margin.
- What remains is the net monthly income from the role.
- That is exactly what the company forgoes each month the role sits empty.
Why bother calculating
Because this is the sum behind hiring fees that look excessive from the outside. Those companies worked out that the money pays for itself many times over. And because every «we will hire later» has a price — it is simply rarely said out loud.
Questions that follow
Where do the default percentages come from?
They are the example from my article: averages across many companies for a salesperson. Yours are almost certainly different — which is why every field can be changed.
What if the role does not bring in revenue directly?
Then put in what the role saves, or lets others earn, instead of a sales target. An accountant does not sell, but without one the fines arrive; an assistant does not sell, but frees up the owner's attention.
Why measure the loss against net income rather than revenue?
Because revenue is not your money. Goods, work and everything else still come out of it. What you forgo is what would have been left after all the costs.
Is this an argument for paying recruiters more?
It is an argument for doing the sums. Once the price of an empty seat is visible, it becomes clear how much it makes sense to spend filling it — and what each week of delay costs.
You have the number. Now what
If the figure came out unpleasant, there are dozens of articles here on hiring: where to look, what to check at interview, why a vacancy stays open for months.