What did your last hire actually cost?

Most owners count the invoice. The real bill adds interview hours and the work lost while the seat sat empty. Change the numbers below and watch it move.

Your numbers

How to read this. Enter your role, or keep the example. True cost = fees + team time + work lost while the seat is empty.

Starter example loaded. Change any field to match your last hire.

The role

Annual salary for the role

$

How are you filling it?

Agency In house

Agency fee Typical contingency search (agency paid only if you hire) runs 20%, often 25 to 30% for senior roles.

%

Your team’s time

People involved in interviews

Hours each of them spends, total Screening, interviews, debriefs and scheduling across the whole search.

Average salary of those people

$

The empty seat

Weeks the role stays open From approval to start date.

Count the cost of the seat sitting empty Counts the output you lose each week the seat is open. Turn it off if the work just waits.

Annual revenue per employee Company revenue divided by headcount. A rough proxy for what one seat produces.

$

Scale

Hires like this per year

True cost per hire

$0

Your result adds agency fee (or ads), team interview time, and lost output while the seat sits empty.

Agency fee$0

Your team’s interview time$0

Work lost while the seat sits empty$0

Across 4 hires a year

$0

Fees you keep with our Flat-fee Search, per year (example)

$0

Fee comparison only: the flat fee vs. your agency percentage, times hires per year.

Our Flat-fee Search is $5,000 to $12,000 per role, or $12,000 for roles paying $150,000 or more, and this card uses $9,000 for roles under $150,000 (or $12,000 at $150,000 or more) so you see the gap on your numbers.

20 minutes on what is stuck, what an audit, Foundations or a search would cover, and whether it is a fit.

Book a free 20-minute HR check

See flat-fee recruiting

Estimates only, based on what you entered. The 20-minute HR check is free and there is no obligation.

The invoice is the small number.

01

The agency fee is a percentage of salary

A contingency search costs an agency roughly the same whether the role pays $70K or $140K. The fee doubles anyway, because it is a percentage. Ours is a flat fee set up front, never a percentage of salary.

02

Interview time is real payroll

Four people at eight hours each is a full work week of senior time, and it does not show up on any invoice. It comes out of the work those people were hired to do.

03

Slow is more expensive than expensive

An open seat usually costs more per week than any fee you are arguing about. Cutting weeks off time to fill often saves more than negotiating the rate down ever will.