When a job remains unfilled, the financial impact can quickly add up. The Cost of Vacancy Calculator helps HR teams quantify the financial burden of open positions in both US and UK organizations.
Whether you're evaluating hiring delays or optimizing recruitment strategies, understanding the cost of vacancy is essential. This tool provides a clear breakdown of direct and indirect costs such as lost productivity, increased workload on existing staff, and recruitment expenses.
How the calculation works
The tool calculates the cost of a vacancy based on three main components: daily lost productivity, daily recruitment costs, and additional employee costs.
- Daily Lost Productivity: Calculated as (Annual Salary / 260 workdays) multiplied by a productivity loss percentage (typically 10% to 20%).
- Daily Recruitment Costs: Based on the total cost to hire (e.g., agency fees, job board costs, internal HR time) divided by the expected time to fill.
- Additional Employee Costs: Optional field to add indirect costs like overtime for current staff or increased error rates.
The calculator sums these components to provide a daily and total cost of vacancy over the specified period.
How to use this calculator
- Enter the annual salary of the open role.
- Estimate the time the vacancy has been open (in days).
- Input the cost to hire (e.g., recruitment fees or internal costs).
- Estimate the expected time to fill (in days).
- Optionally add a productivity loss percentage and additional employee costs.
- Click 'Calculate' to see the daily and total cost of vacancy.