--- title: Cost per hire calculator for staffing agencies — alluvo description: What does a hire cost? Calculate cost per hire from job ads, recruiting time and onboarding. Free calculator for staffing agencies. url: https://alluvo.ai/en/tools/cost-per-hire --- 1. [Free tools](https://alluvo.ai/en/tools) 2. Cost per hire calculator # What does a hire cost? Job ads, social ads, your dispatchers' hours, onboarding, and the days on which the new hire is already on the payroll but with nobody yet. Plus the people who leave again after eight weeks. No sign-up. The link is the calculation. ## One hire, five items Four of them appear on an invoice. The fifth appears nowhere and is usually the biggest anyway: the bench days until the first assignment. Wages and overhead run from day one.[1] **What a hire costs** **400** Job ads and job boards € per hire **250** Social ads and portals € per hire **12** Dispatcher hours h Screening, interviews, contract **45** Internal hourly rate €/h Full cost per dispatcher hour **350** Onboarding € Clothing, check-up, induction **5** Bench days until assignment days Working days between contract and first client Calculation sheet · per hire €211.29 per bench day[1] **Job ads and job boards 15.4 %** €400 **Social ads and portals 9.6 %** €250 **Dispatcher's time 20.8 %** €540 **Onboarding 13.5 %** €350 **Idle time until the first assignment 40.7 %** €1,056.46 **Cost per hire** €2,596.46 **Per employee who stays[2]** €3,461.95 Turnover markup €865.49 Dispatcher's time €540 Bench days 5 × €211.29 ## Per year, and per person who stays The hire who leaves after eight weeks is not lost: they have to be replaced, and the replacement can leave again. That is why an employee who stays costs more than one hire.[2] **Your year** **60** Hires per year heads Everyone who newly joins the payroll in the year. **25** Early turnover % Share who leave again in the first three months. Calculation sheet · per year 60 hires **Cost per hire** €2,596.46 **Cost per year** €155,787.59 **of which for early turnover** €38,946.90 **of which for bench days** €63,387.59 **Employees who stay** 45 **Per employee who stays** €3,461.95 Leave again 15 of 60 Per point of turnover €1,557.88 Five points less €7,789.38 - Job ads and job boards - Social ads and portals - Dispatcher's time - Onboarding - Idle time until the first assignment - Markup for early turnover Composition in €, both bars on the same axis The difference is the markup for early turnover: **€865.49** per hire. 25 % early turnover costs you €38,946.90 a year, out of €155,787.59 for 60 hires, of whom 45 stay. Five points less would be €7,789.38. [3] **The lever on turnover** Every point less early turnover is worth **€1,557.88** a year. **The lever on idle time** A bench day before the first assignment costs **€211.29**, over the year **€63,387.59**. **The lever on dispatcher time** One hour less per hire saves **€2,700** a year. **Adjust assumptions** **Assumptions behind the bench day** They carry the one item that is not on an invoice: the bench day. They are the same keys as in the assignment calculator, so a link from there brings its assumptions along.[4] **20** Avg. gross wage per hour €/h **22** Payroll on-costs % **40** Weekly hours h **350** Overhead per month € This means: a bench day costs **€211.29**, and the 5 days until the first assignment come to **€1,056.46** per hire. alluvo knows the day the contract starts and the day the first assignment begins. Nobody has to estimate the gap between them. [See the product](https://alluvo.ai/en/product) [Get to know alluvo](https://alluvo.ai/demo) More tools - [Assignment calculator A long assignment at a low rate or short ones at a higher rate?](https://alluvo.ai/en/tools/assignment-calculator) - [Billing rate calculator What is the least you have to charge the client?](https://alluvo.ai/en/tools/billing-rate) - [Bench cost calculator What does the bench cost you each month?](https://alluvo.ai/en/tools/bench-cost) [See all tools](https://alluvo.ai/en/tools) ## Footnotes 1. How it is calculated per hire: job ads + social ads + (hours × internal hourly rate) + onboarding + (bench days × cost per day). A bench day costs **weekly hours / 5 × gross wage × (1 + on-costs) + overhead / 21.75**. It works in working days, 261 a year and 21.75 a month. Wages, on-costs and overhead run from day one, even before the employee is at a client. ↩ 2. Early turnover: divided, not multiplied. Whoever leaves in the first months leaves a vacancy that has to be filled again, and the replacement can leave again. The chain is geometric (1 + f + f² + …), and its sum is **1 / (1 − f)**. At 25% an employee who stays therefore costs four thirds of a hire. This assumes that every replacement costs the same as the first. ↩ 3. What this calculator cannot do: bonuses to referrers and employees, finder's fees to recruitment consultancies, travel and relocation costs, language courses and recognition procedures, shares of general overhead beyond the overhead per employee, and the revenue lost while the position at the client is open. ↩ 4. The presets are approximations common in the industry, not collective-agreement values or market prices; if you know your own, enter them. A back-of-the-envelope calculation for a conversation, not tax or legal advice. ↩