Free HR calculator
Vacancy Cost Calculator
See what open positions may cost across your workforce. Use employee turnover, hiring time, and salary to estimate annual vacancy costs, the cost per vacancy, the average number of open positions, and potential savings from faster hiring.
About this calculator
Learn what employee turnover actually costs Note reviewed:
Start with your workforce Add your average headcount, annual turnover rate, hiring timeline, and average salary for departing employees. Takes about two minutes.
Workforce details
Set the vacancy impact
Annual vacancy cost
See what changes the result
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Calculate the cost of each vacancy
What makes vacancies costly
Open positions can reduce productivity, delay projects, increase overtime, and put pressure on customer commitments. Compare how faster hiring and lower turnover affect your annual vacancy costs.
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Calculate the cost of each vacancy
Divide annual salary and benefits by 260 workdays to find the daily cost. Multiply that amount by the vacancy impact percentage. At 100%, each vacant workday is valued at one day of salary and benefits. You might use 150% or 200% for positions with a greater business impact, or 50% when other employees can cover much of the work.
Convert calendar days to workdays: calendar days × 260 ÷ 365. A 44-day vacancy represents about 31.3 workdays. At a $60,000 salary, 30% benefits, and a 100% vacancy impact, the estimated daily cost is $300. That produces about $9,403 per vacancy. For a company with 50 employees and 18% annual turnover, the model estimates 9 vacancies and $84,625 in annual vacancy costs. On average, that means about 1.1 positions are open at a time.
Two ways to reduce vacancy costs
Reducing turnover and filling positions sooner can both lower annual vacancy costs. Moving from 44 to 30 days to fill saves about 10 working days per vacancy. At 50 employees, reducing turnover from 18% to 13% means 2.5 fewer vacancies per year on average. Together, faster hiring and lower turnover can reduce costs further.
Which vacancy calculator should you use?
The Time-to-Fill Cost Calculator gives you a detailed estimate for one open position. This calculator estimates vacancy costs across your workforce and lets you compare hiring speed with turnover reduction.
Compare hiring and retention plans
Model changes in hiring and turnover
Use the Scenarios tab to compare potential savings from faster hiring, lower turnover, or both. You can also estimate the cost of individual vacancies.
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Compare this estimate with your records to help plan your next step.