Every open role is costing you more than the fee. Here's how to work out how much.

Two roles have been open for over 90 days, good candidates keep dropping mid-process because nobody followed up fast enough, and the leadership team is spending hours on hiring instead of the business. Most founders can quote their burn rate to the pound but couldn't tell you what that's actually costing them. Here's how to find out.

The calculation

Three numbers, added together, give you a real figure rather than a gut feeling.

• Lost productivity. Salary ÷ 52 × weeks the role has been open. This is the work that simply isn't getting done.
• Lost output. Whatever that role exists to deliver, whether it's revenue, shipped product, or delivery capacity, valued for every week it sits empty.
• Leadership drag. Hours founders and senior leaders spend covering the gap, screening CVs, or chasing agencies, multiplied by what their time is actually worth to the business.

Add the three together and compare that number to the fee you were avoiding. For most scaling businesses, the fee stops looking expensive fairly quickly.

Worked example

A £70,000 role open for 12 weeks: lost productivity is roughly £16,150. If that role was meant to drive £15,000 a month in new revenue, three months open costs another £45,000. Add ten hours a month of a founder's time at a conservative £150 an hour, and leadership drag adds £4,500. Total cost of the vacancy: around £65,650, against a placement fee that's very likely a fraction of that.

Why this changes the decision

Once the cost of doing nothing is on the table next to the cost of hiring help, the conversation stops being about affordability and starts being about which number is actually bigger. That's a different, and usually easier, decision to make.