How to use this calculator
- Enter or choose advertising and job boards.
- Enter or choose agency and search fees.
- Enter or choose other external costs.
- Enter or choose recruiting team costs.
- Enter or choose other internal costs.
- The cost per hire updates as you type. Use Copy result or Share to keep it.
Method
Cost per hire = (External costs + Internal costs) ÷ Hires
- External costs
- money paid to outside parties
- Internal costs
- your own recruiting staff and related spending
- Hires
- hires that started in the same period
Worked example
- External = 3,000 + 15,000 + 2,000 = $20,000; internal = 20,000 + 5,000 = $25,000.
- Cost per hire = 45,000 ÷ 10 = $4,500.
Spending $45,000 on recruiting to make 10 hires is a cost per hire of $4,500.
What the result means
Track the figure over time and by role type. A rising agency share usually drives cost per hire up; comparing with the salary of the role gives a sense of proportion.
Assumptions and limits
- Costs and hires cover the same period.
- It measures cost, not quality: a cheap hire who leaves in three months may cost more in the end.
Questions
Should internal costs be included?
Yes. The widely used cost-per-hire standard counts both external and internal costs; leaving out recruiter pay makes in-house recruiting look free.
Which hires count?
Hires made in the period you measured costs for. Some teams split internal moves from external hires and report each separately.