Cost-Per-Hire Calculator

According to SHRM's 2022 Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report, the average cost-per-hire across all industries and role levels in the United States is $4,683. However, this average masks enormous variation. Small organizations (under 100 employees) often report higher CPH because fixed costs like ATS licensing are spread over fewer hires. Large enterprises benefit from economies of scale, robust employer brands, and in-house sourcing capabilities that reduce reliance on expensive external agencies. Industry also matters significantly: professional services and healthcare average above the mean, while retail and food service average well below it due to high-volume, lower-complexity hiring.

Yes. The ANSI/SHRM Cost-Per-Hire Standard explicitly includes sign-on bonuses and relocation allowances as external costs because they are direct monetary expenditures required to secure the candidate's acceptance. Some organizations exclude these on the grounds that they are compensation-related rather than recruiting-process costs, but this creates an inconsistent and artificially low CPH that is not comparable to industry benchmarks. If your organization excludes these items, clearly document the exclusion when benchmarking so comparisons remain apples-to-apples.

Use the loaded hourly rate for each interviewer (salary plus benefits and payroll taxes, typically 1.25–1.35x base salary divided by 2,080 annual work hours) multiplied by the total hours spent on interview activities including preparation, the interview itself, debrief discussions, and scorecard completion. For a software engineer earning $130,000 base with a 1.3x load factor, the loaded hourly rate is approximately $81/hr. If five interviewers each spend three hours across these activities, the interviewing cost alone is $1,215 for that hire — a significant internal cost that is frequently ignored.

Time-to-fill measures the calendar days from requisition approval to candidate acceptance. SHRM reports a median time-to-fill of 44 days across all roles, with technical and specialized roles often running 60–90 days. Time-to-fill and cost-per-hire are related but distinct metrics. Extended time-to-fill increases internal costs (more recruiter hours, more interviewer cycles) and creates productivity loss costs from the vacancy itself — costs that are typically accounted for separately as vacancy cost rather than CPH. Organizations that reduce time-to-fill through better sourcing pipelines and streamlined interview processes often see simultaneous reductions in CPH and vacancy costs.

Contingency agency fees typically range from 15–25% of the placed candidate's first-year base salary for professional roles, while retained executive search firms charge 25–33% of first-year total compensation (often paid in three installments regardless of whether a placement is made). For a $100,000 base salary role, a 20% contingency fee adds $20,000 to CPH immediately, pushing it far above the SHRM national average. Organizations that build strong direct sourcing capabilities, employee referral programs, and talent pipelines can dramatically reduce agency dependency and lower CPH while often improving quality-of-hire because referred and direct-sourced candidates typically have better cultural fit and retention rates.

Quality-of-hire (QoH) measures the value a new employee delivers relative to expectations, typically assessed through a composite of first-year performance ratings, hiring manager satisfaction scores, and retention rates at 12 and 24 months. SHRM recommends using QoH alongside CPH because minimizing cost without measuring quality can lead to false economies: a $2,000 CPH that yields a new hire who underperforms and leaves in six months is far more expensive than a $10,000 CPH that produces a high performer who stays five years. The goal is to optimize for CPH-per-quality-hire, not CPH alone.

Use SHRM's annual Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report as your primary reference, filtering by your industry vertical (healthcare, technology, financial services, retail, etc.) and organization size band. Supplement with the Society for Human Resource Management's SHRM Benchmarking Database if you have access, and with salary survey providers like Radford (Aon) and Mercer who publish recruiting cost benchmarks for technology and financial services respectively. When benchmarking, confirm that you and the benchmark source are using the same definition of CPH — specifically whether sign-on bonuses, relocation, and internal technology costs are included or excluded — to ensure valid comparisons.