The actual cost of leaving a role empty for 3 months
You think you're saving money by taking your time hiring. You're not. Here's what that empty desk is really costing you.
The money you don't see leaving
A role sits open for 3 months. You haven't spent anything on a salary, so it feels like you're saving money. You're not. You're just spending it in ways that don't show up on a single line item.
What it actually costs
Lost output
If a role exists, it's because there's work that needs doing. When nobody's doing that work, the output is zero. A sales role paying 60,000 a year that typically generates 300,000 in revenue? Three months empty costs you roughly 75,000 in lost revenue. That's more than the annual salary.
Your existing team picks up the slack
The work doesn't disappear. It gets distributed to people who already have full plates. They work longer hours, their own work suffers, and they start resenting it. Three months of overwork is where you start losing your existing people too.
We've seen this pattern repeatedly: a company takes 4 months to fill a role, then loses another team member who burned out covering for it. Now they have two roles to fill.
Slower everything
Missing a developer means features ship later. Missing a marketer means campaigns don't run. Missing a salesperson means pipeline dries up. Every week that role stays empty compounds. You're not just losing that week's output - you're pushing back everything that depends on it.
You get desperate
This is the most expensive part. After 3 months of searching, the pressure to just hire someone - anyone - becomes enormous. So you lower your bar. You hire the "good enough" candidate. Six months later they're not working out and you're starting the whole process again, except now you've lost 9 months instead of 3.
Why it takes so long
Most companies don't have a hiring problem. They have a speed problem. The role gets approved. Two weeks pass before the job ad goes up. Another week to start screening. Two weeks of interviews. A week to make a decision. Two weeks notice period. That's 8 weeks minimum if everything goes perfectly. It never goes perfectly.
The biggest time wasters:
- Vague job requirements - you can't find the right person if you don't know what "right" looks like
- Too many interview rounds - if you need 5 rounds to decide, you don't know what you're looking for
- Slow feedback loops - candidates waiting a week to hear back after each round will take another offer
- Waiting for the perfect candidate - they don't exist. Hire the best available person and develop them
How to actually speed things up
Write the job ad before you need the person. When someone gives notice, the ad should go up within days, not weeks.
Cap interviews at 3 rounds. A screening call, a skills assessment, and a final conversation. If your process has more steps, each extra round costs you candidates who got offers elsewhere.
Make decisions in 48 hours. After the final interview, decide within 2 days. Sleeping on it for a week doesn't make the decision better - it just gives the candidate time to accept another offer.
Always be sourcing. Don't start looking for people only when you have an open role. Build relationships with potential hires before you need them. When a role opens, you should already have a shortlist.
Do the math for your own team
Take the role's annual salary. Multiply by 3-4x for the total cost of output, overhead, and team impact. Divide by 12 to get monthly cost. That's roughly what every month of vacancy is costing you.
For most roles, spending money to hire faster is significantly cheaper than the cost of a slow search. A headhunter's 20% fee looks very different when you compare it to 3 months of lost output.