Cost of a Bad Hire Calculator
A bad technical hire does not just waste a salary. It drains recruiting budgets, kills team productivity, and bleeds revenue. Use this calculator to see the real number.
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Provide the details below and we will calculate the total cost of a bad hire for your role.
Enter your numbers and click Calculate to see the true cost of a bad hire.
Why Bad Hires Are So Expensive
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates a bad hire can cost up to 30% of the employee's first-year earnings. For technical roles, the real number is often much higher.
Recruiting Costs Multiply
You pay the full cost of the hiring process twice — job postings, recruiter fees, interview time, and background checks. For senior roles, this alone can exceed $50,000.
Productivity Crater
The wrong hire drags team velocity. Other engineers spend time reviewing poor code, re-explaining architecture, and compensating for gaps — for months before the problem is addressed.
Team Morale Erosion
Top performers leave when they are stuck working alongside underqualified colleagues. Losing one A-player because of a bad hire compounds the damage exponentially.
Revenue Impact
Every week a critical role sits empty or is filled by the wrong person, product timelines slip, customer commitments get pushed, and revenue targets move further away.
Knowledge Loss
Even a short stint transfers institutional knowledge to someone who will take it out the door. Proprietary processes, customer context, and architecture decisions walk away.
Time You Cannot Get Back
Managers spend 15-20% of their time managing underperformers. Multiply that across weeks or months, and the opportunity cost is staggering.
Stop Paying for Bad Hires
Exodata's recruiting is engineer-led. We technically assess every candidate before you ever see a resume — so you can skip the guesswork and get people who actually perform.
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