Cost Per Hire Calculator
Calculate cost per hire using the SHRM and ANSI method, splitting internal and external costs, and see which channel is actually delivering hires at what price.
Last reviewed by the Radiatus Cloud team
Hires in the period
External costs
Internal costs
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The standard has a definition for a reason
Cost per hire is defined by the SHRM and ANSI standard as the sum of external and internal recruiting costs divided by the number of hires in the same period. External costs are agency fees, job board spend, advertising, assessments, background checks, referral bonuses and travel. Internal costs are recruiter and coordinator salaries, the applicant tracking system, and the hiring manager time consumed by interviews. Companies that report a low cost per hire have almost always omitted the internal half.
Hiring manager time is the missing line
A single hire in a technology company routinely consumes twenty to forty hours of engineering interview time across screens, panels and debriefs. At loaded senior salaries that is several thousand in cost that never appears in the recruiting budget because it sits in the engineering one. Including it changes which channels look expensive: an agency fee of twenty percent can be cheaper than a referral programme that generates ten times the interview volume for the same number of hires.
Cost per hire is not the goal
Optimising for the lowest cost per hire produces slow hiring and worse candidates, because the cheapest channel is usually the slowest and least targeted. The number is a budgeting and comparison tool, most useful when broken down by channel and role so you can see where the money goes and what it buys. Quality of hire and time to fill belong beside it, and a low cost per hire alongside a rising ninety day attrition rate is not a saving.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does the SHRM standard include?
External costs such as agency fees, advertising, job boards, assessments, background checks, referral bonuses and travel, plus internal costs such as recruiter compensation, the applicant tracking system and hiring manager time. Both halves divided by hires made in the same period.
Should hiring manager time be included?
Yes, and it is the line most often omitted. Interview hours at loaded salary are a real cost, and including them frequently reverses the ranking of which channels are cheapest.
What is a typical cost per hire?
Widely cited averages sit around 4,000 to 5,000 US dollars for a general role and considerably more for senior or specialist positions where agency fees apply. The range is so wide that your own trend is a better benchmark than any published average.
Is a lower cost per hire always better?
No. The cheapest channel is often the slowest and least targeted, so driving the number down tends to increase time to fill and reduce quality. Read it alongside time to fill and early attrition rather than on its own.
How should agency fees be treated?
As an external cost in the period the fee is incurred. Because a single agency placement can dominate the average, it is worth reporting cost per hire both with and without agency hires, which the calculator does.
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How to Use
Enter your recruiting costs and hires made in the period to get cost per hire by category and channel.
Disclaimer: This tool is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Results are for educational and utility purposes.
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