The total cost to hire an employee includes salary, benefits (~30% of salary), job board fees ($800-$3,500), internal recruiter time, vacancy costs while the role is open, and onboarding overhead. For a senior role at $130,000, total first-year cost often exceeds $200,000.
Sponsored job posts on Indeed and LinkedIn typically cost $800 for entry-level roles, $1,500 for mid-level, $2,500 for senior, and $3,500 for director-level positions. These are one-time costs per hire, not monthly subscriptions.
Vacancy cost is the lost productivity while a role sits unfilled. It equals the daily salary multiplied by days-to-fill, adjusted by role criticality. A senior tech role vacant for 58 days costs roughly $30,000 in lost output.
For most startups with fewer than 50 employees, contingency recruiting at 15% of first-year salary is significantly cheaper than building an internal recruiting function, which requires salary, benefits, tools, and job board subscriptions.