Plan hiring pauses with realistic recruiting cost assumptions. Compare agency fees, time, and vendor spend. See savings after overtime, contractors, and productivity impacts today.
Enter hiring plans, recruiting cost drivers, and freeze coverage costs to estimate net savings.
Sample scenarios to illustrate how assumptions change estimated savings.
| Scenario | Freeze (months) | Planned hires | Agency share | Coverage costs / month | Estimated net savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lean hiring pause | 2 | 3 | 20% | $1,000 | $4,300 |
| Growth plan deferred | 4 | 12 | 35% | $3,000 | $8,900 |
| High coverage burden | 3 | 8 | 25% | $7,500 | -$5,200 |
This tool estimates avoided recruiting spend, then subtracts freeze coverage costs.
Follow these steps to estimate savings from a temporary hiring freeze.
A freeze often pauses job advertising, screening vendors, and onboarding spend. Many teams track cost-per-hire between $3,000 and $7,000 when sourcing is paid and assessments are used. This calculator separates external cash costs from internal time costs so you can see what is truly avoided. Enter realistic per-hire amounts for ads, checks, testing, travel, referral bonuses, and onboarding to match your hiring mix. Benchmark against past quarters.
Internal effort is frequently underestimated because it is scattered across calendars. Recruiters may spend 4–10 hours per hire, while managers spend 2–6 hours interviewing and debriefing. HR administrators add time for scheduling, offers, and compliance steps. Multiply hours by fully loaded hourly cost, not just wages, to reflect benefits and overhead. When hiring volumes are large, internal time can rival vendor invoices. Track monthly for accuracy.
Agency usage changes the savings profile because fees scale with salary. A common contingent fee ranges from 15% to 25% of first-year salary, with higher rates for specialized roles. If 30% of hires would have used agencies, only that share should carry the agency fee. This tool estimates agency hires from your percentage and applies the fee to average salary, creating an explicit, auditable line item. Use role salaries instead.
Avoided recruiting spend is only half the story during a freeze. Teams often backfill work through overtime, contractors, or reduced service levels. Track monthly overtime premiums, temporary labor, and productivity losses such as missed revenue, slower delivery, or quality rework. Even conservative placeholders help decision makers compare scenarios. The break-even coverage value shows the monthly cost you can absorb before savings turn negative. Separate one-time and recurring.
Use net savings to communicate tradeoffs, not to declare victory. Positive net savings can justify a short pause, while negative results signal that coverage is expensive or hiring demand is urgent. Compare per-hire avoided cost across departments to prioritize exceptions. Re-run the model with higher and lower volumes to test sensitivity. Document assumptions, then revisit them monthly as requisitions, agency usage, and coverage tactics change. Share with finance partners.
Quick answers to common modeling questions.
It includes internal time per hire, external vendor costs per hire, and agency fees applied to the share of hires that would have used agencies during the freeze.
Use fully loaded hourly rates: salary, benefits, payroll taxes, and overhead. If you only know annual compensation, divide by workable hours and add an overhead multiplier.
Agency fees apply only to the agency share of hires. The model multiplies average salary by the agency fee percentage, then applies it to the estimated number of agency-supported hires.
Freezes can delay delivery, increase defects, or reduce sales capacity. A conservative productivity loss estimate helps compare hiring savings against operational impact when work cannot be fully covered.
It is the maximum monthly coverage cost that keeps net savings at zero. If overtime, contractors, and productivity losses stay below it, the freeze remains cost-neutral or better.
Compare per-hire avoided cost and net savings by role group. Roles with high coverage costs or critical deadlines may justify exceptions, while lower-impact roles can remain paused.
Important Note: All the Calculators listed in this site are for educational purpose only and we do not guarentee the accuracy of results. Please do consult with other sources as well.