Cost-of-Vacancy Calculator
This is the Data Center Headhunters salary guide.
Every number is yours. The formulas are on screen. Nothing is pre-filled and nothing leaves this page.
This is what we do all day: recruit data center professionals.
Enter your details to see results.
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How does the cost of vacancy calculator work?
It adds the weekly cost of covering an open seat to the weekly value lost while it stays empty, then multiplies by the weeks already open and the weeks you expect until a hire starts. Every input is yours, nothing is pre filled and the formulas are shown on screen beside the result.
Cover costs include overtime paid to others, temporary or agency cover and any other cost you enter. Lost value can be entered simply or itemized for data center work.
You can choose to subtract the salary you are not paying while the seat is open, which gives a net figure.
Where does published data enter the calculation?
Only if you choose it. You can pick a role and area and use the published median wage as the annual salary for the seat, or type your own figure. Everything else, from cover costs to schedule delay, comes from your own records and contracts rather than from any estimate the tool makes.
The itemized mode lets you enter the annual value a seat produces and any schedule or commissioning delay cost per week from your contract.
An optional recruiting fee percentage lets you see the fee beside the vacancy cost, using the salary you entered.
How should you use the result?
Use it to make the cost of waiting visible when a hiring decision is stuck, and to compare that cost with the cost of acting. The result is only as good as the inputs, so note where each figure came from. Nothing you enter leaves the page unless you ask for the PDF.
The share link reproduces your inputs for a colleague. An optional PDF asks for a work email.
If you are unsure of a figure, leave it out rather than guess. A conservative result is more persuasive than an inflated one.
Which inputs matter most to the result?
Weeks open, weeks expected until a hire starts and the weekly cover and lost value figures drive the total, because each is multiplied by time. Salary matters mainly if you choose to subtract unpaid salary or show a fee. Check the time inputs carefully; small changes there move the result most.
The formulas on screen show exactly how each input is used.
Where should you go next?
These pages carry on from here. Each one covers a related decision in more depth, so pick the one closest to the question you still have about this hire, the data behind it or how we work with you.
Questions
Does the calculator send my inputs anywhere?
No. Inputs stay on the page unless you choose the optional PDF, which asks for a work email.
Do I have to use the published median wage?
No. You can use it for the salary input or enter your own figure.
What counts as a cover cost?
Overtime paid to others, temporary or agency cover and any other cost of covering the open seat.