Cost Per Hire Calculator

Summary

Add your internal and external recruiting costs, enter the number of hires, and get your cost per hire instantly.

How it works

1. Enter your external recruiting costs — agency fees, job board ads, background checks, relocation, and signing bonuses.
2. Enter your internal recruiting costs — HR staff time, recruiting software, employee referral payouts, and interview time.
3. Enter the total number of hires made in the same period.
4. The calculator divides total costs by number of hires using the SHRM standard formula.
5. Review the cost breakdown to see which cost category drives the most spend.
6. Adjust any input and the result updates instantly.

Use cases

• Benchmark recruiting efficiency against the SHRM industry average (~$4,700).
• Build a hiring budget for next fiscal year.
• Justify an ATS or recruiting software investment by tracking cost reduction.
• Compare in-house recruiting costs versus agency fees.
• Measure the ROI of an employee referral program.
• Report recruiting metrics to finance or the board.
• Identify which cost categories to cut to hit a target CPH.
• Track cost per hire trend across quarters.

Frequently Asked Questions