The true cost
of a bad hire

A hire who doesn’t work out costs far more than a salary: the recruitment, the training, the work that doesn’t get done and the cost of starting again. Put in your own numbers and see what one bad hire costs you, and what it adds up to in a year.

Free · no sign-up · nothing you enter is stored

Calculate your cost

Start from our example figures or replace them with your own. The total updates as you type.

1

The role

€
Gross salary for the position you hired for.
2

Hiring them

€
Job ads, job boards, agency fees and tools.
hours
Everyone involved, added together.
€per hour
Average salary cost per hour of the hiring team.
3

Getting them started

€
Courses, equipment, licences.
hours
4

While they were in the role

months
50%
hours a week
Extra coaching, fixing mistakes, handling complaints.
5

Replacing them

weeks
Valued at the role’s salary.

One bad hire costs you

–

An estimate based on the figures you enter.

Where the money goes

See every cost

Across a year of hiring

hires
20%
Not sure? Start at one in five and adjust to your experience.
Bad hires a year–
25%
You would save–

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See the warning signs before the offer

Most bad hires are about how someone works, not what’s on their CV. Owiwi shows each candidate’s soft skills through a short game, compared against norms, with interview questions for the areas that need a closer look.

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What the research says

Up to 2×

Gallup estimates that replacing a leader or manager costs around 200% of their salary, a technical employee 80% and a frontline worker 40%.

Gallup, 2024
$10,625

Median cost of filling an executive role in the US in 2025, before anything has gone wrong. For other roles the median is $1,200.

SHRM, 2025
58%

of UK employers have seen a rise in unsuitable candidates applying for their roles, and 53% found it hard to attract the right people.

CIPD, 2026

How Owiwi helps you hire right

Idntify top Talent

See soft skills first

Candidates play a story-driven game built on situational judgement tests, so you see how they handle real workplace dilemmas.

Quality of Hire

Compare fairly

Every report shows how each candidate compares against norms, skill by skill.

Stay Scientific

Ask better questions

Each report comes with interview questions for the areas that need a closer look.

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Hiring for a specific role? Paste the job ad into our free Soft Skills Analyser to see which soft skills it calls for.

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