AI-Ready ODC
What does an empty engineering role cost while you hire?
A role that is open for six weeks costs six weeks of work nobody did, and it never appears as a line in the accounts. This works out the least that gap is worth, on Glassdoor figures you can replace with your own. Nothing is sent anywhere; the arithmetic happens in your browser.
Salary value of the days the role sits empty
₹43,007
16.1 days · ₹2,671 a day per role
Show the arithmetic
₹9,75,000 a year ÷ 365 = ₹2,671 a day. × (16.1 interview days + 0 notice days) = ₹43,007 per role. × 1 role = ₹43,007.
Calendar days, not working days, because a salary is paid across the whole year. This is the least the gap costs: it counts only what the work would have been paid, not what it would have earned.
If an engineer started in 14 days instead
The empty days would be worth ₹37,397, which is ₹5,610 less than hiring.
That difference is not a saving. A supplier's engineer is paid for too, so set it against their fee. If your interview process is short and your candidates can start at once, the difference comes out small or negative, and that is a real answer. How we scope, start and hand over an engagement is on how it works, and the ways of structuring one are on engagement models.
Figures from Glassdoor, read on 16 September 2026: software engineer salaries in India, software engineer salaries in the United States, and interview duration in 25 countries (August 2017). Glassdoor notes India's interview average is pulled down by IT staffing and graduate roles, which hire quickly, so a senior hire usually takes longer than 16.1 days.
Hiring cost calculator — frequently asked questions
Why use salary as the cost of an empty role?
Because it is the one number every business already has. A role is opened because the work is worth more than the salary, so the salary value of the empty days is the least the gap costs, not the most. Missed releases, delayed revenue and the load on the people covering the gap all come on top, and they vary too much between businesses to put a number on here.
What does this leave out?
Recruitment fees, job advertising and interviewers’ time, because Glassdoor publishes no cost-per-hire figure we could verify and a guessed one would make the total look more precise than it is. It also leaves out what a supplier charges. An engineer who starts sooner still has to be paid for, so compare the difference below against their fee, not against zero.
Where do the default figures come from?
Glassdoor, read on 16 September 2026. Salaries are Glassdoor’s average for a software engineer in India and in the United States. Interview length is from Glassdoor’s study of interview duration in 25 countries, published in August 2017: 16.1 days in India across all roles, and 40.8 days for a software development engineer in the US. Interview length is only part of the time to fill a role, which is why notice period is a separate input.
Is 14 days to start a promise?
No. It is a placeholder so the comparison has something in it, and it is labelled as an assumption. Replace it with the start date a supplier will commit to in writing. On engagements that were prepared for it we have started faster, and replaced a developer within thirty-six hours, but that is not available on every role.