For what filling a seat costs in the first place, see The Cost of a Frontline Hire in the Netherlands.
On this page: Key takeaways · How do you calculate the cost of a bad hire? · Which kinds of bad hire should you count separately? · What does a bad hire cost in a warehouse? A worked example · Why not use the percentages that circulate online? · What does this mean for staffing agencies? · Where does the cost of a bad hire start? · How Radius helps · FAQ
Key takeaways
- Count no starts, early leavers and hires who stay but cannot do the job separately.
- Five lines cover most of the cost: refill, repeat onboarding, shift cover, supervisor time and recorded errors.
- We think much of the cost is set before the offer, by what was checked and what the candidate was told.
How do you calculate the cost of a bad hire?
Add five cost lines for one case, then multiply by how often it happens.
| Line | What to count | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| A. Refill | Advertising, agency fee, recruiter and interviewer hours | spend + (hours × hourly labour cost) |
| B. Repeat onboarding | Paid induction hours before the person is productive, buddy hours, workwear | (induction + buddy hours) × hourly labour cost + kit |
| C. Shift cover | Extra cost of overtime or agency cover until the replacement is productive | shifts covered × extra cost per shift |
| D. Supervisor time | Team leader hours spent correcting, replanning and handling the exit | hours × hourly labour cost |
| E. Recorded errors | Damage, picking errors, client penalties or rework in your records | sum of recorded costs; zero if none |
Cost of one bad hire = A + B + C + D + E. For the year, multiply the cost of one case by the number of cases, per type of bad hire, and add the results.
Two rules keep the number honest. Count only money you would not have spent if the hire had worked. And use your payroll's hourly labour cost, meaning wages plus employer contributions. Without it, use Statistics Netherlands (CBS): for transport and storage in 2025 it lists wages of €33.50 plus €10.90 in employer social contributions and levies per hour worked, about €44.40 in total by our sum (NL) (CBS, 2026).
Which kinds of bad hire should you count separately?
Three, because each one costs something different.
| Type | What happens | Lines that apply |
|---|---|---|
| No start | Accepts but does not turn up, or a required certificate turns out to be missing after the offer | A, C, some D |
| Early leaver | Starts and leaves within the first weeks | A, B, C, D, sometimes E |
| Stays but cannot do the job | Stays, but cannot do the work or the shifts agreed | D and E while it lasts, then often A, B, C |
Early leavers are what most people mean by the cost of early turnover. The third type never shows up in a turnover report, so ask team leaders to name these cases and estimate the extra hours.
What does a bad hire cost in a warehouse? A worked example
Run the bad hire cost calculation once, with numbers you can defend.
Illustrative example. A warehouse hires order pickers at one site. Every figure is an assumption except the CBS hourly labour cost (NL, 2025), which stands in for payroll data and is used for every role for simplicity. It is not a benchmark.
One early leaver:
- A. Refill: 6 recruiter and interviewer hours × €44.40 + €150 advertising = €416.40
- B. Repeat onboarding: (16 induction hours + 8 buddy hours) × €44.40 + €80 workwear = €1,145.60
- C. Shift cover: 10 overtime shifts of 8 hours; only the assumed 50% premium is extra, as base pay replaces the leaver's wage: 10 × (8 × €44.40 × 50%) = 10 × €177.60 = €1,776.00
- D. Supervisor time: 6 hours × €44.40 = €266.40
- E. Recorded errors: none recorded = €0
- Total: €416.40 + €1,145.60 + €1,776.00 + €266.40 + €0 = €3,604.40
Cost of one early leaver, by line
Total €3,604.40, order pickers at one site
One no start (no onboarding, as they never started): A €416.40 + C (3 shifts × €177.60 = €532.80) + D (1 hour × €44.40) = €993.60.
A year with 10 no starts and 15 early leavers: (10 × €993.60) + (15 × €3,604.40) = €9,936 + €54,066 = €64,002, before counting anyone who stayed but could not do the job.
The split matters more than the total. Here shift cover is the largest line, so a cheaper advert would barely move the number. Fewer failures, and a faster refill when one happens, would.
See a warehouse role from first interview to checked certificates on Radius for warehouse hiring.
Why not use the percentages that circulate online?
Because the most quoted ones show no traceable source, method or sample.
Online, the cost of a bad hire is often given as a share of first year earnings or a multiple of salary, credited to a government department or an HR association. We could not trace the most quoted figures to a primary source with a published method or sample, so treat them as unsourced.
Even a sourced percentage could not tell you which line to fix. Your own five lines can.
What does this mean for staffing agencies?
The cost is split between agency and client, and your agreement decides how.
If you promise a client a free replacement within a set period, refill and part of onboarding land with you, while shift cover, supervisor time and errors land with the client. Run the model from both sides. Record why each placement failed: a worker who did not fit one client's shifts may fit another's.
Where does the cost of a bad hire start?
Often before the offer, in what was checked and what was said.
- Tell candidates the facts of the job: start times, physical work, pay and travel. A review that pooled 52 studies found that realistic job previews are linked to lower voluntary turnover, mainly because candidates see the employer as honest (Earnest, Allen and Landis, 2011). See why telling candidates about the 05:30 start is a courtesy.
- Ask for evidence of each requirement, not a line on a CV. Three years on reach trucks tells you less than a valid certificate and a few specific answers.
- Check certificates and documents before the offer, not on day one. A missing document found after the offer is a no start you have already paid for. See which checks can happen before the offer.
One caveat: not every early exit is a hiring error. Pay, a changed schedule, travel or a manager can end a good hire. Record the reason at exit before you charge a case to selection, and track early leaving with quality of hire measures.
How Radius helps
Radius Hire is the AI hiring platform for frontline roles, built to collect evidence for each requirement before the offer. Radius is new, so this describes how it works rather than claiming results.
- Every applicant can take a short, structured voice interview with the AI Interviewer on their phone, in the language set for the role, and is told at the start that it is automated and that a person reviews the result.
- Match shows whether each requirement is backed by a document or a check, rests only on what the candidate said, or is still missing.
- Where the employer uses Radius Passport, identity and right to work are checked with a trusted verification partner and certificates are recorded with their expiry dates, so a recruiter can review the evidence before an offer.
- Radius never rejects a candidate on its own. A recruiter reviews the evidence and makes every hiring decision. Agencies can read more on For agencies.