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Cost of Vacancy & Reskilling ROI Calculator
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Production-Anchored Economics for Unfilled Specialized Roles

What's an open seat actually costing the business — and what does it cost to fix?

Real production math (UPH / TPH × value per unit), overtime burn, external hiring spend, and the full investment of a reskilling program — trainer, trainees, supplies, certifications, and training-period downtime. Net benefit, payback, and 36-month cash flow, on your own numbers.

A
Role & Production Economics
What one seat actually produces and what it's worth. This is the math behind "every empty seat costs you X per day."
Role you're modeling
# of seats open4
Steady-state count.
Hours per week per seat
Production per hour (UPH / TPH)
Units, jobs, tickets, or whatever the role outputs.
Value per unit ($)
$
Contribution margin you lose per unit not produced.
Days to fill (typical)
How long it takes to fill this role externally today. Reference for context — not part of the production math.
Realized loss factor75%
Adjusts for buffer capacity, demand constraints, partial coverage. 100% = every lost unit hits the P&L.
B
Current State — What Unfilled Seats Are Costing You
What you're already spending to cover the gap from unfilled seats today — mostly overtime worked by the team that's still on the floor.
Weekly OT hours per open seat12 hrs
Existing team hours burned covering the gap.
OT hourly rate ($)
$
1.5× base is typical.
C
External Hiring Spend
What you're spending today to fill these roles from the external market — the spend Forge can reduce as internal supply ramps.
Annual RPO / Agency spend (for this role)
$
Recruiters, search firms, contingent search fees. Annual total for this role category.
Expected RPO / Agency reduction60%
How much of this spend Forge conversion replaces over time.
Internal TA cost allocated to this role Optional
$
Loaded recruiter time and tooling allocated to filling this role externally. Use $0 to exclude.
Expected internal TA reallocation40%
Portion of TA bandwidth freed for higher-leverage work.
D
Reskilling Program — What It Costs to Fix
What it costs to put one cohort through the reskilling program — trainer, trainees on payroll during training, supplies, certifications. This is your year-one investment.
# of trainees per cohort8
Training duration (weeks)12 wks
From kickoff to fully ramped.
Trainee weekly wage ($)
$
Wage during training — paid but not yet producing in new role.
Skilled role weekly wage ($)
$
Post-promotion wage. Delta vs. trainee wage is your ongoing uplift.
Trainer cost per cohort ($)
$
One or more trainers, full cohort engagement.
Supplies per cohort ($)
$
Materials, equipment, learning environment.
Certification cost per trainee ($)
$
E
Frontline Backfill — The Honest Offset
Pulling frontline workers into the program creates a temporary gap in their current roles that has to be backfilled. We surface this explicitly so the math is honest — and so the COO conversation isn't ambushed later.
Frontline source role
The role trainees are coming FROM (e.g., Warehouse Associate, Cashier, Customer Service Rep).
Frontline hours per week per seat
Frontline production per hour (UPH / TPH)
Units, picks, transactions, calls handled, etc.
Frontline value per unit ($)
$
Contribution margin per unit. Typically lower than the target skilled role.
Frontline realized loss factor65%
How much of frontline gap actually hits the P&L. Frontline work is often more absorbable via cross-coverage than skilled work.
Days to fill backfill
How long the frontline seat sits open or partially productive while you backfill it. Frontline roles typically fill faster than skilled roles.
Cost-per-hire to backfill ($)
$
Loaded internal TA time, ads, screening, onboarding. Frontline cost-per-hire is typically $1,500–$3,500.
F
Forge Target — What Reskilling Reduces
How much faster you expect specialized roles to fill once the internal reskilling pipeline is running. Applied to both vacancy cost and overtime cost.
Vacancy reduction once program is running50%
Internal pipeline collapses sourcing, screening, offer, and start-date slippage. Applied to both vacancy and OT cost. 40–60% is the Forge target range.
Year 2+ Annual Savings
$0
What you save every year once the cohort is trained and deployed — this is the recurring number going forward.
Year 1 Net Benefit
$0
Year-one is different — savings only start after training ends and you're paying for the program upfront. This is what's left over.
Payback
—
Months from kickoff until cumulative savings cover everything you spent. Lower is better.
3-Year Cumulative
$0
Total dollars saved over 36 months, net of all investment and ongoing wage uplift.
36-Month Cumulative Net Cash Flow
The whole story in one line. Running total of dollars saved minus dollars spent over 3 years. Dips while you're investing in training, climbs as the program pays back. Where it crosses zero is your payback point. Where it ends is your 3-year net.
Annual Cost Breakdown — Status Quo
Today's bleeding. What unfilled seats and external hiring are costing you every year if nothing changes.
Production lost to unfilled seats$0
Overtime to cover the gap$0
RPO / Agency spend$0
Internal TA cost$0
Total cost of doing nothing$0
Year 1 Program Investment
Year-one spend. What you commit upfront to launch one cohort.
Trainer(s)$0
Trainee wages during training$0
Supplies$0
Certifications$0
Frontline backfill — hiring cost$0
Frontline backfill — production gap$0
Total program investment$0
How Annual Savings Are Built (Year 2+)
How the headline number is built. Reductions in vacancy, OT, and external hiring are gross savings. Promoted workers now earn the higher skilled wage — that ongoing uplift is deducted to give you the honest net.
Vacancy + OT reduction$0
RPO / Agency reduction$0
Internal TA reallocation$0
Gross savings (total)$0
Less: ongoing wage uplift for promoted workers$0
Net annual savings$0

What's baked in. Annual vacancy cost = open seats × 365 × daily production value × realized loss factor. OT cost = open seats × weekly OT × 52 × OT rate. External hiring cost = annual RPO/Agency spend + internal TA cost (if entered). Forge reduction applies to vacancy and OT (internal pipeline shortens cycle and reduces coverage burden); RPO/Agency and internal TA reductions apply at their entered percentages. Frontline backfill cost = cohort size × (cost-per-hire + days vacant × frontline daily production value × frontline realized loss factor) — surfaces the cost of replacing workers pulled into the program so the COO conversation isn't ambushed later. Program investment counts the full year-one cost: trainer, trainees on payroll during training, supplies, per-trainee certifications, and frontline backfill. Ongoing wage uplift = (skilled weekly wage − trainee weekly wage) × cohort size × 52 — the recurring promotion cost is deducted from gross savings. Year 1 avoided cost reflects that cohorts deploy after the training period — both savings and wage uplift only apply for the remaining weeks of the year. Year 2+ steady-state assumes the program is running; if you fund another cohort each year, subtract a recurring program investment (including backfill) from year-2+ savings.

Directional. The full Forge diagnostic measures these inputs from your actual data — production rates, vacancy spend, OT logs, agency contracts — rather than estimating them.

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