How much does a bad QA hire cost

When a QA hire leaves early and is replaced, the one-off costs of hiring are paid a second time. In this dataset those are the recruiting fee and the onboarding ramp (the weeks before a new hire works at full productivity). The worked example below shows both for one published combination; other costs of an early exit are named here but not estimated.

Items paid twice

The published formula treats recruiting and ramp as one-off costs spread over an expected tenure of 2.5 years. A hire who leaves before then has not used up that tenure, and the replacement carries both costs again.

Recruiting. The agency fee percentage applied to base salary; the dataset has one global percentage, used in every region. A replacement hire at the same salary pays the same fee again.

Onboarding ramp. The weekly cost of salary, contributions and mandatory benefits, times the ramp weeks for the level, times one minus the productivity factor. The formula defaults are 10 weeks for a junior, 6 for a mid-level and 4 for a senior hire, at a productivity factor of 0.5. A replacement goes through the same ramp.

Worked example

Costs named but not estimated

An early exit carries other costs that the dataset does not estimate, because no source meets the two-source rule for them on a QA-specific basis:

• salary and contributions paid during a notice period;
• statutory severance, where the law requires it;
• the vacancy between the exit and the replacement's start date;
• the time of the hiring manager and interviewers spent on a second search;
• the time of team members who trained the first hire;
• defects released while the role was empty or underperforming.

Severance and notice rules differ by country and by contract. This site does not give legal advice on them; the authority cited on each country page is the reference.

The vacancy period

The cost of the vacancy depends on how long the search takes. The time to hire guide shows the time-to-hire benchmarks in the dataset and the daily cost of the role, which together put a scale on the wait. The dataset does not convert the vacancy into a lost-output figure, because the value of QA work not done is specific to each product.

Effect on the average-year cost

The annual figure on each breakdown page assumes a 2.5-year tenure. If tenure is shorter, recruiting and ramp are spread over fewer years and the true average-year cost rises. If tenure is longer, it falls. The calculator uses the formula default; the arithmetic on the formula page shows where tenure enters.

Related pages

• Formula
• Calculator
• Employee model
• Recruiting fees for QA hires
• Onboarding ramp cost