Onboarding ramp cost for a QA hire

Onboarding ramp (the weeks before a new hire works at full productivity) is a cost because the employer pays full salary for less than full output. This site values it as the weekly employment cost times the ramp weeks for the level times the share of output not delivered. 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.

The ramp formula

The published formula computes ramp in three steps:

1. Weekly cost. Base salary plus employer contributions plus mandatory benefits, divided by 52. Voluntary benefits, equipment and recruiting are not part of the weekly cost.
2. Lost output. Ramp weeks for the level times the weekly cost times one minus the productivity factor. With a factor of 0.5, half of each ramp week's cost is counted as lost output.
3. Amortisation. The lost output divided by the expected tenure of 2.5 years, for the annual total.

The first-year total carries the full lost output. The annual total carries the amortised value.

Worked example

Why ramp is shorter for senior hires

The defaults assume that a senior hire reaches full productivity faster than a junior one, because the senior hire brings test design, tooling and domain experience. The weekly cost is higher for a senior hire, so the two effects pull in opposite directions. The junior vs senior guide shows totals for both levels.

What the defaults stand for

The ramp weeks and the productivity factor are formula defaults, not measured values for each country. They are stated in the formula and marked as defaults on each breakdown page. A country or role can carry a different value only with a source. The productivity factor is a single average over the ramp period: output is lower at the start and higher at the end.

What the ramp line does not include

The ramp line counts the new hire's lost output only. It does not include:

• time spent by team members on training and code review for the new hire;
• the cost of onboarding programmes or courses;
• access setup and administration;
• the effect on release quality during ramp.

These items depend on the team and are not sourced at the two-source standard.

Ramp in other hiring models

For a contractor, the formula uses the same ramp weeks and productivity factor, applied to the contractor's weekly cost. For an employer of record, ramp is as for an employee. For an outsourced team, the formula includes no ramp; any ramp inside the vendor's team is part of the vendor rate. See the contractor and outsourced models.

Ramp after a replacement

A replacement hire goes through ramp again. The bad hire guide adds ramp and recruiting for that case.

Related pages

• Formula
• Employee model
• Calculator
• First-year cost of a QA hire