Cost of Saving
Barriers to entry

What does one more round cost?

Every step added to keep out a mistake also costs time, money, and some of the people you wanted. See what each step costs beside what it catches, and where the two cross.

The process
rounds
people
%
days
Scheduling, the interviews, the debrief.
What a round costs you
people
hours
Preparing, the interview, the write-up, the debrief.
$
$
The work not being done. A week of the role's pay is the least it can be.
Candidates with other offers
% a week
$
The gap to your second choice, or starting the search again.
hours
Unpaid: preparing, travelling, the interview, any set task.
What a round catches
%
$
Pay until it is clear, the search repeated, the work redone.
%
Your estimate. The answer shows how high it would need to be.

The cost of each round

    The candidates

      None of this appears in the employer's accounts. It is the other bottom line.

      Show the working

      Every step, every part

      The formulas are B1 to B3 on the formulas page.

      What interview rounds are for

      A hire that does not work out is expensive for the employer and worse for the person hired. Interview rounds exist to make that less likely, and the first ones usually do.

      Each round after that has less left to catch, because the earlier rounds already caught most of it. Its costs do not shrink the same way. The seat stays empty for another week, and the candidates who have other offers are the ones most able to stop waiting.

      So the useful question is not whether to interview carefully. It is which round stops paying for itself, on your own figures.

      What this cannot tell you

      • How much of the remaining risk a round really catches. That is your estimate, and it is the figure the answer turns on. The page shows how high it would need to be.
      • How fast your candidates receive other offers. It differs by role, by market and by season.
      • Rounds that do different jobs. A work sample and a fourth conversation are not the same kind of round, and this treats every round alike.
      • Roles where a mistake is costly enough that every round pays. Put that cost in and the page will say so.
      • Anything about one person. It weighs a process, not a candidate.