A single bad engineering hire costs 3-5x their annual salary. Here's the math.
A mis-hire at senior level costs 3-5x annual compensation. Direct costs: recruiter fees ($40-50K), interviewing (40-80 hours), onboarding (3-6 months), severance. Indirect: code rewriting ($20-50K), morale damage ($15-30K), delayed features ($50-150K).
Total for a $200K engineer: $585K-$1M.
A $5K/month raise to retain a flight-risk engineer ($60K/year) saves $240-340K in replacement costs.
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This article expands on ideas from my published work in CIO.com, Built In, Mind the Product, and HackerNoon. View published articles →
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