One of the most common questions asked during the initial consultation is: “How quickly will I recoup the placement fee?” This calculator provides a clear answer—based on the daily costs associated with each unfilled position.
Every day a position remains unfilled costs money—due to reduced productivity, increased workload for the team, and tied-up management capacity. The average time a position remains unfilled in the hospitality industry is 198 days (Federal Employment Agency, 2026).
The payback calculator compares the placement fee to these daily vacancy costs. The result: Filling a position just a few days earlier offsets the fee in mathematical terms—every additional day is a loss avoided.
Vacancy cost per day = Annual salary ÷ Working days × Position value factor. The calculator does not know your revenue or your wages—all values are derived from your inputs. The position value factor reflects the fact that a vacant position costs more than the salary saved: loss of productivity, additional workload on the team, and management time tied up. If you want to use a conservative estimate , select 1.0. In “Own Daily Output” mode, you calculate entirely based on your own value per workday. The only external data source is the average vacancy durations from the Federal Employment Agency.
Enter the brokerage fee on the left to calculate the payback period. You can see the daily vacancy costs and the comparative figure below.
This calculation is a simplified model based on the average vacancy durations from the Federal Employment Agency (2026). It does not replace a company-specific analysis and does not provide any information about the duration of a specific hiring process.
We'll discuss how long a casting process is likely to take in your case during a free 15-minute initial consultation at .
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