New Hire ROI Calculator

Inputs and outputs

Role archetype

The method used to convert a role’s output into currency. Every role resolves to one of five archetypes, and the archetype selects the engine the forecast runs on. It is derived from the role profile you select rather than chosen by hand.

Seniority tiers

Two tracks: Individual Contributor → Principal IC (senior specialists), and Manager → Leadership → Senior Leadership Team. Pick the closest. Onboarding periods scale with seniority (×1.0–×1.75): the more complex and higher-order the work, the longer before its impact is fully visible — and the wider the realistic range of outcomes.

Employer load

The employer on-costs added on top of base salary — payroll taxes and national insurance, pension contributions, benefits and insurance. Set from the country you select: US and UK use current statutory and typical-benefit rates, and Europe is an estimated average across major EU markets, with a small uplift for functions that carry extra payroll tax or tooling. It adjusts automatically with the country and role you select, which is why the field is locked — the same country rates drive all three calculators. Talk to us →

Country

Where the hire is employed. This drives the employer cost rates and the benchmark the Ascent Score compares against — US and UK use current statutory and typical-benefit rates. The EU figure is a working average rather than any one country’s rate. Employer social contributions vary widely across member states - from under 10% of salary in some to over 40% in others - so this is the field most worth replacing with your own rate. It is independent of the display currency, so you can cost a hire in any country in the currency your budget runs in. Talk to us →

Business model

Sets the gross margin the forecast values output at. AI-native businesses carry inference costs inside cost of goods, so we default to a lower gross margin for them: 75% for software, 55% for AI-native. Both are Talent Ascent working assumptions taken from commonly cited industry ranges rather than a single published dataset. The paid New Hire ROI Report runs your actual margin instead of a median. Talk to us →

Monthly overhead

The recurring non-salary cost of keeping this person in the seat: software and tooling licenses, equipment and laptop amortization, office space and facilities, and any other per-head cost. It excludes salary, employer on-costs and one-off hiring costs.

Expected attainment

The share of target you expect this person to deliver once their onboarding ramp is over. The default is 100% — the seat valued on target, with on-target earnings fully paid — so every calculator on this site runs the same baseline; the Lower and Upper cases then show the same hire at 65% and 135% of target. Set it lower for conservative planning or above 100% for a proven overperformer; the break-even and ROI timeline update accordingly. For context, RepVue’s Q2 2025 index of ~47,000 quota-carrying reps put average attainment at 42.69%, and The Bridge Group’s 2026 study found 48% of AEs hit annual quota. Talk to us →

Standard sales cycle length

The time from first contact with a prospect to a signed deal. It varies with who you sell to: individuals and small businesses often decide in days or weeks, while enterprise buyers with procurement departments and standardized tender processes can take several months. New revenue is modeled to start landing one sales cycle after the start date.

Visa sponsorship cost

The one-off cost of sponsoring a work visa for this hire where relevant — government and immigration-authority fees, any skills or health surcharge, and legal or advisory costs. Leave it at zero if no sponsorship is needed.

Equity grant value

The value of the share or option grant awarded to this hire, based on the option valuation at the time the employment contract is signed.

Vesting years

The period of years over which the shares or options vest in full. A four-year schedule is the market norm.

Vesting cliff

The minimum time of employment, from the start date, before the first shares or options vest. Typically one year. If the hire leaves before the cliff, nothing has vested and there is no equity cost to the business.

Present value of the position

The 36-month cash position is a plain sum: a pound of value in month 34 counts the same as a pound spent on day one. That flatters long-ramp senior roles, where most of the value lands late. This restates the position at the return you require on cash you deploy, so late value is worth less than early value. It sits alongside the undiscounted figures rather than replacing them — the chart and the break-even month are still undiscounted.

Sales target

The annual revenue this one hire is accountable for. For a rep who carries their own quota, that is their quota. For a manager, director or CRO it is NOT the team plan — it is the revenue uplift you attribute to this hire on top of what the team would deliver without them, which is what the benchmark credits. Entering a whole team number against one seat multiplies the forecast several times over. If you are unsure, leave the default benchmark figure in place.

Pipeline sourced per year

The annual value of qualified sales opportunities this one seat creates — opportunity value, not closed revenue. The forecast converts it at the role’s win rate (19% new-logo, Ebsta × Pavilion 2025 GTM Benchmarks, adjusted for the source), at gross margin, credited for this role’s share in sourcing it. For an SDR the default is the published median of $3.78M a year (The Bridge Group, 2025 SDR report, 351 companies), relabelled to your currency; for other pipeline roles the default is derived from the role’s output benchmark and is a working assumption. For a manager, enter the team pipeline you attribute to this hire, not the whole plan.

Book of ARR owned

The annual recurring revenue of the customers this one seat looks after. The forecast values the churn it protects and the expansion it drives on that book, at gross margin. Defaults for the three CSM rows come from a 2025 survey of customer success coverage — $1.2M for SMB, $1.6M for mid-market and $2.5M for enterprise — relabelled to your currency; the expansion rate of 12% is the gap between median net and gross revenue retention in SaaS Capital’s 2026 survey of more than 1,000 private companies. Other retention rows default to the role’s output benchmark, a working assumption. For a VP, enter the ARR under the team’s management.

Secondary cash exposure

A second dip below break-even after the position has already recovered once. It appears when a later charge — almost always an equity cliff vesting in one tranche — outweighs a month of value. The headline break-even is the first climb out of the J-curve and does not move when this happens, so this figure is shown separately whenever it occurs.

ROI Ascent Score (AS-v3)

A 0–10 reading of how efficiently the capital invested in this hire converts into return, scored on the expected case. Built from four dimensions, in order of weight: payback speed, return multiple, capital at risk and package structure. Scores band into Optimized (8–10), Ascending (6–7.9), Developing (4–5.9) and At Risk (below 4), and always ship with the dimension breakdown. This score is a rule-based indicator built from the dimensions and weights shown; it is not an outcome-validated prediction, and no observed-outcome validation is claimed for it.

Payback speed

How fast the full investment is repaid, against a realistic reference for this role and seniority.

Return multiple

Total value against total cost over 24 months, anchored to what workforce-economics research shows a fully productive professional returns on pay.

Capital at risk

The depth of the curve: months of running cost underwater before value catches up.

Package structure

The deal design you control: acquisition efficiency, pay mix, and whether the equity cliff outlasts the ramp.

Metric abbreviations

OTE — On-Target Earnings

Base salary plus variable pay at 100% of target. Used to size sales compensation, and here to benchmark realistic revenue targets.

ACV — Annual Contract Value

The yearly value of one customer contract. Used to gauge how much revenue each closed deal contributes.

ARR — Annual Recurring Revenue

Subscription revenue on a yearly run-rate. The standard size measure for a recurring-revenue business or a book of customers.

NRR — Net Revenue Retention

How much of last year’s customer revenue remains this year after churn and expansion. Above 100% means the existing base grows by itself.

CAC — Customer Acquisition Cost

The total sales and marketing cost of winning one customer. Used to judge go-to-market efficiency.

LTV — Customer Lifetime Value

The profit a customer generates over their whole relationship with the company, weighed against the cost of acquiring them.

GMV — Gross Merchandise Value

The total value of goods sold through a marketplace — the base its take-rate is earned on.

CSAT — Customer Satisfaction

A post-interaction satisfaction rating. An early-warning proxy for retention.

SLA — Service Level Agreement

The response-time or uptime standard promised to customers. Missing it risks churn and contractual penalties.

MQL — Marketing Qualified Lead

A lead that meets the agreed bar to pass to sales. A volume measure of marketing output.

ROAS — Return on Ad Spend

Revenue generated per unit of advertising spend. The cleanest measure of paid-media performance.

ROSI — Return on Security Investment

Expected loss avoided, relative to what the security measure costs. The standard way security spend is justified.

ALE — Annualized Loss Expectancy

The expected yearly cost of a risk: the loss per incident multiplied by how often it is expected to happen.

SLE — Single Loss Expectancy

The cost of one occurrence of an incident, such as a breach or a fine.

ARO — Annual Rate of Occurrence

How many times per year an incident is expected to happen.

PPV — Purchase Price Variance

The difference between the expected and actual purchase price. A core procurement savings measure.

TCO — Total Cost of Ownership

The full lifetime cost of a purchase — licenses, maintenance, operations — beyond the sticker price.

BOM — Bill of Materials

The component cost of building one unit of a hardware product.

MTTD — Mean Time to Detect

How quickly incidents are noticed. Shorter detection means smaller losses.

MTTR — Mean Time to Repair

How quickly incidents are resolved once detected.

DAU/MAU — Daily / Monthly Active Users

The share of monthly users who return daily. A leading engagement indicator for consumer products.

S&M — Sales & Marketing spend

Total go-to-market spend, used in efficiency ratios such as new revenue per unit of sales-and-marketing cost.

COGS — Cost of Goods Sold

The direct cost of delivering the product or service — infrastructure, support, delivery.

P&L — Profit and Loss

The income statement: revenue minus costs.

FTE — Full-Time Equivalent

One full-time employee’s worth of working hours.

FCR — First-Contact Resolution

The share of support issues resolved in a single interaction.

ASO — App Store Optimization

Improving an app’s visibility and conversion in the app stores.