Pricing the month when a new hire pays for itself

A payback model for one named role, built from your numbers. Fully loaded monthly cost - salary, employer taxes, benefits, equity, tooling, and the one-off costs of acquiring the hire such as agency fees or sign-on bonuses - runs against the contribution ramp you expect, month by month and across three years.

The report sets out the five data points any recurring commitment at a scaling business should be audited against before sign-off:

• the highest exposure month, and the cumulative figure at that point
• the break-even month
• the ROI at years one, two and three
• the runway impact: the months of runway consumed, and the revised runway date once the hire is made
• a base case with downside and upside sensitivity on the ramp, so you can see how closely the hire tracks your expectations and your stretch goals

You receive the unit economics of your hire, and the same transparency your investors expected of you when you pitched your venture and your business plan. We want to give you the same payback model on the hires you make, so you know what you are investing in and what targets to set for the person you invest in.

• Fully loaded monthly cost and contribution schedule across 36 months
• The highest exposure month, and the cumulative cash figure at the peak
• The break-even month, where cumulative contribution overtakes cumulative cost
• ROI at years one, two and three, with the assumption set exposed
• Runway impact: runway months consumed, and the revised runway date with the hire in post
• Downside and upside sensitivity on ramp and loaded cost
• A 45-minute delivery call
• The option to submit questions in advance
• The option to bring the stakeholders you want to the delivery call

• Sign-off is pending on a specific role and there is no clear payback schedule
• You are evaluating compensation levels, and the targets that should be set for the role
• You want a calibration baseline that shows whether a hire is adding value or costing the business
• Runway is the constraint, and the question is what this hire does to the runway date

Do not buy this if the live question is what role or what skills you should be hiring for, or if the role scope is not yet clear.

If no specific role is live yet, and instead:

• you would like to design the organisational structure that serves your commercial goals before you approve headcount, start with Job & Team Architecture Design, where we work with your team to design the structure and skills required to deliver your next milestone;
• you want to understand how your competitors, or the comparator companies you think exemplify best practice, structure the function, explore the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit.

1. Order on card.
2. Intake form completed through our client portal after payment.
3. Report delivered within seven working days of complete intake submission.
4. Submit your questions ahead of the call.
5. A 45-minute delivery call, with the stakeholders you want in the room.

The price for your region is on this page: in the order panel, and in the comparison chart below, which also carries the three-role pack.

The New Hire Cost, New Hire ROI and Runway Impact calculators are free, unlimited, and built for founders who are not yet ready to book advisory support.

One methodology across the portfolio: the same audit, the same definitions, comparable company to company - a hiring read you can put in an LP update.

How it works. The fund recommends, and the portfolio company engages directly with Talent Ascent. Our services carry no channel economics.

“We know this role pays for itself.” For roles that do not generate revenue directly, productivity and impact are often argued rather than measured, and the case rests on how well an individual tells it. This report quantifies the contribution a hire has to deliver to be a net add to your P&L year on year.

“There are free ROI templates.” The free calculators we provide are the honest version of a template with baseline assumptions. The report is modelled to your business, your economics, and the tax requirements of the jurisdiction the employee is hired in.

Does it cover the cost of leaving the role vacant, or of waiting a quarter? No. This report prices the return on the hire once they are in post, including the cost of acquiring them: cost, exposure, break-even, return, runway. It does not price the vacancy or the deferral. If you want to understand the opportunity cost of an empty seat, use the New Hire Cost Report or the free New Hire Cost Calculator.

What about roles with no revenue line? Those roles are the most interesting and the most important to price. We look at output measures - work delivered, cost replaced, capacity released, risk reduced - and cover them in the intake form. The assumptions are stated in the report.

What are the boundaries of this report? One named role in one primary employment jurisdiction. The report is a desk analysis of the figures you supply through the client portal — stakeholder interviews are not part of a report engagement. The delivery clock starts when your data submission is complete. The forecast is a planning estimate built on assumptions stated in the report, not a guarantee of outcomes.