Cost of a Vacant Leadership Seat

For Tier 2 aerospace, defense, and advanced-manufacturing teams. Quantifies the cost of leaving a key seat open beyond the search fee.

Fully-loaded cost typically runs ~30% higher.
From last day worked to today.
People reporting to (or blocked by) this seat.
7
1 = backfill, no revenue impact. 10 = customers / programs are slipping every week.
Combined monthly value of contracts whose milestones depend on this role.

Cost so far

Direct productivity loss (role itself idle)—
Team drag (direct reports running on partial guidance)—
Program / contract slippage risk—
Total cost to date —

Daily burn rate: —

How this is calculated
  • Direct productivity loss = (annual comp × 1.30 fully loaded) × (days vacant ÷ 250 working days). Treats the seat as fully unproductive while empty.
  • Team drag = direct reports × (annual comp × 1.30 × 0.20 productivity drag) × (days vacant ÷ 250). The 20% drag matches Gallup / SHRM ranges for teams running without a permanent leader.
  • Program / contract slippage risk = monthly value at risk × (criticality ÷ 10) × (months vacant ÷ 12) × 0.4 baseline slippage. Conservative — anchors to the share of the year vacant rather than treating the full contract as lost.
  • Comparison fee = 33% of base comp (typical retained search). Roughly the cost of not having a search firm engaged.

None of these numbers should be treated as exact — they are designed to make the order of magnitude visible to a CFO who is asking "is the search fee really worth it?"

If this was useful

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