Why Waiting Is The Most Expensive Decision You’ll Make This Year

What’s the first sign that a position has been open too long? It’s not the empty chair. It’s the subtle strain that builds around it. At first, it’s manageable. A few people pick up extra tasks; a few deadlines slip by. But over time, that open seat starts to erode everything around it: performance, morale, and even revenue.

The early signs of vacancy drag are when the cost of waiting to hire ripples through the organization and surfaces long before anyone runs the numbers.

Vacancy vs. Waiting: What’s the Difference?

The Cost of Vacancy is measurable. According to SHRM, the average vacancy costs about $4,100 over 42 days. For higher-impact roles, losses can climb to $7,000–$10,000 per month. It’s the downward spiral from an unfilled position: lost productivity, delayed output, and missed revenue. The Cost of Waiting is harder to track but even more damaging. It’s when hiring stalls, teams hold out for the “perfect fit,” wait for budget approval, or postpone action until the workload “levels out.”

In short: The cost of vacancy drains money. The cost of waiting drains people. And together, they create a ripple effect that’s felt long after a role is finally filled.

One Open Role Becomes Everyone’s Problem

An unfilled position doesn’t just sit idle. It’s redistributed. The burden might start small, but it grows fast.

One of our recruiters recently told a story that captures this perfectly. A plant controller wasn’t looking to leave his job. But after two nearby facilities cut their controller roles, he was suddenly responsible for all three. Between the travel, long hours, and nonstop month-end cycles, he burned out. The company that thought it was saving money ended up losing its most experienced controller and now had three vacancies instead of one.

This waiting to fill an opening was not just a delay in hiring, but a domino effect. These perceived short-term savings actually become a long-term setback.

The Hidden Cost of Hesitating

Consider the cost of valuable human assets. Once a qualified candidate enters the market, they’re typically available for only 10 days. In that short window, hesitation can cost you your best option, not because of competition, but because decision-making stalls somewhere in the process.

Every day a hiring decision is postponed, your best candidates are moving on. They’re interviewing elsewhere, pursued by competitors, or simply losing interest.

By the time a replacement is hired and trained, months of momentum have already been lost, and recovery takes even longer. A 90-day vacancy can take six months or more to fully rebound once onboarding and alignment are factored in.
It’s a false sense of savings. What looks like cost control today becomes lost revenue tomorrow.

Let’s break it down. A $100,000 salaried role left open for three months doesn’t save $25,000 in payroll. It loses it. According to SHRM, an unfilled position typically operates at only about 25% of its normal capacity. That 75% productivity gap means projects slow down, customers wait, and other employees pick up the difference. Add overtime, errors, and turnover from those covering the gap and the actual cost far exceeds the salary itself.

The reality is that often these delays don’t come from hiring managers or department heads who feel the strain. They often come from higher up, from those holding the purse strings. People closest to the work know how urgent the need is, while decision-makers often view this vacant role as short-term savings. But every week of delay costs far more in lost productivity and morale than it saves on paper.

The Human Cost You Can’t Quantify

Numbers tell one side of the story. People tell the rest. We now see that when vacancies linger, the weight shifts to the employees who stay. Their days get longer. Their patience shortens. Their sense of belonging starts to erode. And, the negative impact on your company culture and business can’t be overstated.

Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost U.S. businesses $1.9 trillion in lost productivity each year. That kind of disengagement often starts with something small like a colleague’s workload doubling because a replacement never came.
The longer it lasts, the harder it is to recover. Rebuilding trust takes far more time than replacing a role.

How to Turn Hiring Delays into a Competitive Advantage

The most effective organizations treat speed as strategy, not as risk. They don’t rush. They stay ready; maintaining a current view of the talent market, building pipelines before the need is urgent, and keeping conversations active so when a role opens, the right candidates are already in reach. And when that right candidate emerges, they don’t delay. They engage the candidate immediately.

When recruiting is proactive instead of reactive:

• Time-to-fill shrinks

• Costs drop.

• Teams stabilize

• Momentum returns

In today’s market, every open seat costs more than a salary. It costs momentum. And momentum is what keeps great teams and great organizations moving forward.

Feeling the Strain of Open Roles?

RCI helps organizations move faster, hire smarter, and stop the hidden costs of waiting before they start. Are you feeling the strain of open roles? Take our Hiring Health Check to see how your organization is doing, then let’s talk about how we can help.