Workforce, Labor Standards & Skills Planning worked example

Onboarding Cost at 61% program completion rate: a worked example

Here is what the math looks like when conditions slip. We hold every other input steady and drop program completion rate to 61%, then walk the calculation through step by step. Estimates the cost of bringing a cohort of new hires to productivity on the floor.

The inputs for this scenario

  • New hires onboarded: 15 hires (held at the documented default)
  • Cost to onboard one hire: 3,200 $/hire (held at the documented default)
  • Program completion rate: 61 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 85)
  • Fixed program cost: 2,500 $ (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Onboarding cost = new hires x cost per hire x completion rate + program fixed cost.
  • Total onboarding cost works out to 31,780 $ at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Onboarding cost per unit works out to 2,119 $ / piece at these inputs.
  • Variable onboarding cost works out to 29,280 $ at these inputs.
  • Fixed onboarding cost adder works out to 2,500 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where program completion rate sits at 85% and the headline result is 43,300 $, this scenario comes in 26.61% below the baseline at 31,780 $.
  • The practical read: the gap between this scenario and the baseline is entirely attributable to program completion rate, so recovering it is worth quantifying in dollars before considering equipment or staffing changes. It applies completion rate as a simple multiplier on variable cost and does not separately model the sunk cost of hires who drop out partway through.

Results at a glance

  • Total onboarding cost: 31,780 $ (headline result)
  • Onboarding cost per unit: 2,119 $ / piece
  • Variable onboarding cost: 29,280 $
  • Fixed onboarding cost adder: 2,500 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Onboarding Cost calculator, set program completion rate to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.