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Cost of Hiring a New Employee vs Retaining: Which Is Better?

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Hiring new employees comes with costs that are easy to overlook if your organization hasn’t fully explored a retention strategy. Depending on the position, you could spend anywhere from half to twice the annual salary on a new hire. This includes hard costs like recruitment and onboarding, and soft costs like time and lost productivity. A better way is by upskilling your current, motivated staff.

Avoid the high costs of hiring by investing in your current employees. Retention strategies not only save money but also boost morale, loyalty and long-term productivity. Here’s why developing your talent is almost always the smarter business move.

Hiring Costs More Than Retaining

Some estimates show the average cost of hiring a new employee reaches three to four times the salary. At the low end, you could still expect to spend the equivalent of six to nine months of the position’s pay. 

Costs include advertising, interviewing, recruiter fees and onboarding. They also consider institutional knowledge loss and lost productivity, indirect expenses that may still hurt your organization. According to Forbes, there’s even the risk of a mis-hire to consider, leading to further costs to replace a bad fit.

Hidden Costs of High Turnover

When you look beyond the obvious expenses, you see that employee turnover lowers morale and disrupts teamwork. Close-knit teams can lose momentum and see productivity slip when a critical team member leaves the company. 

This also puts more pressure on the remaining staff. Among other hidden costs, Forbes lists lowered engagement, lost sales and increased burnout as some of the biggest considerations when employees abruptly leave. 

The ROI of Retention

The main ROI for retaining employees focuses on saving money. But there’s more to it. Retaining staff also boosts company culture, consistency, morale and innovation. According to Gallup research, organizations that keep engagement high and turnover low are about 23% more profitable than the competition. 

How Career Training Boosts Retention

Also called upskilling, career development focuses on closing skill gaps to build loyalty, not turnover. This upskilling strategy also builds confidence as your employees feel valued for their contributions. 

The best retention strategies tend to lean into short-term certifications in your industry, making retention measurable and easy to achieve. MedCerts Partner Solutions offers 50+ short-term training options in healthcare and IT that give your employees the knowledge and skills to meet today’s needs while building tomorrow’s.  

Retention Example: Investing vs. Replacing

Consider this scenario: Your $60,000 employee, who was an integral part of your healthcare billing team, recently left your company. To replace them, you’ve estimated about $40,000 on recruitment and onboarding. 

Rather than spend that $40,000, you could redirect some — even a fraction — of that cost into upskilling. Certifications can train staff, reduce employee turnover and close those gaps. Wage increases or training stipends can also lead to better employee loyalty and a stronger company culture.

Employer Advantages: WIOA or Train-and-Hire

State and federal programs like WIOA also bridge the gap between your staff and missing skills. You can connect employees to training programs and support resources without adding expenses to your bottom line. 

Another approach is to use Train-and-Hire methods to build retention-driven pipelines. By partnering with MedCerts Partner Solutions, simply list your requirements and let their experts recruit and train staff for you. 

Strengthen Your Company for the Future

By retaining and developing your current employees, you reduce costs, cut learning curves and keep cultural integrity high. 

Fuel your future with accessible programs like MedCerts’ online training to reap the rewards of loyal staff and strong knowledge. Connect with a MedCerts Account Manager and to find the right recruitment strategy for your organization.

Interested in a low-cost talent solution for your organization?

Schedule a Meeting with MedCerts Partner Solutions













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Written by

Jennifer Kolb

National Director of Workforce Development

As MedCerts National Director of Workforce Development, Jennifer Kolb is responsible for overseeing strategy and business development efforts at MedCerts with an emphasis on the k-career pipeline.

Prior to MedCerts, Jennifer served in several leadership positions at Tallo and Hawkes Learning where she built and lead sales and marketing, new product launches, technology development updates and an entire product relaunch to be ADA compliant.

Jennifer has spent a decade within the workforce industry working with educators, state leaders, business and industry officials, post-secondary institutions and grant organizations from across the country, all with the mission of bettering people’s lives. Coming from a long line of educators and with a business-centered mindset, Jen is passionate about student success and cultivating creative strategies for ensuring all talent has access to educational and career-related opportunities.

Jennifer earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing and Psychology with a focus in business management from Clemson University.

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