The Hidden Costs of Open Project Management Positions

Why Filling Vacancies Quickly is Crucial for Your Organization

In today's ever-evolving business environment, every moment counts. When a project management position within your organization remains unfilled, the ripple effects can be far-reaching and costly. It's not just about the immediate workload gaps—open project management positions can have a significant impact on productivity, project delivery effectiveness, and your bottom line. Let’s delve into the hidden costs of open positions and explore how an interactive calculator can help you understand the true cost of vacancies.

The Direct Costs of Open Positions

1. Lost Productivity

When a key project management role is vacant, the work doesn’t just disappear. Instead, it gets distributed among existing employees or remains undone, leading to lost productivity. Project team members who are already overburdened may struggle to keep up, resulting in slower project completion times, missed deadlines, and greater yet – no business results.

2. Recruitment Costs

The process of recruiting new talent internally isn't cheap. Advertising the position, conducting interviews, and performing background checks require significant investment from your internal teams. These costs can quickly add up, especially if the hiring process drags on. 48% of organizations say their top challenge with project management talent acquisition is finding experienced project managers.

3. Training and Onboarding Costs

Once a new hire is finally brought on board, there are additional costs associated with training and onboarding. This investment is crucial for getting the new employee up to speed, but it also means that other employees must dedicate time to training rather than focusing on their own tasks. This highlights the even greater focus on ensuring you’re hiring the right talent for the position. Key skills and experience in project management are crucial to the success of any project management hire.

The Indirect Costs of Open Positions

1. Decreased Employee Morale

Open positions often lead to increased workloads for existing project delivery team members. Over time, this can result in burnout and decreased morale. High-stress levels and dissatisfaction can lead to higher turnover rates, compounding the problem and creating a vicious cycle that’s hard to turn around.

2. Business Satisfaction

For project management roles, vacancies can directly impact the organization’s satisfaction with project delivery results. Delays in execution, lack of communication, and inconsistent results can harm your team’s reputation internally and lead to greater headaches sooner down the road.

3. Innovation and Growth Stagnation

Open positions can stifle innovation and slow down growth. Project delivery teams might delay new projects or expansion plans due to insufficient staffing. This can have long-term implications for your organization’s competitive edge and market position. Ultimately effecting the organization’s ability to growth and innovate quickly.

Understanding the Cost: Use Our Interactive Project Management Staffing Calculator

To truly grasp the financial impact of open positions, we’ve developed an interactive calculator that takes into account various factors, including:

• Salary and Benefits of the Open Position: This includes the total compensation package the role would typically earn.
• Time to Fill the Position: The average number of days or weeks the position has been unfilled.
• Size of Company: Based on annual revenue and number of employees at the company.
• Type of Role: Including the title of role and the amount of experience the role requires.

By inputting these variables, the calculator will provide a breakdown of the financial costs – both total and per day - associated with this single open position in your organization. This powerful tool can help you make informed decisions about your recruitment process and potentially partnering with an external firm to fill roles faster.

Try the Interactive Calculator Now

 Open project management positions are more than just empty seats—they represent significant financial and operational burdens on your organization. By understanding and addressing these costs, you can develop strategies to fill vacancies more efficiently and mitigate the negative impacts on your team and business. Utilize our interactive calculator to gain insights into the true cost of open positions and take proactive steps to ensure your organization can continue to effectively deliver projects. 

If you’re looking for an external partner to help you fill this position, The PMO Squad can help. The PMO Squad has a qualified bench of potential fit resources for your project management staffing needs.

Submit a Resource Request and our talent acquisition team will get to work finding the best fit candidates for your open position. Save time, money and get back to delivering projects better with the help of The PMO Squad.