The True Cost of a Vacancy: Why Delayed Hiring Hurts Your Business

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Stay ahead with a ready talent pipeline.

By Scott Cullen

The Financial Impact: Every Day Matters

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average time-to-fill across industries is around 42 days. In the office technology channel, specialized roles, such as experienced field technicians or senior account managers, often take even longer to fill. That’s six to eight weeks of lost productivity and opportunity.

To put that in perspective:

• Sales Vacancy Example: If an average rep generates $800,000 in annual revenue, every month that seat is empty costs roughly $66,000 in unrealized sales, not counting potential margin erosion or delayed renewals.
• Service Vacancy Example: If a dealership’s average tech handles 1,000 calls per year, each week without that person means 20+ calls redistributed to already-stretched colleagues, increasing downtime and customer dissatisfaction.
• Admin or Dispatch Vacancy Example: A missing support staffer slows workflows, billing, and communication, creating hidden costs in inefficiency and frustration.

Now multiply that by multiple vacancies or long hiring delays, and the losses quickly become staggering.

The Overtime Trap: Paying More for Less

When a dealership is short-staffed, the immediate solution is often to require overtime. It seems practical at first, better to pay trusted employees extra than rush to hire. But over time, that strategy backfires.

Overtime costs add up, especially with technicians or senior staff. Paying time-and-a-half quickly adds up, and tired employees are more likely to make mistakes, work slowly, and become disengaged.

For example, if a dealership pays a senior service technician $35 per hour, each overtime hour costs $52.50. If that employee works 10 extra hours a week for six weeks, it totals $3,150, roughly the cost of a month’s salary for a new hire. When you multiply this across multiple short-staffed departments, it results in wasted money just to keep things running.

The Morale Spiral: Burnout Breeds Turnover

Vacancies don’t just hurt output; they hurt people. When teams are forced to cover for missing colleagues, workloads pile up, stress increases, and resentment grows.

Copier Careers’ recruiters report that technicians, sales reps, and managers regularly cite workload and stress as primary reasons for resigning. When employees feel overwhelmed and unsupported, they are much more likely to seek other opportunities. This can set off a domino effect, leading to more vacancies and higher costs.

Morale damage is especially hard to track, but the signs are clear: customer complaints increase, absenteeism goes up, and once-loyal employees become disengaged. By the time management notices, the damage to culture and reputation has already happened.

Customer Experience: When Service Suffers, So Does Loyalty

Office technology dealers succeed or fail depending on their service reputation. Customers might overlook a late part or slow delivery once, but they won’t tolerate repeated delays or unresolved issues.

An unfilled technician or dispatcher role results in longer response times, fewer preventive visits, and slower resolutions. Sales vacancies impede follow-up on proposals and renewals, while open administrative roles cause billing errors or communication problems.

The result? Customer frustration, churn, and damaged trust. A single poor experience can threaten a years-long relationship, and in an industry where competitors are constantly circling, that’s a risk few dealers can afford to take.

The Leadership Toll: Firefighting Instead of Strategizing

When vacancies persist, managers often get pulled back into daily operations, answering calls, managing customer escalations, or filling administrative gaps. While that demonstrates dedication, it also distracts from strategic leadership tasks, including coaching, planning, and growth strategies.

Instead of driving innovation or increasing market share, leaders focus on handling crises. The dealership becomes reactive instead of proactive. Over time, this “constant emergency” mode limits scalability and reduces leadership effectiveness.

The Hidden Opportunity Cost: Growth on Hold

Vacancies not only impact an organization’s current workload but also limit potential opportunities. Many dealerships hesitate to launch new initiatives, expand territories, or pursue production print or IT services because they are too short-staffed to execute them.

That means while the dealership is busy filling existing roles, competitors may be recruiting aggressively, gaining both talent and market share. In fact, vacancies don’t just stall a business; they give competitors an edge. Every hiring delay is an opportunity for someone else to move forward.

Proactive Recruiting: The Smartest Cost Control Strategy

The best way to lower vacancy costs is to shorten the time-to-fill. But that’s easier said than done, especially in a tight labor market. Skilled service technicians and experienced sales professionals are in high demand, and passive candidates rarely respond to job postings on their own.

That’s where proactive recruiting makes a difference.

Copier Careers maintains relationships with thousands of professionals in the office technology industry, many of whom aren’t actively seeking jobs but are open to the right opportunity. By keeping its talent pipeline active, a dealership can respond quickly when a role opens, reducing downtime and disruptions.

A strategic recruiting partner also helps:

• Benchmark compensation and benefits to stay competitive
• Identify culture-fit candidates who’ll strengthen the team
• Prevent hiring mistakes that lead to costly turnover
• Plan succession for key roles before they become emergencies

Rethinking the Cost Equation

Leaders in office technology dealerships often hesitate to hire because they focus on the visible costs, such as salary, benefits, and recruiter fees, without considering the hidden costs of delay. When you include lost revenue, overtime, burnout, and opportunity cost, it becomes clear: the cost of waiting is much higher than the cost of hiring.

The next time a position opens, ask yourself:

• What is this vacancy costing me per week in lost productivity or sales?
• How long can my team sustain the extra workload before burnout sets in?
• What opportunities are we missing because we’re short-staffed?
• Would filling this role faster pay for itself within the first quarter?

Most likely, the answer is yes.