How to Work a Blended Desk
In 2026
–An Eleven-Part Series–
Part Four
by
Bob Marshall
August 25th, 2026
Part Four – Establishing the Value of the Employee and the Cost of Vacancy & How a Contract Employee can Stop that Value Hemorrhaging
There are several ways to estimate the value an employee brings to a company.
Three of the most useful are:
- The Multiple of Compensation Method
- The Contribution to Profits Method
- The Cost of Replacement Method
Today, I want to focus on the one I use most often:
The Multiple of Compensation Method
The concept is straightforward:
An employee’s value to a company can often be estimated as a multiple of that employee’s annual compensation. Depending on the position, industry, and circumstances, that multiple can range considerably.
For this example, let’s use a conservative 5 times salary.
Suppose your client’s open position carries a salary of $100,000.
Using this method, that employee represents approximately $500,000 in annual value to the company.
Now let’s look at that from the recruiter’s side of the equation.
If their service charge is 30% of the employee’s first-year compensation, then their fee would be $30,000.
In other words, that fee represents only 6% of the estimated annual value of the position.
And that’s a one-time fee.
The client, on the other hand, continues to benefit from the employees’ contribution year after year.
So, when you put the recruiting fee next to the potential value of the employee, the fee suddenly looks very different.
But here’s where this gets even more interesting.
What Is the Vacancy Really Costing?
If that $100,000 position represents $500,000 in annual value, and we assume a 2,080-hour work year, that position represents approximately $240 of value for every hour it remains vacant.
Think about that.
That’s roughly:
$2,000 per workday.
$10,000 per workweek.
And after three weeks, the client has potentially lost approximately $30,000 in value—the same amount as the 30% recruiting fee.
Except there’s one important difference.
After three weeks, they still don’t have the employee.
This is where the blended desk—and specifically, the contractor solution—can become so powerful.
Instead of simply telling your client, “I can find you a permanent employee,” you can introduce another possibility:
“What if we could stop some of that value from continuing to disappear while we search for the right permanent person?”
That’s a very different conversation.
And it changes the role of the recruiter.
You’re no longer talking only about the fee.
You’re talking about the cost of doing nothing.
That is a conversation every recruiter should be prepared to have.
And there’s much more to this strategy than simply putting a contractor in an empty chair.
That’s where we’re headed next.
Next week: Part 5 – The Test Drive
My Best,
Bob
Bob Marshall began his recruiting career over 46 years ago at MR in Reno, NV. In 1986 he established The Bob Marshall Group, International, where he has trained recruiters throughout the United States and also in the United Kingdom, Malta and Cyprus. With a dedication to executive recruiting, he continues to offer his proven training systems to individuals, firms, and private corporations both domestic and in select international territories. To learn more about his activities and descriptions of his products and services, contact him directly @770-898-5550/470-456-0386(cell); bob@themarshallplan.org; or visit his website @ www.TheMarshallPlan.org.
Bob Marshall
President
TBMG, International
205 Elliott Road, Suite 100
McDonough, GA 30252-2704
770-898-5550
520-842-5550 (fax)