Vacancy cost rarely appears on a P&L, but SLA penalties, overtime cover and burnt-out supervisors all show up eventually.
Build the number
Add the premium on cover hours, the subcontractor call-outs you would not otherwise raise, any SLA or KPI exposure, and the administrative time spent re-planning the week. Most commercial FM contracts land somewhere between £3k and £6k a month for a single unfilled engineer seat.
Then add the part nobody invoices
The team absorbing the gap is the same team you need to retain. Six weeks of carrying someone else's patch is survivable. Four months is how you turn one vacancy into two.
Decide faster, not looser
Speed is not lowering the bar. It is a two-stage process, both interviewers booked before the shortlist arrives, and a decision inside a week. Good engineers are usually in three processes at once, the slowest one loses by default.
