Productivity
Two seats are only comparable if they do the same volume of work to the same standard. If an outsourced seat handles 20% fewer tickets, the effective rate is 20% higher than the quoted one.
Free tool
BPO cost comparison calculator
what a seat costs once you count everything
A salary is not what a seat costs. Add the employer load, the desk, the software and the cost of hiring and replacing people, and the comparison with an outsourced rate changes shape. This works out both sides and the rate at which they meet.
Calculator
Compare an in-house seat with an outsourced one
Fill in what you pay now. The break-even figure at the bottom is the number to take into a negotiation.
The method
How this BPO cost calculator works
Both sides are brought to the same unit: cost per seat, per month.
A loaded seat = salary x (1 + employer cost) + desk and software + hiring cost spread over twelve months.
In-house total = loaded seat x number of seats
The annual figure is that x 12.
Outsourced total = the quoted rate x number of seats, because an outsourced seat normally carries no separate employer cost, desk or recruitment.
Saving = in-house total - outsourced total, shown both as money and as a share of the in-house cost.
The break-even rate is the loaded cost of one in-house seat: quote below it and outsourcing saves money, above it and it does not.
Worth knowing
What this does not account for
Management time
Outsourcing moves supervision rather than removing it. Somebody on your side still writes the brief, checks the work and holds the relationship.
Transition
There is a real one-off cost in documenting a process well enough to hand it over, and it usually shows up in the first quarter only.
Risk and control
Speed of change, data handling and who answers when something goes wrong are not costs, but they belong in the decision.
Redundancy
Replacing an existing team has its own legal and severance cost, which this does not model.
FAQ
Questions about this calculator
1What should I put for employer cost on top of salary?
It is everything you pay because someone is employed rather than contracted: payroll tax, insurance, paid leave, bonuses, pension. It varies enormously by country - from under ten per cent in some places to over forty in others. Your payroll provider can give you the exact figure.
2What does this BPO cost calculator leave out of the decision?
Cost is one input among several. The wider trade-offs in outsourcing - control, speed of change, data handling and who is accountable when something goes wrong - do not reduce to a monthly rate, and they belong in the decision beside the number this produces.
3Why spread the hiring cost over the year?
Because it is a real recurring cost, not a one-off. If a role turns over every two years, half a hiring cost lands in every year. Ignoring it is the single most common way an in-house seat is made to look cheaper than it is.
4The saving is negative. Does that settle it?
On cost alone, yes - and that is worth knowing. But the break-even rate tells you what a workable quote would look like, which is more useful in a negotiation than a straight no.
5Does this work for a partial seat?
Yes. Enter a fraction, such as 0.5 for half a seat, and every figure scales with it.
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