Free tool for team leads and managers, no sign-up
What does a new agent's ramp cost you?
A new hire is paid in full from day one but does not work at full output for weeks. Enter your own costs and ramp phases to see what that gap costs per hire, for a whole intake, and what a shorter ramp would save.
How to use it
- Enter what one new hire costs per month and how many you hire.
- Split the ramp into phases and estimate output in each.
- Add the hours trainers and buddies spend, then copy the summary for your budget discussion.
Your figures
Read this before you share the number
- Every number comes from you. We don't fill in ramp lengths or output levels, because they differ too much between teams to borrow someone else's.
- The output percentages are estimates. Ask two team leads to estimate separately and use the range. If the two results are far apart, that gap is useful to know.
- "Shorter ramp" savings are a straight-line estimate. Shortening a ramp by rushing it can cost more later in errors and repeat calls.
- Everything stays in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored, and what you type is gone when you reload the page. A share link holds your figures inside the link itself.
Questions
What is ramp time?
The time from a new hire's first day until they handle a normal workload on their own at the expected quality.
What should I count as monthly cost?
Whatever your finance team uses as the fully loaded cost: salary, employer taxes and contributions, and equipment or seat cost if you want to include it. Use the same definition every time you compare.
How do I estimate output during the ramp?
Compare what a new agent handles in a typical week with an experienced agent on the same call types. Calls handled, cases closed or meetings booked all work if you use one measure throughout.
Why does the calculator not add the cost of replacing people who leave?
The replacement is another hire, so it is already in your hire count. Adding it again would count it twice.
How can a ramp get shorter without being rushed?
Give new hires more practice on the hardest call types before they take them live, and check each step with a short test before they move on.
Practice is the part of the ramp you can add without more trainer hours
New agents can practise the hard calls by voice with a lifelike customer in DIRI AI, as often as they need, and get a report after each one. Try it yourself first.