Revenue per employee — modeled at $250,000
Why this is a defensible GovCon IT benchmark
GovCon IT firms are labor-centric and earn revenue primarily from billable
FTEs working under rate-based contracts (T&M, cost-plus, IDIQ labor
ceilings). Industry benchmarks consistently place revenue per employee in
the $200K–$300K range.
Typical math: fully-burdened billable rate $120–$150/hr ×
realized utilization ~1,700 hrs after PTO and overhead =
~$204K–$255K per billable FTE annually.
| Company type | Revenue per employee |
|---|
| Conservative GovCon IT | $200K |
| Typical / base case | $225K – $275K |
| High-performing / well-utilized | $300K+ |
We model at $250K because it is a neutral, defensible
midpoint consistent with how large public GovCon IT firms and midsized
primes price labor. It will not get challenged in a boardroom review.
Sources: Deltek GovCon industry studies, SHRM/ANSI benchmarks.
Days to fill a vacancy — modeled at 60 days
Typical end-to-end time-to-replace in GovCon
The vacancy window is where the revenue loss actually compounds.
Benchmarks vary materially by clearance status:
| Role type | Typical range | Conservative planning |
|---|
| Uncleared GovCon tech / IT | 45–75 days | 60 days |
| Active Secret | 60–90 days | 75 days |
| Active TS | 90–120 days | 105 days |
| TS/SCI (no poly) | 120–150 days | 135 days |
| TS/SCI + full-scope poly | 150–240+ days | 180 days |
U.S. commercial tech averages ~44–55 days. GovCon adds compliance
reviews, slower offer approvals, and contract-alignment checks, which push
uncleared roles ~10–20 days longer. Cleared talent firms report
cleared cycle times running 2–3× longer than uncleared.
We model 60 days because it is accurate for uncleared
roles, conservative for cleared roles, and defensible as a blended
average for a general GovCon tech workforce. Many firms actually
understate this number. Sources: SHRM/ANSI cost-per-hire studies, Deltek,
cleared-talent staffing benchmarks.
Recruiting cost per hire without Staffility — modeled at $10,000
Why the SHRM $4,700 average is the wrong anchor for GovCon tech
SHRM reports a U.S. average cost-per-hire of ~$4,700 across all industries.
That number mixes entry-level, hourly, and retail hiring, and doesn't
reflect clearance, specialization, or billable tech labor. It is a
floor, not a realistic number for GovCon tech roles.
| Role mix | Typical cost per hire |
|---|
| U.S. all-industry average (SHRM) | ~$4,700 |
| Technology roles | ~$6,000 – $9,000 |
| High-demand / specialized tech (cyber, cloud, DevOps, cleared IT) | > $10,000 |
| Agency or contingent recruiting | $12,000 – $20,000+ |
GovCon stacks additional structural cost drivers: smaller talent pools,
clearance constraints, longer sourcing cycles, more recruiter time per
hire, frequent use of specialized agencies, and contract-timing pressure
that makes a bad hire far more expensive. Internal-recruiter shops still
incur LinkedIn Recruiter, ATS, hiring-manager time, background checks, and
rejection churn.
We model $10,000 as a conservative, defensible midpoint
for GovCon technology roles. Sources: SHRM, LinkedIn Talent Insights,
iCIMS, industry agency benchmarks 2024–2026.
Retention lift from referrals — modeled at +30% relative (70% → 91%)
Why referral-driven hires stay longer
Referral hires consistently outperform non-referral hires on retention
across multiple independent studies. Typical findings:
| Source | Retention finding |
|---|
| Jobvite Recruiter Nation (multi-year) | Referrals retain 25–46% better at 1 year |
| SHRM employee-referral studies | ~46% retention > 1 year for referrals vs. 22% for job-board hires |
| LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends | Referred employees are the #1 quality-of-hire signal |
We apply +30% as a relative lift to the baseline (70%
× 1.30 = 91%), which is well inside the Jobvite and SHRM findings
and below the midpoint of published ranges. Baseline retention,
lift %, and days-to-fill are all editable by the admin so a customer's
actual history can be substituted.
