Employer NI is calculated at 15% on earnings above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold. Source: HMRC rates 2025/26 and 2026/27.
Cash cost is the spend implied by your inputs. Effective cost adds the productivity gap during ramp up, so slower routes can be compared against faster ones on a like-for-like basis.
Per week productive cost divides the total effective cost by the number of weeks the resource is actually productive within the delivery period. It accounts for the ramp-up period, so a route that takes 12 weeks to reach full output has fewer productive weeks than one that starts in 2.
Weeks productive is the delivery period minus the time to full productivity. A permanent hire with a 32-week time to full productivity leaves 16 productive weeks in a 48-week programme. This counts only fully productive weeks: the partial output produced during ramp up is captured in the effective cost, not in this figure.
Time to full productivity for a permanent hire includes hiring time, notice period and ramp up. For contract and consultancy it is time to start plus ramp up. The resource produces partial output during ramp up, so this marks when it reaches full output, not first output.
Best value verdict weighs the two independent axes this decision turns on: total effective cost and time to full productivity. Each route is scored from 0 to 100 on each axis relative to the other routes — the strongest route on an axis scores 100, the weakest 0 — and the two are combined with an equal 50/50 weight. The highest combined score is the best value option; where cost and speed point to different routes, the tool flags the tension so you can weight them to your own priority. With default figures Contract scores 93, Permanent 50 and Consultancy 48. Cost per productive week and weeks productive are shown as supporting context but are derived from these same two axes, so they are not scored separately.
Productive days per year are commonly cited as around 217: 260 working days minus 25 annual leave, 8 bank holidays, 6 sick days and 4 non-productive days. This tool annualises salaried cost across the full 52-week year, so this figure is context for interpreting output rather than a divisor in the cost calculation. Pension default is 10%, within the Life Sciences sector range of 8 to 12%.
Contractor day rate benchmark of £600 per day reflects mid-market Life Sciences IT.
Consultancy rates of £1,200 to £2,500 per day reflect Life Sciences IT market benchmarks. Enter the rate from your proposal. Add supplier margin only if your base rate excludes it.
Ramp up defaults are 12 weeks at 60% for permanent hire, 4 weeks at 80% for contract and consultancy. Source: CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning Report 2024/25.
All figures are planning benchmarks. Not a substitute for financial, HR or legal advice.
