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Build, Buy, Borrow or Automate: Costing Workforce Options.
Put a defensible price, break-even and risk on every way to close a capability gap.
One-time purchase · 12 months of access · about 4 hours including exercises and the capstone · certificate of completion
What you’ll be able to do.
For CFOs, COOs, CHROs and leaders who must justify workforce investments with numbers.
- Calculate the fully loaded cost of labor and the monthly cost of an unfilled role.
- Cost hiring, reskilling, outsourcing and automation month by month, including ramp-up.
- Find each option’s break-even month and peak cash exposure.
- Test how sensitive the decision is to the assumptions that matter most.
- Present a recommendation a CFO and board will accept.
Curriculum.
5 modules, 15 lessons, 4 applied exercises, 5 knowledge checks and a faculty-reviewed capstone.
Module 1. The cost of a gap
Loaded labor cost, the cost of an unfilled role, and why time is money.
- Fully loaded labor cost (free preview)
- The cost of an unfilled role
- Time is money: time-to-fill and ramp-up · exercise
- Knowledge check
Module 2. Buy: the full cost of hiring
Recruiting costs, break-even and when hiring is the right answer.
- The full cost of a hire
- Ramp, break-even and peak exposure
- When hiring wins · exercise
- Knowledge check
Module 3. Build: the economics of reskilling
Training cost, time away, productivity gains, and when building wins.
- Training cost and time away from work
- Productivity gain assumptions
- When building wins · exercise
- Knowledge check
Module 4. Borrow: contractors, outsourcing and RPO
Vendor premiums, oversight, transition risk, and when borrowing wins.
- Vendor cost and oversight
- Transition risk and control
- When borrowing wins, including RPO · exercise
- Knowledge check
Module 5. Automate, compare and decide
Automation economics, side-by-side comparison, sensitivity and the recommendation.
- Automation economics
- Comparing options side by side, and sensitivity
- Presenting the recommendation
- Knowledge check
Capstone
Apply the course to your own organization in a written plan, reviewed by the NWTS Academy faculty against a published rubric.
How it’s taught.
Lessons are built on The NWTS Method™ and the operating experience behind DecisionIQ, and are written with AI assistance. Exercises run on the same transparent calculation engine as DecisionIQ. The NWTS Academy faculty answers your questions and reviews your exercises and capstone in writing, with AI assistance, usually within a few hours; anything that needs a person goes to Nikita R. Steals.
Educational content, not legal, tax, financial or employment advice. Certificates confirm completion on our platform and are not academic credit or accreditation.