Option A
Employing a full-time engineer
Salary alone is not the cost. Adding an engineer to payroll brings all of the following at once:
- Gross salary — A market-rate computer engineer’s monthly pay, plus an annual raise cycle on top of it.
- Employer contributions and statutory costs — Social security, taxes and severance provisions stack on top of the salary as a fixed load.
- Equipment and workspace — Laptop, second monitor, software licences, a desk and connectivity — all paid before the first day of work.
- Annual leave and sick days — "Who covers the systems while they are away" is a question that comes back every single year.
- Hiring process and time to hire — Posting, screening, technical interviews and an offer take weeks — and the need goes unmet for all of them.
- Training and certification — Networking, servers and security are separate disciplines. Keeping one person current in all of them is its own budget line.
- Attrition risk and knowledge loss — When the only person who knows the setup leaves, the passwords, the reasoning and the history leave with them.