Roll headcount forward.
Move hiring and attrition and watch the annual headcount roll-forward respond. Opening headcount is the fictional 1,240.
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Illustration with fictional data. Not a client result.
Workforce & compensation
The fictional scenario is a hospital group with 1,240 employees across 14 sites. Separate HR and finance files make it difficult to reconcile headcount, vacancies and people costs. These figures define the example, not a completed client engagement.
Make the logic explicit.
- Use positions as the planning backbone, with department, site, grade and effective dates.
- Link employees to positions and distinguish filled, vacant and proposed roles.
- Roll headcount forward each month: opening + hires − leavers ± transfers = closing.
- Calculate salary, merit, bonus, employer costs and benefits with explicit timing assumptions.
What planners would work with.
Hiring plan
Plan requested roles and start dates; show the cost impact of delayed or accelerated hiring.
Merit cycle
Allocate a merit pool with clear assumptions, review ownership and effective dates.
Transfers
Track moves between departments without rewriting the historical organisation.
People cost
Separate base pay and on-costs, then feed the approved workforce plan into FP&A.
Define what “correct” means.
- Reconcile actual closing headcount to the agreed HR source.
- Explain every difference between opening and closing headcount.
- Preserve total headcount and cost when transferring between departments.
- Restrict departmental views and inputs to the intended owners.
These are acceptance criteria for the proposed design, not reported results from an implemented client model.
Turn the blueprint into your plan.
A proposed deliverable set: workforce data mapping, position and employee structures, planning boards, a compensation calculation design, and a reconciliation checklist.
Working through a similar problem?
Bring your current process, source systems and target planning cycle. We can use this blueprint as a starting point for a realistic scope.
Discuss your versionWorkforce planning: FAQ
What is headcount planning?
Headcount planning is deciding how many people the business needs, in which roles and teams, and when, then costing that plan. It links the hiring plan to the budget so finance and HR work from the same numbers.
What should a workforce planning model include?
At minimum: positions (filled, open and proposed), employees linked to positions, a monthly roll-forward of hires, leavers and transfers, and a cost engine for salary, benefits, taxes and merit. Most teams also add vacancy timing and views by department and location.
Why plan by position instead of by employee?
Positions survive people changing. Planning by position lets you budget for open roles and backfills, show vacancies explicitly, and keep cost centre ownership stable when someone leaves.
How does headcount connect to the rest of the plan?
Fully loaded people cost flows into the opex plan by cost centre, and drivers such as cost per head feed non-personnel budgets, so people cost is planned once.
Further reading: Headcount planning model: process, structure and best practices.