Headcount Calculation - Basic Organisational Metric

Description

Headcount calculation is one of the most basic organisational metrics that answers a simple question: how many employees are there in any branch of my organisation?

Business Case

Headcount is used for internal management and financial reports, as well as external reporting such as 10K or 10Q statements. Headcount calculations form the basis of many other workforce and company performance ratios, such as Turnover, Cost to Manage and HR Ratios, among others.

Required Data

None

Samples

Implementation Considerations

There are many considerations that can be taken into account when defining the headcount calculation.  In fact, multiple headcount metrics may be desirable. Some metrics are listed below. Your HumanConcepts Professional Services Consultant can work with you to define calculations that take into account the available data and your business needs.

Headcount by Employee Status

Example: Active, Leave of Absence (LOA), Separated, Retired
Most organisations only include active employees (including employees on LOA) in their Headcount calculations. Although Retired and Separated employees are sometimes active in HRMS and ERP systems, in order to present an accurate picture of the workforce, these employees are normally excluded from Headcount calculations.

Headcount by Employee Type

Example: Full-time, Part-time, Contractor, On-site vendor
Most organisations exclude non-permanent staff, such as on-shore and off-shore contractors and on-site vendors from Headcount calculations. Organisations that rely heavily on on-shore contract staff may choose to run separate headcount reports to highlight the number of people who are on temporary assignments, as well as their distribution across departments and divisions.

Headcount by Employee Location

Example: California, United States, Western Region
Headcount by Locations reports are very useful in visualizing the distribution of your employees, and are often required by government regulations. These reports can also be used to evaluate if the employees are located in places that most benefit the execution of the organisation’s priorities.