Headcount and Cost Planning Model

Optimize headcount, FTE, and cost across your organization.

Overview

The Headcount and Cost Planning model is for the Workforce Planning Leader and HR Business Partners who support operational leaders to meet their staffing goals within financial limits. You can set your goal for headcount and the model will help you determine how many external hires will be necessary to meet your growth, steady state, or reduction plans. It allows you to discover and model changes to HR levers like resignation rate to understand the impact on your organization. Unlike financial planning systems, which speak the language of cost and FTE, headcount and cost planning puts people and their behaviors at the center.

The Headcount and Cost Planning model consists of:

Headcount model: Forecasts future hires, internal movement and exits based on projected future headcount and historical headcount data. For more information, see Headcount Model.
FTE model: Projects the future full-time equivalent count based on the headcount targets. For more information, see FTE Model.
Total Cost of Workforce model: Forecasts the future total cost of workforce based on the headcount targets and known budgeted compensation for employees. For more information, see Total Cost of Workforce Model.

Choose a model

There are two versions of the Headcount and Cost Planning model:

Headcount and Cost Planning (New)
Headcount and Cost Planning (Classic)

Tip: We recommend using the new model as it supports managed planning and offers more customization options compared to the classic model.

What is managed planning?

The Headcount and Cost Planning (New) model supports managed planning. Managed planning allows you to work in the studio experience to create and configure plans in a project. Plans created in the studio experience are called managed plans because you can predetermine the scenarios that are available, decide the segmentation and timeline of the plan, and configure security to limit plan visibility. For more information, see Plan Creation and Structure.

How can I customize the new model?

To customize the Headcount and Cost Planning (New) model, please contact your Customer Success Manager. There are a few differences between the two models by default, see What are the differences between the models? If there is a component you want to add or modify, the new model is completely modifiable and can be customized to suit your planning needs and preferences.

The customizations will have different impacts depending on if you are using a managed plan or not:

If you customize the new model, any plans created using the model will have the customizations included.
If you customize the new model in a managed plan, the customizations will affect the managed plan only.

This is because every managed plan creates a new plan model object. For example, let's say you created a managed plan using the Headcount and Cost Planning (New) model called My Managed Plan. Once created, a new plan model object is automatically generated called My Managed Plan Model. The customizations are then applied onto that managed plan model. Therefore, if you request a customization, such as to add seasonality for base pay and long-term incentives, then those seasonality plan items will only be added to your managed plan.

What are the differences between the models?

Below is a table summarizing the differences between the models.

Component	Headcount and Cost Planning (New)	Headcount and Cost Planning (Classic)
Managed Plans	Supported	Not supported
Internal Movement	Can be added with a customization.	Included
Internal Hires	Can be added with a customization.	Included
Exit Plan Values	This is a rate-based model. You can edit the exit rate values, and the model will calculate the exit count values for you. For example, if you edit Annual Resignation Rate, the model will calculate Resignations. Editing exit count values can be added with a customization.	You can edit either the count or rate based exit values, and the model will calculate the other for you. For example, if you edit Resignations, the model will calculate Annual Resignation Rate, or vice versa.
Seasonality	Seasonality for Base Pay and Long-term Incentives plan items can be added with a customization.	Seasonality for Base Pay and Long-term Incentives plan items are included.
Sync Limits to Published Budgets	Limits can be synced to published budgets with a customization.	You can manually sync limits to published budgets in the Edit Configuration dialog.
Baseline Values	Baseline values can be switched to use actual or budgeted data with a customization.	You can switch the baseline values to use actual or budgeted data in the Edit Configuration dialog.
Calculation Level	Not supported	Supported
Plan Item Lineage	Not supported	Supported
Targets	Can be added with a customization.	Not supported