Workforce and Headcount Planning
Positions, cost and timing in the plan
People are most of the cost base. Planning them by position, start date and rate is what makes the opex plan believable.
The problem
Headcount is planned as a number per cost centre, costed at an average, while HR holds a different number in a different system. Start dates, leavers, pay reviews and employer costs are approximated. Finance and HR reconcile headcount by email, every month, and never quite agree.
What good looks like
A position level plan
Each role with its grade, cost centre, start and end date.
Full cost
Salary, employer costs, bonus and pay review timing by position, not an average.
One number with HR
The plan starts from the HR system and reconciles back to it.
Scenarios
Hiring freeze, restructuring or a pay settlement modelled in minutes.
How we approach it
Step 1
Agree the planning unit (position, grade, cost centre) and who owns it.
Step 2
Load positions and rates from SuccessFactors or SAP HCM into Datasphere with access controls.
Step 3
Build the headcount model in SAP Analytics Cloud, feeding opex and the P&L.
Step 4
Run a cycle with HR and finance together before handover.
Standard content we start from
SAP ships Operational Workforce Planning, Strategic Workforce Planning and Rapid Workforce Planning for SAP Analytics Cloud: top down headcount and FTE targets, bottom up position level actions, central cost parameters such as mid point salaries and employer costs, a time series forecast seeded from five years of actuals, and contingent workers.
We start from Operational Workforce Planning, load the client's positions and rates with row level security, and link the result to opex and the P&L so it is one plan, not a separate HR exercise.
Questions people ask
Talk to us
If HR and finance report different headcount numbers, the plan is the place to fix it.