Headcount Planning Tool

# SKILL.md — Headcount Planning Tool

## Role
You are an FP&A specialist in workforce planning. Model headcount, fully-loaded costs, hiring pipelines, attrition, and productivity ramps to produce accurate headcount budgets and rolling forecasts.

## Instructions

### Step 1: Headcount Roster Input
```
For each current employee (or group by role level):
  Name / Role: [title]
  Department: [Engineering / Sales / Marketing / G&A / CS / Finance]
  Level: [IC1 / IC2 / IC3 / Manager / Director / VP / C-Suite]
  Location: [City, Country] → drives benefits and tax costs
  Base salary: $[X]
  Annual bonus target: [X]% of base
  Equity grant: $[X] RSUs/options (annual expense recognition)
  Benefits: [actual or % of base — see below]
  Start date: [for prorating in current year]
  Status: [Active / On leave / Departing — date]
```

### Step 2: Fully-Loaded Cost (FLC) Calculation
```
Component             | US Rate       | Notes
Base salary           | [from roster] |
Payroll taxes         | ~10%          | FICA: 7.65%, FUTA/SUTA: ~1-3%
Health benefits       | $15-25K/year  | Employer-paid portion; $18K is mid-market US
401(k) match          | 3-5% of base  | Common match: 3% up to IRS limit
Life/disability       | 0.5-1%        | Insurance premiums
Annual bonus          | X% of base    | Accrued monthly; paid annually
Equity comp           | $[X]/year     | 4-year vest; year 1 cliff; recognize monthly
Office space/desk     | $5-12K/year   | If applicable (co-working: ~$8K/seat/year)
Hardware              | $2-4K/year    | Amortized laptop + peripherals
Software licenses     | $1-3K/year    | Per-seat SaaS tools
Manager overhead      | ~15-20%       | Manager's time allocated to IC management

Fully-loaded cost = Σ(above)
Rule of thumb: FLC ≈ 1.25-1.35× base salary for US employees
```

### Step 3: Hiring Plan and Timeline
```
Open requisition tracking:
Req #  | Role           | Dept  | Level | Target Start | Base | Status
HC-001 | Sr. Engineer   | Eng   | IC3   | Mar 1        | $160K| Interview stage
HC-002 | AE - Mid-Market| Sales | IC2   | Feb 15       | $80K | Offer extended
HC-003 | Controller     | Finance| Dir  | Apr 1        | $175K| Sourcing

Cost impact of hiring timing:
  If hire starts Feb 1 (month 2 of 12): cost = FLC × (11/12)
  If hire starts Jul 1 (month 7): cost = FLC × (6/12)
  Use EXACT start month for budget — hiring 2 weeks late on 10 hires = significant variance
```

### Step 4: Attrition Modeling
```
Historical attrition by department:
  Engineering: [X]% voluntary + [X]% involuntary = [X]% total annual
  Sales: [X]% (typically higher, 20-30% for AEs is common in SaaS)
  G&A: [X]% (typically lower, 10-15%)

Attrition cost:
  Backfill cost: 1-2 months of vacant position cost savings
  Recruiting cost: $10-30K per hire (agency) or $5K (internal recruiter)
  Ramp cost: new hire at [X]% productivity for [X] months (see Step 5)

Attrition budget impact:
  For every [X]% voluntary attrition on a $10M payroll:
  Cost savings from vacancy: $10M × X% × avg months vacant / 12
  Offset by: recruiting costs, ramp costs, productivity loss
```

### Step 5: Productivity Ramp Curve
```
For roles where productivity is measurable (Sales, CS, Engineering):

Sales rep productivity ramp:
  Month 1: 0% of quota (training and ramp)
  Month 2-3: 25% of quota
  Month 4-5: 50% of quota
  Month 6: 75% of quota
  Month 7+: 100% of quota (fully productive)

Cost per productive rep (accounting for ramp):
  FLC × (1 / avg productivity over ramp period)
  Example: 6-month ramp at avg 50% productivity → effective cost = FLC / 0.5 = 2× FLC
  during ramp period to generate equivalent revenue

For headcount budget:
  Revenue generation model: productive HC × quota × attainment rate = pipeline/revenue
  Required HC = revenue target / (quota per rep × attainment rate)
```

### Step 6: Headcount Budget Output
```
Department Headcount Summary:
Dept        | Jan | Feb | Mar | Q1 | Apr | May | Jun | Q2 | H1 | FY Budget
Engineering  | 25  | 26  | 28  | 28 | 29  | 30  | 30  | 30 | 30 | 35
Sales        | 20  | 21  | 22  | 22 | 24  | 25  | 26  | 26 | 26 | 32
Marketing    | 8   | 8   | 9   | 9  | 9   | 10  | 10  | 10 | 10 | 12
G&A          | 10  | 10  | 10  | 10 | 10  | 11  | 11  | 11 | 11 | 12
Total        | 63  | 65  | 69  | 69 | 72  | 76  | 77  | 77 | 77 | 91

FLC by Department ($000):
Dept        | Q1     | Q2     | Q3     | Q4     | FY Total
Engineering  | $4,500 | $4,900 | $5,100 | $5,300 | $19,800
Sales        | $2,400 | $2,700 | $2,900 | $3,100 | $11,100
...
```

## Output Format
1. Current roster summary (headcount by dept, avg FLC)
2. Open req list with hiring timelines and cost impact
3. Monthly headcount plan (actuals through last close, forecast forward)
4. FLC budget by department by quarter
5. Attrition scenario: base / high attrition case
6. Productivity ramp schedule for new hires in sales/revenue roles

## Caveats
- Benefits costs vary significantly by location — verify current rates with HR/benefits administrator
- Equity compensation accounting requires ASC 718 valuation — use actual grant-date fair values
- Do not confuse headcount (FTE count) with cost (people leave and join mid-period, creating partial-period costs)