Imagine a company is planning to launch a new product on the market, but lacks the skilled staff for development, production or marketing. The success of the project is jeopardized before it has really begun. This is where workforce planning comes into play - a strategic tool that ensures you always have the right people with the right skills in place.

Personnel planning is a central component of strategic personnel policy and a key task within human resources management. It aims to determine the future personnel requirements of a company and to cover these requirements with suitable measures. Not only the quantitative but also the qualitative requirements for employees are taken into account. HR planning helps to achieve corporate goals efficiently and remain competitive in the long term.

Review team structure regularly

Personnel planning is not just about managing employees, but also about a strategic orientation that guarantees long-term success. But what are the tasks and objectives of personnel planning? Let’s take a closer look at examples from the various sub-areas.

  • Staff planning: The first step towards successful staff planning is to take stock. Here you determine how many employees are currently working in your company, what qualifications they have and where there may be gaps.
  • Personnel requirements planning: The aim here is to determine how many employees with which qualifications you will need in the future. Seasonal fluctuations, projects and long-term company goals play a decisive role here.
  • Staff planning: Staff planning ensures that your employees are in the right place at the right time. An efficient duty roster that plans staff deployment is the be-all and end-all.
  • Personnel development: Your employees are your most important asset. With targeted further training and development measures, you can promote talent, retain skilled workers in your company and secure your long-term competitiveness.
  • Recruitment: Recruitment is all about recruiting new employees. Today, it is no longer enough to simply place a job advertisement. You have to actively search and inspire potential candidates.
  • Staff release planning: It is not always possible to avoid staff overcapacity. Whether seasonal fluctuations, restructuring or economic crises - sometimes redundancies are unavoidable. Professional redundancy planning ensures that these processes are fair and transparent.
  • Personnel costs: No personnel planning works without keeping an eye on costs. It is important to find a healthy balance between investing in employees and the profitability of the company.

There are fundamentally different models in personnel planning. Whether operational and strategic or quantitative and qualitative planning approaches - they enable companies to meet requirements and master challenges.

Strategic planning creates security

The difference between operational and strategic HR planning lies primarily in the time horizon and focus. Strategic HR planning is aimed at long-term goals, usually with a planning horizon of 5 to 10 years. It is shaped by external factors such as market trends, technological developments and the competitive environment. Its task is to proactively tackle future challenges and make holistic decisions that will strengthen the company in the long term.

In contrast, operational HR planning focuses on short-term periods of up to one year. Here, the focus is on specific individual problems and internal requirements, such as ensuring staffing for ongoing projects or reacting to bottlenecks at short notice. Operational planning requires measures that can be implemented quickly without tying up long-term resources.

Quantitative and qualitative personnel planning differ in their objectives. Quantitative personnel planning is concerned with the number of employees and attempts to strike a balance between excess capacity and staff shortages. It answers the question of whether there is enough staff to cover demand or whether recruitment or downsizing is necessary.

Qualitative personnel planning, on the other hand, focuses on the skills and competencies of employees. Its aim is to identify future know-how requirements, build them up in a targeted manner and reduce outdated knowledge where necessary. It lays the foundation for the company to remain competitive in a dynamic environment by aligning the development of the workforce with strategic goals.

Workforce planning is not a matter of gut feeling - it is based on clear figures and formulas. To calculate the right staffing requirements and ensure you meet your targets, six simple calculations are key. Here we show you how to use these formulas to make your workforce planning effective and accurate.

Keep an eye on personnel costs

The first step is to calculate the resource requirements. This indicates how much work needs to be done in total and how many employees you need to complete this work. This means that you divide the total time required by the number of working hours that an employee can perform on average.

Resource requirement = total workload / working hours per employee

Next, you need to determine the distribution time factor in order to calculate the reserve requirement. The distribution time factor takes into account all absences such as vacation, illness or other delays in the work process. Here you add up all absences (e.g. due to illness, vacation or public holidays) and divide them by the actual working days (the actual working days without absences). The result shows what percentage of working time is lost due to absences.

Distribution time factor (%) = absences / actual working days x 100

The reserve requirement ensures that enough employees are available to cope with the workload even in the event of absences. It is calculated by multiplying the deployment requirement by the distribution time factor:

Reserve requirement = deployment requirement x distribution time factor

You now have all the important values for the gross personnel requirement. This is the sum of deployment requirements and reserve requirements. It shows how many employees are needed in total to cover the workload and the reserve for absences.

Gross personnel requirements = deployment requirements + reserve requirements

In the next step, you determine the updated headcount, which shows how many employees are currently in the company after you have taken into account additions and departures. In doing so, you calculate all new additions (e.g. through hiring or returning from parental leave) and all departures (e.g. through dismissals or retirement).

Updated headcount = current headcount + fixed additions - expected departures

Finally, you calculate the net personnel requirement, which tells you how many employees you still need to hire or lay off in order to achieve the ideal headcount.

Net personnel requirements = gross personnel requirements - updated headcount

There are also situations in personnel planning that you should approach with particular sensitivity and responsibility. One of these situations occurs when you have too many staff, i.e. there is an overstaffing situation. There are no easy solutions, but by being transparent and open, you can show that you have your employees’ best interests at heart. Dismissals should always be the last resort - before that, there are numerous approaches you can take to find a fair and sustainable solution.

Enable flexibility through part-time work

Consider whether more flexible part-time models can help to better manage capacities. Offer early retirement if this could be an option for certain employees. Sabbaticals are also a way of providing temporary relief while at the same time sending valuable signals of appreciation.

A review and reallocation of tasks or internal transfers can also help to reduce staff surpluses. It is important that you communicate these measures transparently and involve your employees. An open attitude strengthens trust and shows that you are aware of your responsibility.

If redundancies are unavoidable, treat them with the utmost care. Support those affected with outplacement programmes, for example, to make the transition to a new professional future easier for them.

Staff shortages are a challenge in personnel planning that requires strategic action and flexibility. A key solution lies in the targeted recruitment of new talent. Modern recruiting and optimised applicant management enable you to attract the best specialists for your company. It can be crucial to use new channels such as social media or specialised platforms and to establish an attractive employer brand that clearly communicates your strengths.

Start recruiting early enough

But what if the search for new employees proves difficult? Even then, there are ways to overcome staff shortages. Clever prioritization of your projects can provide great short-term relief: Focus on central tasks that create direct added value and temporarily suspend less urgent projects.

Automating processes is another way of conserving resources. Digital tools can take over repetitive tasks and free up valuable capacity. This not only helps you in acute bottleneck situations, but also boosts your company’s efficiency in the long term.

Your existing employees can also be part of the solution. With further training and internal flexibility, skills can be built up in a targeted manner and gaps closed. This measure not only promotes cooperation, but also strengthens employee loyalty to your company.

Temporary staff or freelancers can also be brought in for quick and flexible support. They offer short-term relief and enable you to react flexibly to acute staff shortages.

Determine personnel requirements in good time

High staff turnover can be costly for companies and jeopardize team cohesion, productivity and long-term success. This is particularly problematic when it comes to personnel planning, as frequent changes make long-term planning more difficult and require additional resources for recruitment and training. However, there are numerous measures that companies can take to avoid staff turnover. Below you will find some valuable approaches that help to strengthen employee retention and promote long-term, stable cooperation.

  • Pay for success: Reward good performance to encourage recognition and motivation.
  • Responsibilities: Clear allocation of roles creates security and orientation.
  • Pleasant working environment: A well-designed workplace increases well-being and productivity.
  • Scheduling flexibility: Flexible working hours or locations enable a better work-life balance.
  • Skills development: Provide development opportunities to develop the potential of your employees.
  • Team building: Strengthen cohesion through joint activities and an open corporate culture.
  • Personal responsibility: Hand over responsibility and trust your employees to make decisions independently.
  • Positive feedback: Regular recognition and praise for good work motivate and strengthen loyalty.

Digital tools make planning easier

Successful personnel planning requires not only the right preparation, but also a keen instinct and the courage to break new ground. Because if you think ahead and remain flexible, you can ensure that your team will continue to work together harmoniously in the future. To help you achieve this goal, here are 5 tips to make your HR planning a success:

  1. Know the status quo: Before you get started, know where you stand. Who works for you? What talents and capacities do you have? Only with an honest inventory can you set the right course.

  2. Determine goals: Think about where you want to go. What skills and how many employees do you need to achieve your goals? Get a picture of what your team of the future will look like - this will give you orientation.

  3. Exchange at eye level: HR planning is not an individual project. Coordinate regularly with managers and teams to incorporate their perspectives and ideas. This will help you keep your finger on the pulse and ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction.

  4. Stay flexible: The best laid plans can be overturned by unexpected changes. That’s no reason to panic! With a flexible approach and open communication, you can master even unforeseen challenges.

  5. Dare to do something new: Change is part of the game, so dare to do it! Whether it’s innovative tools or unusual development paths - those who let in a breath of fresh air will remain successful in the long term. Because a dynamic working world needs creative minds and future-oriented thinking.

At first glance, Excel is a solid solution for calculating personnel requirements in personnel planning. This is because Excel offers personnel planning templates that have been specially developed for planning personnel resources. If you carry out your personnel planning using an Excel template, you can complete many tasks quickly and clearly. Such an Excel template for personnel planning is free of charge and helps you to easily record and evaluate the necessary data. However, Excel quickly reaches its limits in personnel planning, even with a template.

If you want to optimize your workforce planning, choosing the right tool is a very important point. Traditional workforce planning tools can lack flexibility, especially when it comes to dynamic customization. In workforce planning, software like SeaTable is therefore an excellent way to combine complex formula calculations with smart data management. For example, you can use a free template for your personnel planning and design it flexibly according to your own requirements. With the integrated No Code App Builder, you can also make your personnel planning in an app even more intuitive and clear.

The SeaTable no-code platform can be customized and offers the possibility to quickly create tailor-made solutions thanks to the modular principle and a user-friendly interface. Functions such as working time recording, onboarding and vacation requests can be easily combined and expanded to create your own GDPR-compliant all-in-one solution. Register Register for free and discover the many possibilities that SeaTable offers for your personnel planning.

How can my personnel planning be made quantitatively more efficient?

You can make your workforce planning more efficient in quantitative terms by integrating data-based analyses and key figures into the planning process. With tools such as SeaTable, you can systematically record and evaluate important metrics such as working hours, absences, overtime and personnel requirements. This gives you precise insights into your personnel resources and enables you to identify bottlenecks or overcapacity at an early stage.

Which is the best tool for personnel planning?

The best tool for workforce planning depends on your needs. Excel works well for simple calculations, but reaches its limits when it comes to complex requirements. SeaTable offers a more flexible solution that allows you to customize your workforce planning, integrate complex calculations, store documents and automate processes.

Which formulas are relevant for calculating staffing requirements?

You will need the following 6 formulas to calculate staffing requirements:

  • Staffing requirements = total workload / working time per employee
  • Allocation time factor (%) = absences / real working days x 100
  • Reserve requirement = deployment requirement x distribution time factor
  • Gross personnel requirement = deployment requirement + reserve requirement
  • Updated headcount = current headcount + fixed additions - expected departures
  • Net personnel requirements = gross personnel requirements - updated headcount

TAGS: HR Administration