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Free tools for HR leaders

Headcount planning
calculator

Convert hours into full-time equivalents and see the gap between the workforce you have and the one your workload needs.

Your numbers

Workforce gap
 
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What is an FTE?

A full-time equivalent (FTE) expresses a workload or a group of staff as the number of full-time positions it represents. Two people each working half-time count as one FTE, which lets you compare and plan across full-time, part-time, and casual mixes.

How we calculated this

Current full-time equivalents are total hours worked a week divided by standard full-time hours, which we default to 38 in line with the National Employment Standards. Required FTE is the workload you expect divided by what one FTE can handle in the same period. The gap is required minus current: positive means you are short, negative means you have slack. It turns a headcount debate into arithmetic anyone can check, though the capacity figure carries most of the weight. The working, the assumptions and the sources are below.

New to the term? Read the plain-English definition of full-time equivalent (FTE) in the HR Glossary.

Your working
Assumptions
  • Standard hours default to 38 a week, the NES maximum for a full-time employee before reasonable additional hours. If your award or agreement sets different ordinary hours, enter them; the FTE count moves with it.
  • Capacity per FTE is treated as available every week. Leave, sickness, training and admin all come out of it in practice, so unless your capacity figure is a measured net number, the required FTE is understated.
  • Workload is one flat weekly figure. Seasonal peaks are averaged away, so a business with a busy quarter will be short in the peak and long in the trough even if the annual gap reads zero.
  • Total hours worked includes overtime and casual hours. That flatters current FTE: some of the capacity you have today is being bought at penalty rates.
Sources

What to do about it

The gap is a prompt, not an instruction. Hiring is one way to close it. Keeping the people you already have and getting more from them are the others, and each carries a different price. These steps are for whoever builds the workforce plan, whether or not they hold the budget.

1

Test the capacity figure before you test the gap

Capacity per FTE is the assumption everything hangs on. Measure it from the last two quarters of actual output and actual hours, net of leave and absence, rather than from a job description. A 10% error in capacity moves the required FTE by 10%.

2
Where a tool helps

Price the ways of closing the gap

Price the hire route with the fully loaded cost of the roles and the time to fill them. Then price the exits you had last year: every departure you could have prevented is capacity you already paid to build. Put both in front of the budget holder.

3

Check the hours you are counting

If current FTE includes sustained overtime, some of today's capacity is being bought at penalty rates and carried by tired people. Rerun the calculator with ordinary hours only. The gap you get is the honest one.

4

Plan by role and quarter, with an owner

A gap of six FTE means little. Six FTE of what, needed by when, sourced how, owned by whom, is a plan. Write it that way and the budget conversation gets shorter.

5

Re-run it every quarter with actuals

Replace projected workload with delivered workload and forecast hours with paid hours. The plan that survives that check is the one worth defending.

Step 2 is where
the gap gets closed.

Compono is a talent intelligence platform: an applicant tracking system and an employee engagement platform built on the same people data. Workforce planning tools size the gap. Very few of them can tell you whether the people you hire to fill it will fit and stay, or which of the people you already have are about to leave and reopen it.

Step 2 prices the two ways of closing the gap. Compono works on both: a validated fit read before each hire, so the new roles hold, and a continuous read of engagement across the teams you have, so the capacity you already paid for stops walking out. The gap above is this quarter's number. Close it this way and you are not recalculating the same one next quarter.

See how it works
Compono
$34M
saved by VicRoads over two years

Common questions

What counts as standard full-time hours in Australia?

The National Employment Standards set a maximum of 38 ordinary hours a week for full-time employees, so this tool defaults to 38. Your award or agreement may set a different ordinary-hours figure, which you can enter to override the default.

How do I work out the FTE my workload needs?

Divide your projected workload by the capacity one FTE can handle in the same period. The result is the number of full-time equivalents the work requires, which you then compare against your current FTE to find the gap.

Does a positive gap always mean I should hire?

No. A gap is a prompt, not an instruction. You can close it by hiring, by reducing turnover so you keep the capacity you have, or by lifting productivity so existing staff cover more. The right answer depends on cost, time, and the people already in your team.

This page is general information, not legal advice. We check figures annually and update them on a best-efforts basis, but employment rules change and we cannot promise everything here is current or complete. Before you act on it, confirm the detail with the relevant authority in your country or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.

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Full-time equivalent (FTE)

The plain-English definition, with the calculators and rules that sit around it.

Read the definition →Talk to us

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