---
name: "ops-capacity-and-headcount-plan"
description: "Use when the user asks whether staffing covers demand across the business, names a hiring target, or hands over workload and team numbers: company-wide headcount planning with scenarios, not support shift scheduling."
triggers: ["do we have enough people", "headcount plan by function", "capacity plan for next quarter", "how many heads do we need", "hiring plan and start dates", "what breaks if hires slip"]
version: "1"
---
# Plan capacity and headcount
Use this when the user asks whether staffing covers demand, names a
hiring target, or hands over workload and team numbers. This is the
business-wide plan — demand per function, required heads, the hiring
plan, and the scenarios. Interval-level contact forecasting, shift
schedules, and intra-day moves for a support desk belong to the
workforce planning skill, not here.
## What you need first
Past demand by function and period, current heads and roles, shrinkage
drivers (time off, training, attrition), open requisitions, and the
forecast horizon.
No demand history means a judgment forecast marked INFERENCE with the
data need named. No shrinkage figure means you plan at 20% and say so.
## Forecast demand per role, skill, and level
Forecast from history, never from headcount totals alone. Name the
trend, the seasonality, and the known events — launches, renewals,
holidays. Include pipeline-weighted demand, tentative work, and time
off. State the horizon and the miss band plainly.
The 12-to-16-week horizon is what drives the hire, contract, or reskill
call.
## Turn the forecast into required heads
Required heads = base workload heads / (1 - shrinkage/100), where
shrinkage covers time off, training, and attrition.
Show the math in one block so the capacity owner can check it. Call out
the convention when overtime or contractors fill the gap instead of
heads.
## Gap it against today
Heads on hand, open requisitions with start dates, and the shortfall
per function and month. Name coverage gaps, never hide them.
## Scenario-plan two cases
Base and high demand. Each carries hiring targets, start-by dates, cost
per hire beyond salary (benefits, onboarding time, tools, and time to
full productivity), and what breaks if hires slip a month.
Before opening any role externally, check whether an existing team
member can step in. Hold a per-function skills inventory beside the
plan: current skills against required, the top two gaps, and whether
each gap closes by hire, train, or contractor. Name every
single-point-of-failure role.
## Track monthly
Forecast against actual demand, hires landed against plan, utilization,
and the one planning fix for next month. Log the forecast and the hires
made.
## Rules
Never present a guessed headcount as modeled. Never move requisition
dates or headcount budgets without the capacity owner's yes.
Save the capacity plan under capacity, dated, with its scenarios.