About Headcount Planner
A free, browser-based tool for turning expected workload into a defensible staffing number.
What it does
Headcount Planner answers one question that comes up constantly in operations and workforce management: given how much work is coming in, how many people do we actually need? You enter your volume and average handle time, your team's schedule, and your shrinkage assumptions — vacation, sick time, training, breaks — and it calculates the required headcount. It also runs the calculation backwards: tell it how many people you have, and it tells you how much volume they can realistically absorb.
Who it's for
The tool doesn't assume any one industry. The underlying math applies anywhere work arrives in units that take a predictable amount of time to handle: contact centers and support teams, back-office claims or order processing, warehouse pick-and-pack operations, field service dispatch, or any task-based team where someone eventually has to answer "how many shifts do we need to cover this?"
Why it exists
Most staffing math lives in a spreadsheet somewhere, built by someone who's since moved on, with formulas nobody fully remembers the logic behind. The calculation itself isn't complicated — it's a handful of ratios — but getting shrinkage and occupancy assumptions visibly right, and being able to ask "what if" quickly, usually isn't. This tool makes that same math transparent, interactive, and fast enough to use in a live planning conversation instead of after it.
How it's built
Everything runs client-side, in your browser. There's no backend, no account, and no data submitted anywhere — the numbers you enter never leave your device. See the privacy policy for details, and the methodology page for the exact formulas behind the results.
Limitations, honestly stated
This is a steady-state average model: it tells you the headcount needed to cover a week's average workload at a target occupancy. It does not model interval-level call arrival patterns, queueing behavior, or service-level targets the way an Erlang C calculator does, and it won't tell you how to staff a specific 15-minute interval during a peak. It's built for budget and headcount planning, not for interval-level scheduling.