For the management of any company, the question of what should be the number of personnel in order for it to function effectively is always important. Many enterprises are forced to reduce workers due to costs, which does not always have a positive effect on the development of production. There is a concept of the optimal number of people at which a firm can function effectively.
The higher the composition and number of employees, the more difficult it is to manage. Therefore, the determination of the optimal number of employees is a significant point.
The number of employees is one of the most important categories for personnel research in the company. It should not be higher or lower than the optimal indicator. Consider how to determine it.
Concepts to consider
The number of company employees is the most important personnel indicator of the company, which characterizes its condition. This concept can be concretized by the concept of payroll, explicit and mid-list number of staff units.
Under the category of people understand the statistical and economic indicators that reflect the number of people who carry out labor functions in the company and are part of various categories of workers.
Staff composition
Under the structure is understood the integration of its employees into groups and functioning units on various grounds. The following groups are distinguished by composition, reflected in the table below.
Groups | Characteristic | Classification stage | Characteristic |
Non-industrial | Those workers who are not directly involved in the production process. Social Workers | _ | _ |
Industrial production | Those employees who are engaged in the production process | Company executives | -low level (masters); -medium (managing structural units); supreme (general director, deputy) |
| _ | _ | Employees | Secretary, cashier, timekeeper, forwarder. All employees for paperwork, financial and settlement work |
| _ | _ | Specialists | Engineers, economists, lawyers, technologists, human resources personnel, accountants, etc. Performing administrative, economic, engineering, economic and legal tasks |
| _ | _ | Workers | Those who directly create the company's products, produce the final product, provide services. |
The following factors may influence the structure and headcount:
- Automation and computerization of production.
- The use of modern technology.
- Application of the latest materials.
- Organization of production.
Number structure
It can include several categories of employees:
- Payroll.
- Employees performing labor functions under civil law contracts.
- Combinators.
The list number of employees is all employees who work at the enterprise: full-time, seasonal, temporary, etc. The fundamental point is the fact that they all have a record in the work book. Each such employee is included in only one company. Also considered are those people who did not go to work for any reason. When employment is calculated, this list is used. If a person is included in the payroll, then he is not unemployed.
For those who work under civil law contracts, work agreements or labor agreements are concluded. Such employees during the reporting period can be involved in several companies and be considered full-fledged employees.
Their number cannot be determined without taking into account external and internal part-time workers. External part-time employees are those who are usually on the list of one company, and part-time (according to the laws in the field of labor relations) are engaged in projects in another organization. Internal part-time employees are company employees who additionally perform paid tasks in their own organization.
When calculating the average number of people, the work of external part-time workers is taken into account according to the time they spent. The subgroup in which the new person is included is reported in the employment order and in the contract concluded with the company. Part-time workers and those working on a contractual basis are not included in the list to determine the employed share of personnel in order to prevent re-counting.
Types of numbers
Among the main types of headcount are the following:
- Planned
- Normative.
- Regular.
- The average.
- Clear.
- Actual.
The table shows the main types of headcount and their characteristics.
Number | Characteristic |
Planned | It can be determined by factors of labor productivity and the specifics of the organization in the market. The indicator is close to reality |
Normative | It is formed on the basis of labor standards in the industry and the volume of work |
Established | Formed from the number of employees who are staffing without taking into account seasonal and temporary employees |
Average | Determine the average number of employees for the period |
Turnout | Only those employees who are currently in the workplace |
Actual | The number of real employees in the company |
Methodologies
The analysis of the number of employees of the organization is carried out in several stages, reflected in the table below.
Stage | Characteristic |
Comparison of headcount and staff with industry peers | Study the percentage ratio of qualitative and quantitative categories of composition. Determine the normative attitude to the total number of staff |
Comparison of profit growth rates and costs for the entire staff of the company | The rate of growth of the wage fund should be lower than the rate of increase in productivity |
Recalculation of hierarchy in the company | Ability to identify extra links in management |
Audit and audit of personnel | Analysis of personnel by age, length of service, gender, level of education, etc. |
Average number of employees
The average headcount can be determined by the formula below:
Cfr = (cfr1 + cfr2 + ... cf12) / 12. The denominator is the number of months in a year.
where SrCh1, SrCh2 ... - the average headcount by months of the year (person).
For the calculation of the average value, average 2, etc. apply the values of the payroll number for the months of the year, taking into account holidays and weekends.
An example of the calculation is presented below.
Initial data:
- The number at the end of December is 10 people.
- Since January 11, another 15 people have been accepted.
- January 30 laid off 5 people.
The source data looks like this:
- From January 1 to 10 - 10 people.
- From January 11 to January 29 - 25.
- From January 30 to January 31.
Calculation of numbers:
((10 days * 10 people) + (19 days * 25 people) + (2 days * 20 people)) / 31 = (100 + 475 + 40) / 31 = 19.8 or rounded up to 20 people.
Planning
Under the planning of headcount understand the process of developing plans to provide the company with the required number of personnel.
The process solves the following tasks:
- Lack of manpower in the company.
- Lack of qualifications for business development.
The planning steps are reflected in the table below.
Stage | Characteristic |
Analysis of the current state of affairs | Identification of compliance of company employees with existing requirements |
Recruitment Needs Assessment | In the study of the following areas: - type of work of the company; -market features; -volume of production; -management tasks; -financial resources. The process can be carried out in accordance with how technically equipped the company is. |
The formation of a new composition | The actual process of attracting employees through hiring |
Efficiency mark | Calculation of performance indicators for attracting new employees |
Regulations
There are different standards for headcount. Among them are production rates, service rates, etc. To find how many people are required to carry out a certain labor function, calculations based on the number of employees are used.
Reliance on standards allows you to plan the number and composition of company employees, which practically leads to a level of productivity that corresponds to the technical characteristics of the company.
Here are a few calculation options.
Method 1. In accordance with production standards. They are defined as the amount of work (for example, the number of finished products) that a team (or an employee with sufficient qualifications) is required to perform in accordance with the existing organizational criteria per unit of working time.
Method 2. In accordance with the standard size. The basis for this calculation is a fixed number of employees with certain qualifications required to solve managerial or industrial problems. The main drawback of using this standard is the not very high accuracy of the characteristics. This is due to the fact that when determining the standards for the number of employees, only ordinary volumes are taken into account. The more complex the real workflow, the more it deviates from the typical one. Therefore, the accuracy of the calculation is reduced.
Method 3. In accordance with the time standards. Here you need to consider the amount of time that is spent on the implementation of a unit of an industrial process by an employee or team.
Method 4. In accordance with service standards. In these calculations, the basis is the number of units of industrial equipment (for example, machine tools, animal heads) that a group of employees must process for a certain time. This rule is almost the same as for employees who perform the functions of services. Often when calculating the number of employees in an organization (both regular and normative), the number of employees is fractional and requires rounding. The obtained values are used as arguments for making various managerial decisions in the field of personnel policy.
The optimal number of employees
For the optimal calculation of the number of personnel in the field of production, other methods are used.
Method 1. Timing. For measurements, use a stopwatch and detect how much time each subsequent step of the work process takes. Then all acquired values are summarized. The timing method is used mainly by production managers, financiers and standardizers. The main disadvantage of this method is its labor costs and duration, especially with a significant number of company employees.
For example, the average production time of a part can be calculated only after 30 measurements, during which actions are carried out by various workers. With all this, the accuracy of the measurements will not be high enough. The speed of work decreases for employees who know that they are currently being watched. Another minus of timing is the lack of flexibility. If you need to calculate the production speed of identical parts that have slight differences, this can only be done by measuring for each of them.
Method 2. Comparison with rival companies. The optimization of the number of employees in the organization is also carried out by comparing the number of employees with you and your rivals using the same industrial technologies. This is an extremely fast method, but it will only bear fruit if real information about the work of competing companies is provided. Comparison also helps to understand what place a company occupies in the market, based on the conviction of the number of employees and business productivity.
Method 3. Microelement planning. The basis of this method is the assumption that any work operation can be reduced to a certain number of simple actions, and the time that is spent on them is already known. Then, to calculate the standard, only the sum of the results of measurements will be needed. Based on this information, it will be possible to optimize the number of employees in the company. Rationing with the help of trace elements of operations is suitable only for those types of work that are performed manually and consist of cyclic actions. To apply this method, you need a financier who has undergone special training.
Number of support workers
To calculate the number of personnel in the field of support operations, the factor planning method is used. It is quite laborious. In this case, key criteria are used for each process and production operation. Determining the degree of influence of factors on the number of employees is as follows: the work process is divided into elements, each of which depends on one factor. The results of such rationing are compared with similar values in comparable units of the organization.
Conclusion
The number of employees of the enterprise is determined by the nature of the activity characteristic of the company, as well as the complexity of the technological processes of production. Automation, mechanization, and other factors have its value. Based on this value, the planned and normative numbers are formed.
For any company, personnel management plays the most important role. Without excellent professionals, no organization will be able to successfully continue its activities. Nowadays, there are many new principles for organizing production. However, the implementation of all these opportunities directly depends on the employees of the company, that is, on living people. The main value is their literacy, knowledge, qualification. To achieve the company’s goals, it is necessary to form the optimal number of workers.