Jan 11, 2010
Is there any risk to using a basic calculation of forecasted volume multiplied by productivity (average closed per engineer) when looking for headcount needs at a quarterly or yearly level? An example being x number of cases per quarter / 100 cases per engineer = x number of engineers needed to cover the work.
In the past I have always used a detailed formula of (((volume/ avg. days per quarter) x AHT ) / 60) / new work availability) x shrinkage %), which I actually picked up from the staffing book from ICMI.
I am have seen the first method used more and more as it seems to be easier to digest. I am concerned that there is a risk of it being over simplified, however I am unable to really come up with why it might be a bad practice OR if it is actually ok when looking at things it from a high-level.
This is not dealing with actual hourly staffing, as we do use Erlang for that.
– Jason Veit
