Headcount
Headcount is the number of people employed at a point in time, counted as individuals regardless of how many hours each works.
Also known as: employee count, headcount planning
It differs from full-time equivalent, which weights people by the hours they work. Ten part-timers are ten headcount and perhaps five FTE, and using the wrong one makes capacity planning wrong in a predictable direction.
Point-in-time is the other trap. Opening, closing and average headcount over a period are three different numbers, and metrics built on them — attrition especially — change materially depending on which is used.
Whether contractors, interns and notice-serving employees are inside or outside the count is a definitional choice. It matters less which convention you pick than that every report uses the same one.
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FTE (Full-Time Equivalent)
FTE expresses staffing as the equivalent number of full-time people — someone working half the standard hours counts as 0.5 FTE — so capacity can be compared regardless of contract type.
Attrition Rate
Attrition rate is the proportion of employees who leave over a period, expressed as separations divided by average headcount for that period.
Absenteeism Rate
Absenteeism rate is the proportion of scheduled working time lost to unplanned absence, measured as absent days over total scheduled days for a period.
Cost Per Hire
Cost per hire is total recruiting spend over a period divided by the number of hires made in it — the standard measure of what filling a role actually costs.