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Human Resources vocabulary · HR Roles & Workforce Planning

Headcount

Meaning in human resources, with examples

/ˈhedkaʊnt/nounCommon term

In human resources, headcount means: The number of people employed by a company or team, often used when planning budgets and deciding whether new jobs can be created.

In Turkish: personel sayısı, kadro, norm kadro

How it is used

Managers ask for, get approval for or freeze headcount. 'We have headcount for two more' means the budget allows two new hires. Compare FTE (full-time equivalent), which counts hours rather than people.

Example sentences

  1. Finance has approved extra headcount for the support team next year.

  2. Our headcount went from 90 to 140 in eighteen months.

Common collocations

  • headcount freeze
  • approve headcount
  • headcount budget
  • reduce headcount
  • workforce planningAnalysing the staff an organisation has now and the people and skills it will need in the future, then planning how to close the gap.
  • vacancyA job in an organisation that is available because nobody is doing it at the moment, so the company is looking for someone to fill it.
  • turnoverThe rate at which employees leave an organisation and have to be replaced, usually shown as a percentage per year.
  • hireTo give someone a job and start employing them. As a noun, a hire is a person who has just been given a job.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: HR Roles & Workforce Planning

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