Appendix B. Using the Strategic Staffing Templates from the Web Site

By now it is clear that a spreadsheet-based staffing model is a tool that can be very useful. Included among the files on the book’s web site are two strategic staffing templates that you can use for this exact purpose. They are generic models that can be tailored to address a host of staffing issues. The templates are real models that you can actually use—they are not just examples.

Your first impression may be that a more complex model or algorithm is required, but these spreadsheets are sufficiently flexible and powerful to support most strategic staffing applications (especially of the type described in this book). The generic Excel spreadsheets that are included have been specifically formatted and developed to support strategic staffing. Each spreadsheet consists of a series of matrices into which relevant calculations and links have already been built (e.g., calculating “supply then” as well as staffing gaps and surpluses). Figures B-1 and B-2 describe the process that is embedded in each of the spreadsheet templates.

There are two separate versions of the staffing model templates. The methodology for calculating gaps and surpluses is basically the same for each version. What varies are the options that can be used to eliminate gaps and surpluses:

• Staffing Model Template 1 (Without Contractors).xls is the simpler version. It allows you to eliminate staffing gaps and surpluses by manipulating internal movement into and out of jobs, external transfers into and out of other jobs in the company, new hires, overtime, part-time staff, consultants, outsourcing work, involuntary terminations, and other planned losses. This version does not include regularly scheduled contractors (although you may choose to use the “consultants” category to capture contractors that are used occasionally). It can be used when analyzing either “whole people” or full-time equivalents (FTEs).

• Staffing Model Template 2 (with Contractors).xls is similar to Template 1, but it allows you to consider the use of regularly scheduled contractors, temporaries, and other contingent staff in addition to regular, full-time employees. This version does indeed differentiate between permanent employees and contractors. It allows you to eliminate staffing gaps and surpluses by manipulating either employees (e.g., internal movement into and out of jobs, external transfers in and out, new hires, involuntary terminations, and other planned losses), contractors (e.g., adding and removing contractors as required), or both. It can be used when analyzing either “whole people” or FTEs.

Both of the templates include only those components that are needed to support that particular version of the analysis. Each template is a series of linked matrices that are designed to contain information on staffing requirements, availability, gaps and surpluses, and staffing actions. The templates can accommodate models whose basic matrix structure includes up to 25 columns and 70 rows. Each template is actually a workbook that includes five separate spreadsheets, allowing you to develop staffing plans for up to five separate planning periods. In each case, the five periods are linked appropriately (e.g., the employee supply at the end of one period automatically becomes the employee supply at the beginning of the next period). The templates must be used in conjunction with Microsoft Excel (or another package that recognizes Excel spreadsheets); they cannot be used on a stand-alone basis.