💼 FTEs

FTEs#

Full-Time Equivalents — staffing normalised to full-time headcount.

Important

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What it is#

An FTE — full-time equivalent — standardises workforce size by converting total hours worked into a number of full-time employees. 1.0 FTE is one person working full-time (commonly 40 hours/week in the US, though it varies by company and country), so the measure lets part-timers and contractors be compared on one scale.

Why it’s used#

Three jobs. Headcount planning measures real staffing even when many work part-time; budgeting computes labour cost consistently; and project management estimates the resources available to deliver.

Examples#

The arithmetic is hours-based: one full-timer at 40h/week is 1.0 FTE, and two part-timers at 20h each also sum to 1.0 FTE. A project needing 5 FTEs for six months could be five full-time staff, ten half-time staff, or any mix totalling the same hours. On cost, if one FTE earns $100,000/year, then 3.5 FTEs run about $350,000/year.

FTE vs headcount#

The two answer different questions. Headcount is the raw number of people; FTE is that number weighted by hours. Ten employees each working half-time are a headcount of 10 but an FTE of 5 — which is why FTE, not headcount, is the fair basis for comparing workloads and costs.

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