Build a Workforce Plan with Attrition

Build a headcount forecast that layers attrition, hiring plan, and fully-loaded cost per FTE — broken out by organizational level with repeating rows.
Tags:

Workforce planning is where most operating expense lives, and getting it right means modeling both sides of the headcount equation — the hires you plan to add and the people who’ll leave naturally. This tutorial walks through building a Workday OfficeConnect workforce plan with attrition baked in, broken out by organizational Level, with fully-loaded cost per FTE calculated alongside.

What you’ll build: A report that shows beginning headcount, attrition losses, planned hires, ending headcount, and fully-loaded cost — by Level, by month, for the next 12 months.

What you’ll need:

  • OfficeConnect installed and signed in (Build Your First Report)
  • A model with headcount-related accounts (Beginning Headcount, Hires, Attrition, Ending Headcount) plus a personnel cost account
  • An organizational structure with multiple Levels you want to break out
  • Familiarity with repeating rows (Repeating Reports)

Step 1 — Set up the time and structure

1
Add the time headers On a blank sheet, click B1 and drag Current Month. Continue across C1:M1 for the next 11 months — a full 12-month forward window.
2
Build the row block per Level In column A, type a five-row block per Level: Beginning HC, Hires, Attrition, Ending HC, Fully-Loaded Cost. Leave a blank row between Levels.

Step 2 — Populate the headcount accounts

3
Drag the Level into the block header Above each five-row block, drag the relevant Level element from the Reporting pane (for example, Engineering, Sales, G&A). The Level scopes all rows beneath it until the next Level changes scope.
4
Map accounts to rows In the Beginning HC row, drag the Beginning Headcount account into B. In Hires, drag the Planned Hires account. In Attrition, drag the Attrition account (usually a negative value). In Ending HC, drag Ending Headcount. Copy each cell across B:M.
5
Verify the headcount math The relationship Beginning HC + Hires - Attrition = Ending HC should hold in every column. If it doesn’t, the underlying model formula is misconfigured — check the account definitions in Adaptive Planning.

Step 3 — Add fully-loaded cost

6
Pull the personnel cost account In the Fully-Loaded Cost row, drag the Total Personnel Cost account (typically salary + benefits + payroll taxes + equity). Copy across.
7
Calculate cost per FTE In an additional row labeled Cost per FTE, write =B[FullyLoaded]/B[EndingHC] referencing the rows above. Format as currency. This gives you a sanity check on whether the cost model is producing reasonable per-head economics.
For admins & power users Attrition is often modeled as a percentage rate in Adaptive Planning rather than absolute headcount loss. If your model uses a rate, the Attrition row will show the implied loss in whole FTEs. Confirm with the workforce model owner before interpreting.

Step 4 — Use repeating rows across Levels

8
Convert to repeating rows Rather than copying the five-row block manually per Level, configure the block as a repeating row scoped on the Level dimension. OfficeConnect will expand the block automatically on refresh — one set per Level. The full repeating-rows pattern is covered in Repeating Reports.
9
Add a Total row At the bottom, add a Total row that sums Ending HC and Fully-Loaded Cost across all Levels. Use plain Excel SUM references or drag the top-level rollup into the cell.

Step 5 — Refresh and validate

10
Refresh and spot-check Click Refresh. Verify that Ending HC for the current month matches your HRIS report — that’s the trust anchor. From there, the forward-month projections reflect the hiring plan and attrition assumptions from the model.

Result

You now have a 12-month workforce plan that shows where every FTE comes from and goes to, broken out by Level, with cost layered in. When the CFO asks why personnel cost is growing $1.4M next quarter, the answer is in the report — 18 planned hires in Engineering, partially offset by 6 attrition losses across G&A.

Next steps

Last modified May 19, 2026: Rename 'Get Started' section to 'Wiki' site-wide (6ebea16d)