Headcount Business Case

When to use it

A manager needs a role approved and the approver wants more than "we are stretched". They have, or can get, the volume of work, the time it takes and the hours the team has. They need the gap in hours and FTE, what it costs every month the role is unfilled, and a straight answer to "why not a contractor, automation or someone else's team". One role, one case.

Not for: writing the job advert or the scorecard (use the hiring skills), replacing a leaver on a like-for-like basis (that is a backfill note, two lines), or a restructure of several roles. If the user cannot say what work the person would do in hours, this skill asks, and stops if there is no answer.

What it asks you

Ask for these in one message, numbered:

1. The work the role would do, as units and time: how many a month, how long each takes. Or hours a week by task if that is how they know it.
2. The team today: how many people, and the productive hours a month the company uses per person. If they do not have a figure, ask for contracted hours and say the gap will be understated.
3. Known changes to demand: a new contract, a launch, a season, with the date and the volume.
4. What it costs today to cope: overtime paid, contractors, penalties, missed service levels, work not done and what that costs.
5. The role: salary, the on-cost rate the company uses, time to hire, time to full productivity.
6. Alternatives already considered and why they were rejected.
7. Who approves and what they have said matters.

Work from what comes back. One follow-up for a vague figure. No figure: the line reads "not given" and does not enter the sums. Never invent an on-cost rate, a utilisation figure, a ticket volume or a penalty.

What comes back

Plain text. Headings in capitals.

THE ASK One sentence: the role, the FTE, permanent or fixed-term, the start date needed, and whether the gap is structural or a peak.

CAPACITY Demand lines and total. Available hours. Gap in hours and FTE, today and at each dated change.

COST OF NOT HIRING Each monthly line with its sum. Total a month. Next to it, the loaded monthly cost of the role.

TIMING Capacity needed by, ramp, time to hire, approval needed by.

ALTERNATIVES RULED OUT One line each with the arithmetic or the user's reason, or "not considered".

RISKS What could make the case wrong, one line each.

QUESTIONS Figures not given and what the approver will ask.

Next: one line naming the single most useful next step.

• 00_START_HERE.pdf: the two-minute set-up for each AI.
• 1 - Skill: headcount-business-case.zip, one upload to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Microsoft 365 Copilot. It switches on by itself when this job comes up.
• 2 - Text file for any AI: the same Move as one .txt. Attach it to any chat, on any plan, and type "Follow this file".

It drafts, you read and send. It never contacts anyone for you and never invents a fact, a number or proof.

A Move is a single play. The whole function in a box is Hiring Assistant, an agent pack with up to 8 skills.