← ccPlanning Academy · Capacity planning track

Building the capacity plan

Deep-dive lesson · about 10 minutes · short quiz at the end

ccPlanning academy · capacity planning · deep dive

Building the capacity plan

Two lines, twelve months, and every decision that follows.

The big idea

The plan is required vs available, over time.

At its heart the capacity plan is two rows across the months: required heads (from the forecast-to-FTE build) and available heads (what you’ll actually have after attrition and ramp). The gap between them, month by month, is the entire job.

The shape of the model

A rolling monthly grid.

JanJunDec required available

Where available dips below required, you have a hiring problem to solve in time.

Building the ‘available’ line

Start with who you have, then roll forward.

Take today’s productive heads. Each month, subtract forecast leavers, add the effective (ramped) contribution of cohorts already hired, and apply shrinkage. That gives a realistic available line — not the fantasy of “everyone we have, fully productive, forever.”

Reading the gaps

Shortfalls and surpluses both cost.

A month where available < required is a service risk — you’ll miss SL or burn overtime. A month where available > required is wasted cost. The plan makes both visible early, while there’s still time to hire into a gap or slow recruitment ahead of a surplus.

Closing a gap

Hiring is the main lever — but not the only one.

To close a forecast shortfall you can recruit (back-planned for lead time), but also reduce attrition, cut shrinkage, add overtime, defer non-essential off-phone work, or flex with temps/outsourcing. The plan should show which lever, when — not just “hire more.”

The hiring plan falls out

Gaps + lead time = the recruitment schedule.

Once the gaps are visible, back-planning each one by its lead time and yield produces the hiring plan: how many to start, in which month, to land productive when needed. The capacity plan and the hiring plan are two views of the same model.

It’s a living document

Re-run it every month.

Actuals drift from plan — attrition runs hot, a forecast moves, a training class slips. A capacity plan built once and filed is wrong by week two. Re-baseline monthly with the latest actuals so the gaps you’re acting on are real, not three months stale.

Granularity

Plan by skill and site, not one big pool.

A total that balances can still hide a Spanish-language shortfall or one site over and another under. Build the plan at the grain you actually hire and deploy at — usually skill and location — or the headline will lie the same way a net staffing number does.

Read one column

What October is really telling you

Required 128, available 119 — a 9-head gap. But hiring now lands productive in January, too late. So October’s gap is closed with other levers: overtime, deferring off-phone work, holding leave.

The hire that fixes October had to start in summer. Each column points at a different lever and a different deadline — that’s what the grid is for.

The takeaway

Required vs available, by month, kept live.

Build the available line honestly (leavers, ramp, shrinkage), read the monthly gaps, choose the lever and timing to close each, and let the hiring plan fall out by back-planning. Plan by skill and site, and re-run it every month — the plan is a habit, not a document.

Now test yourself ↓

1 / 10

Slides done? Here’s the same idea in a bit more depth — the part worth keeping.

In depth: two lines, twelve months

For all its spreadsheet complexity, a capacity plan is at heart two rows across the months: required heads, from the forecast-to-FTE build, and available heads, meaning what you’ll actually have after attrition and ramp. The gap between those two lines, month by month, is the entire job. Everything else — the hiring plan, the budget, the scenarios — is a consequence of reading that gap correctly and acting on each month while there’s still time.

Build the available line honestly

The required line is the demanding part to calculate but the easy part to believe. The available line is where plans quietly lie. Start with today’s productive heads, then roll forward: each month subtract forecast leavers, add the effective (ramped) contribution of cohorts already hired, and apply shrinkage. That gives a realistic line, not the fantasy of “everyone we have, fully productive, forever.” Where available falls below required you have a service risk — missed service level or burnt overtime; where it rises above, you have wasted cost. Both are worth seeing early.

Levers, granularity, and keeping it live

Hiring is the main lever for a shortfall, back-planned for lead time and yield — and the hiring plan literally falls out of the gaps once they’re visible, because the capacity plan and the hiring plan are two views of the same model. But hiring isn’t the only lever: you can also reduce attrition, cut shrinkage, add overtime, defer off-phone work, or flex with temps, and a good plan shows which lever and when, not just “hire more.” Build it at the grain you actually hire and deploy at — skill and site — because a total that balances can still hide a language shortfall or one site over and another under. And re-run it every month: a capacity plan built once and filed is wrong by week two, because actuals always drift from plan.

The principle to remember: required vs available, by month, kept live. Build the available line honestly, read the monthly gaps, pick the lever and timing for each, plan by skill and site, and re-baseline monthly. The plan is a habit, not a document.

Quick quiz

Five questions. Pick an answer to each, then check your score.

1. What sits at the heart of a capacity plan?

Two rows across the months; the monthly gap is the entire job.

2. How do you build the ‘available’ line?

Roll forward realistically — not the fantasy of everyone fully productive forever.

3. Do surpluses matter, or just shortfalls?

The plan surfaces both early — time to hire into a gap or slow recruitment before a surplus.

4. Is hiring the only way to close a gap?

The plan should show which lever, when — not just ‘hire more’.

5. How often should the capacity plan be re-run?

A plan built once and filed is wrong by week two — it’s a living document.