Workforce Planning: Definition, Methods, and External Workers

Pietro Mattina

August 12, 2026
15 minutes

The question of how many employees a company needs cannot be answered based solely on the current number of employees. What matters most is which tasks need to be performed, when, and with what qualifications and capabilities. This is exactly where workforce planning comes into play.

Proactive workforce planning lays the foundation for recruiting, employee development, and workforce scheduling. At the same time, the use of external workers is becoming increasingly important. Freelancers, temporary workers, external specialists, and service providers can help flexibly address staffing shortages, but they must also be incorporated into strategic workforce planning.

What is workforce planning?

Workforce Planning refers to the systematic determination of a company’s future staffing needs. This involves analyzing how many employees with what qualifications will be needed at what time.

The goal is to align actual staffing needs with the current and future workforce. This allows staffing shortages to be identified early on and appropriate measures to be taken.

Professional workforce planning answers four questions in particular:

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As such, workforce demand planning serves as an important foundation for strategic workforce planning and links corporate goals to specific human resources measures.

Why is workforce planning important?

Today, companies are increasingly having to deal with fluctuating order volumes, a shortage of skilled workers, project-based business, and rapidly changing skill requirements.

A purely short-term response to job openings is therefore often insufficient. If the search for personnel begins only after a specific staffing shortage has already occurred, the time required to fill positions may increase, and operational goals may be jeopardized.

Structured workforce planning, on the other hand, enables proactive management.

The most important benefits include:

Avoiding Staffing Shortages

better utilization of existing resources

Early Planning for New Hires

Targeted use of continuing education programs

better control of personnel costs

Faster response to order spikes

Strategic planning for required qualifications

However, the focus should not be solely on the number of employees. What matters far more is the actual available workforce capacity and the question of what skills will be required to deliver services in the future. Full-time equivalents (FTEs) can therefore also provide a better basis for planning than a simple headcount.

Quantitative and Qualitative Workforce Planning

In workforce planning, a fundamental distinction is made between quantitative and qualitative workforce planning .

Quantitative Workforce Planning

Quantitative workforce planning answers the question: How many employees are needed?

In this process, the expected labor demand is compared with the current and future workforce.

For example, a company may need 150 full-time equivalents in the future due to a rise in order volume. If, after accounting for planned hires and departures, only 135 full-time equivalents are available, there will be an additional staffing need.

Qualitative Workforce Planning

Qualitative workforce planning, on the other hand, addresses the question: What qualifications and competencies are required?

A growing workforce alone does not solve a skills shortage. For example, if a company needs additional specialists in cloud infrastructure, hiring more employees without the appropriate qualifications will not meet the actual need.

Qualitative planning therefore takes into account, among other things:

Expertise

Work Experience

technical skills

Leadership Skills

Certifications

Future skill requirements

Both dimensions should be considered together. A company may employ a sufficient number of staff in quantitative terms and yet face a significant shortage of skilled workers in qualitative terms.

Gross and Net Staffing Needs: A Simple Explanation

A key component of workforce planning is distinguishing between gross staffing needs and net staffing requirements.

What is the gross staffing requirement?

Gross staffing requirements describe the total number of employees needed to cover the planned scope of services.

In addition to actual usage requirements, reserve requirements for foreseeable or expected outages, for example, can also be taken into account.

What is the net staffing requirement?

Net staffing needs are determined by comparing future staffing needs with the projected available workforce.

In simple terms, the calculation can be expressed as:

Net staffing requirements = Gross staffing requirements – Future headcount

A more detailed analysis takes planned additions and disposals into account.

Example:

The company will need a total of 220 full-time equivalents next year. After taking into account current employees, planned new hires, and expected departures, 195 full-time equivalents are expected to be available.

This results in an additional staffing requirement of:

220 – 195 = 25 full-time equivalents

This need must then be met through appropriate measures.

Workforce Planning with External Workers

An increasingly important aspect of modern workforce planning is taking external workers into account.

Traditional workforce planning often focuses on permanent employees. In many companies, however, actual staffing needs arise from a mix of different employment arrangements.

These include, for example:

Therefore, if you look only at internal headcount, you may not get a complete picture of the actual available work capacity.

External resources can be an important supplement, especially when dealing with project-based or highly fluctuating workloads.

When is it worth hiring outside workers?

External workers can be particularly useful when staffing needs are temporary or difficult to predict.

Typical situations include:

Project Highlights: Additional specialists are needed for a temporary project.

Seasonal Fluctuations: Staffing needs increase significantly during a specific period.

Lack of specialized qualifications: Certain expertise is not available internally and would first need to be developed.

Short-term labor shortages: Vacancies cannot be filled quickly enough due to the shortage of skilled workers.

Transformation and Digitalization: From time to time, external specialists are needed for new technologies or transformation projects.

This means that the external workforce does not serve as a substitute for strategic workforce planning, but rather as an additional tool within a holistic human resources strategy.

EMS supports companies in organizing the entire deployment of external staff – from service contracts to project assignments to temporary employment – in a structured and legally compliant manner.

The Challenge: Properly Planning and Managing External Workers

Bringing in external workers can provide the necessary flexibility. At the same time, this creates additional demands on workforce management.

For example, companies need to know:

Which external personnel are currently on duty?
For how long are they needed?
To which project or department are they assigned?
Through which service provider are they deployed?
What qualifications do they have?
What contracts and compliance documents are available?
When do assignments and access permissions expire?

Without a central database, decentralized Excel spreadsheets, email coordination, and manual approval processes can quickly arise.

This not only makes it more difficult to plan staffing needs, but can also lead to unnecessary costs and compliance risks.

To manage large numbers of external staff in a legally compliant, transparent, and efficient manner, we recommend partnering with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) and implementing a structured supplier management system.

Workforce Planning and Contingent Workforce Management

This is where traditional workforce planning meets modern contingent workforce management.

While workforce planning identifies future needs, contingent workforce management ensures the structured management of the external workers who are actually deployed.

This makes it possible, for example, to determine what external capacities are already available and where additional needs arise.

For example, a company may need ten additional IT specialists on short notice. Instead of planning exclusively for new permanent positions, the company can first determine whether suitable external resources are already available within the company or can be made available through existing service providers.

This provides a more comprehensive view of actual workforce needs.

Digitizing Workforce Planning

The larger and more complex the workforce becomes, the more difficult it is to plan staffing needs manually.

Companies with a large number of external employees, in particular, generate vast amounts of data: contracts, work hours, qualifications, suppliers, projects, cost centers, and compliance documentation must all be linked together.

A digital workforce management solution creates a central database for this purpose.

With systems such as MAVES Companies can map internal and external workforce processes in a structured way and manage relevant information centrally. This allows for greater transparency regarding needs, assignments, and available resources.

Integrating existing systems can also play an important role in this process. Through integrations—for example, into SAP-based environments—relevant information can be consolidated across system boundaries.

Digitizing Workforce Planning

A robust workforce planning process should be reviewed regularly and adapted to changing conditions.

The following principles have proven effective in this regard:

1. Integrating Business Planning and Workforce Planning

Staffing needs should be derived from the company's strategic and operational goals.

2. Consider both quantity and quality together

The sheer number of employees is not enough. The required skills are also crucial.

3. Take internal and external capacities into account

Permanent employees, freelancers, temporary workers, and external service providers should not be planned for in complete isolation from one another.

4. Working with Scenarios

In addition to a baseline plan, scenarios such as growth, stagnation, and crisis can be considered.

5. Update data regularly

Workforce planning is not a one-time annual process. Changes in order volume, employee turnover, projects, or skill requirements should be taken into account on an ongoing basis.

6. Centralize workforce data

A centralized database improves transparency and lays the foundation for data-driven management of personnel and external resources.

Conclusion: Plan staffing needs strategically rather than reactively

Professional workforce planning lays the foundation for companies to have the necessary capacity and skills at the right time.

Planning should not be limited exclusively to permanent employees. Especially in cases of fluctuating staffing needs, project-based work, and a shortage of skilled workers, external workers can be an important supplement.

The key step is to consider internal and external resources together and, based on reliable data, determine how to most efficiently meet a specific staffing need.

The more complex the workforce becomes, the more important digital processes, centralized data, and transparent management become. Workforce management solutions such as MAVES can help manage internal and external resources in a structured manner and integrate workforce planning with operational workforce management.

FAQ on Workforce Planning

What is workforce planning, explained simply?

Workforce planning refers to the systematic process of determining how many employees with what qualifications a company needs at a given point in time. It forms the basis for recruitment, employee development, and workforce scheduling.

How are staffing requirements calculated?

A simplified calculation is performed by comparing gross staffing requirements with the workforce that will be available in the future. Planned hires and departures, as well as reserve and additional staffing needs, if applicable, should be taken into account.

What is the difference between gross and net staffing requirements?

Gross staffing requirements describe a company’s total staffing needs. Net staffing requirements are determined by comparing these needs with the expected available workforce and indicate whether additional capacity is needed.

What role do external employees play in workforce planning?

External staff can flexibly meet a portion of staffing needs. This includes, for example, freelancers, temporary workers, and external specialists. They should be included in planning, particularly for project-based, seasonal, or short-term staffing needs.

Why should external staff be included in workforce planning?

Considering only permanent employees represents the actual available workforce of a company alone. If external resources are also taken into account, capacities can be planned more effectively, existing resources can be utilized more efficiently, and additional staffing needs can be met in a more targeted manner.

How can workforce planning be digitized?

Digital Workforce-Management systems can centrally consolidate relevant data on employees, external resources, assignments, qualifications, contracts, and costs. This makes staffing needs more transparent and planning processes more efficient.