Headcount planning in management is the planning phase of team construction. It is a separate and distinct activity from hiring, with planning unlocking hiring. In some companies it is coupled to annual planning, however it probably shouldn’t be1. Headcount planning in tandem with annual planning creates weird dependencies between project planning and budget that are better left uncoupled. Headcount planning is likely to be “fuzzy” because the timing of attrition and recruiting is (usually) unpredictable. One useful model with head count planning is a “not to exceed” number1.
References
1.
Elliot-McCrea, K. How to plan? Kellan elliott-mccrea at https://kellanem.com/notes/how-to-plan (2022).