MBAX 6441 Week 3 Headcount Forecast Paper Example

How Many Technicians, of Which Kind, by When: A Headcount Forecast for Meridian's Field Service Family That Runs From Contracted Equipment Counts to a Quarterly Hiring Plan

Student Name

Walden University

MBAX 6441: Human Resources Management and Strategic Planning

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

How Many Technicians, of Which Kind, by When: A Headcount Forecast for Meridian's Field Service Family That Runs From Contracted Equipment Counts to a Quarterly Hiring Plan

The Business Number on Top

This forecast estimates how many field service employees Meridian Clinical Technologies, the composite equipment service company used in this course, will need next year and when it must hire them. It starts from the business number the company has committed to: new service contracts signed this year that take effect next year. Eight hospitals begin service in March and ten in September, adding about 25,000 general patient-care devices to the roughly 190,000 already under contract, and 80 imaging systems to the current 610. All figures are illustrative. Cascio and Boudreau (2011) recommend that workforce forecasts begin from business drivers rather than from last year's headcount, so that the forecast can be checked against the plan it serves.

Ratios Shown as Arithmetic

The forecast converts equipment into people using two ratios, each drawn from Meridian's own service records for the past two years.

The ratios are shown with their numerators and denominators so that a reader who doubts one can substitute another. If the technician ratio were 1,100 devices rather than 1,200, for example, next year's requirement would rise to about 195 technicians. The imaging ratio is the more sensitive: one engineer more or less per 28 systems is a large change in a group of 25.

Table 1

Staffing Ratios and Required Headcount, Illustrative

Composite organization. Ratios from two years of service-hour records; required counts rounded.

Attrition Subtracted, Not Ignored

Growth is only part of the hiring need. Meridian's separation rate over the past two years was about 14 percent a year for biomedical technicians and about 18 percent for imaging engineers, whose skills manufacturers and hospitals compete for. Applied to the current headcount, those rates mean roughly 22 technicians and 4 imaging engineers will leave next year and need to be replaced. Replacement hiring for technicians therefore exceeds growth hiring, a pattern common in technical service work.

Table 2

Hiring Need Next Year, Illustrative

Composite organization. Attrition applied to current headcount at two-year average separation rates.

Lead Time Built Into Timing

A hire is not productive on the day the offer is accepted. For biomedical technicians, Meridian's average time to fill is about 60 days, followed by four weeks of orientation and supervised work, so a technician needed in March must be recruited from November. For imaging engineers, time to fill averages about 120 days, followed by ten weeks of manufacturer training, so an engineer needed in September must be recruited by the previous February. The plan therefore front-loads recruiting well ahead of contract start dates.

Table 3

Quarterly Recruiting Starts, Illustrative

Recruiting starts timed so new hires are productive when contracts begin and as attrition occurs.

Where the New Hires Will Work

The new contracts are not spread evenly. Twelve of the eighteen hospitals are in the Charlotte and Raleigh regions, so about two thirds of the growth hiring, roughly 14 technicians and 2 imaging engineers, belongs there, while replacement hiring follows wherever people leave. Charlotte already has the longest time to fill for imaging engineers, about five months, because two manufacturers have regional offices nearby and recruit from the same pool. The plan therefore assigns the first imaging requisitions to Charlotte and asks the regional manager to begin referral outreach this quarter.

What the Plan Costs to Execute

At an average recruiting cost of about $4,500 per technician and $18,000 per imaging engineer, including advertising, agency fees for imaging roles and interview time, the hiring plan costs roughly $320,000 before salaries. Manufacturer training for seven imaging engineers adds about $210,000. These figures belong in next year's budget alongside the salaries themselves, since a hiring plan without recruiting money is a wish list.

What Could Move the Forecast

Three assumptions carry the most risk. First, the contract dates could slip, which would leave new hires underused for a few months. Second, the separation rate for imaging engineers could rise if manufacturers increase their own hiring, which would raise replacement needs. Third, the device ratio could improve if remote monitoring, now being piloted, reduces on-site visits. Each assumption should be revisited quarterly. Bechet (2008) describes this kind of rolling revision as the difference between a staffing plan and a staffing guess.

Conclusion

Meridian will need about 50 field service hires next year, 43 technicians and 7 imaging engineers, with recruiting starting in the current quarter. The imaging hires are the critical path, because their lead time is longest and the strategy depends most on them. In the terms of Lepak and Snell (1999), they are the core group whose skills are both valuable and hard to find, which justifies recruiting them earliest.

References

Bechet, T. P. (2008). Strategic staffing: A comprehensive system for effective workforce planning (2nd ed.). AMACOM.

Cascio, W. F., & Boudreau, J. W. (2011). Investing in people: Financial impact of human resource initiatives (2nd ed.). FT Press.

Lepak, D. P., & Snell, S. A. (1999). The human resource architecture: Toward a theory of human capital allocation and development. Academy of Management Review, 24(1), 31-48. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.1580439