How to calculate the headcount of a company?

Verified 02 June 2022 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

The calculation of the number of staff of a company shall be indispensable to know the obligations of the employer and his social contributions. Only persons who are connected to the company by a employment contract in the past year are taken into account. Some categories of employees are excluded of the count. The staff of all establishments are added together.

L'Urssaf makes the calculation based on the data provided by the employer on registered social declaration (DSN).

Full-time equivalent (FTE) and legal working time

Full-time equivalent

One FTE is a unit of measure proportional the number ofhours worked by an employee.

These are employees with an employment contract with the company, even if they are temporarily absent (maternity, sickness, leave, training, etc.).

The FTE is used to calculate the average headcount (monthly and annual).

Example :

1 part-time employee over 12 months = 0.5 FTE.

2 part-time employees over 12 months = 1 FTE (0.5 FTE x 2)

1 full-time employee over 6 months = 0.5 FTE

Monthly legal working time

Full-time equivalent (FTE) is calculated from the legal monthly working time, equal to 151.67 hours per month.

The legal monthly working time (equal to 151.67 hours) is an average for the year.

It therefore differs from the duration of 35 hours per week multiplied by 4 weeks.

She's calculated as follows : 35 weekly hours x 52 weeks = 1,820 hours for the year, which makes 1,820 hours/12 months = 151.67 hours per month.

Overall strength

The overall strength is used to determine the periodicity of contributions.

In order to calculate the total number of employees, it is necessary to take into account the number of employees present in the company as at 31 December of last year.

These are employees with an employment contract with the company, even if they are temporarily absent (maternity, sickness, leave, training, etc.).

Every employee counts for one unit, whatever the duration and conditions of work.

Average monthly staff (MMS) and average annual staff (MAS)

The average annual strength and the average monthly strength are used to determine the type of contribution than the company must or must not pay and social obligations to which it is subject.

This is aboutan average related to the year and month.

They are calculated in FTE count (full-time equivalent).

To calculate the average annual headcount (AOM), you first need to calculate the average monthly headcount (AOM) for each month of the past year.

These numbers shall be calculated by theUrssaf based on the data completed by the employer in the registered social declaration (DSN).

Please note

Among the obligations calculated on the basis of headcount, you have theobligation to hire disabled workers (OETH).

To calculate the headcount of a company (average, annual or global), you must consider the following categories of employees:

Tableau - Categories of employees accounted for and accounting procedures

Categories

Method of accounting

Employees in DTA: titleContent full-time, whether they are present or absent for sickness or leave

The following employees are counted as one unit each:

  • Employees who worked the whole month (151.67 hours)
  • Employees in fixed-rate packages days, regardless of the duration of their package
  • Employees whose employment contract is suspended (e.g. maternity, adoption or parental education leave)

    • Homeworkers

    Employees who worked the whole month (151.67 hours) are counted as one unit each

    Employees in CSD: titleContent

    • Employees who worked the whole month (151.67 hours) are counted as one unit each
    • Employees who have worked part-time shall be counted in proportion to their working time
    • Employees who replace an absent employee are not taken into account in the calculation of the average number of employees

    Employees on intermittent CDI

    • Employees who worked the whole month (151.67 hours) are counted as one unit each
    • Employees who have worked part-time shall be counted in proportion to their working time

    Employees provided by an external company and present for at least 1 year, employees under a temporary employment contract (temporary workers)

    • Employees who worked the whole month (151.67h) are counted as one unit each
    • Employees who have worked part-time shall be counted in proportion to their working time
    • Employees who replace an absent employee are not taken into account in the calculation of the average number of employees

      • Please note: temporary workers are counted both in the temporary company of work and in the user company

    Part-time employees, regardless of the nature of their employment contract

    Each employee is taken into account in proportion to his working time (total sum of the hours entered in the employment contract / legal or contractual working time)

    Some individuals are not counted as part of the workforce (global, annual or monthly).

    The following categories are not taken into account :

    • Employee in CSD and workers temporary who replace an absent employee
    • No one in alternation : apprenticeship or professionalization contract. However, for the purposes of charging for accidents at work and occupational diseases, they are recorded.
    • No one in initiative-employment contract (CUI-CIE) or employment support contract (CAE). However, they are used to assess the threshold for setting up representative bodies of staff.
    • Trainee (student or in vocational training)
    • Leader : minority or egalitarian manager of SARL, chairman of the board of directors, managing director and managing director of SA, president and managing director of SAS (even if it is an employee)

    To calculate the average annual headcount (AOM), you first need to calculate the average monthly headcount (AOM) for each month of the past year.

    Please note

    Currently, the average monthly and annual staff are made available to registrants on the Urssaf online account.

    Online Ursaf Account

    Example of monthly average strength

    Here is the example for a given month:

    Tableau - Example of monthly average strength (FTE)

    Number of employees to be included in the calculation = number of FTEs

    10 DTA: titleContent full-time

    10 FTE

    2 DTA: titleContent part-time employees each working 65 hours: 65 h x 2 /151.67 h = 0.86

    0.86 FTE

    1 CSD: titleContent full-time for increased activity in the last 12 months

    1 FTE

    1 CSD from 6 months to 100 hours per month

    6 months/12 months x (100 hours / 151.67 hours) = 0.32 FTE

    0.32 FTE

    1 apprentice

    0 FTE

    Month's headcount

    12.18 FTE

    This calculation must be made to every month of the year.

    Then you add the total number of FTEs over the year and the divide by 12 month.

    Example of average annual strength
    Tableau - Example of average annual strength (FTE)

    January

    February

    March

    April

    May

    June

    July

    August

    Seven.

    Oct.

    Nov

    Dec.

    Total

    14.86

    11

    9

    10

    8

    8

    7

    7

    10

    11

    13

    10

    118.86

    In this example, theaverage annual staff is equal to 118,86 FTEs divided by 12 months, or 9.90 FTE.

    The figure shall be rounded to one hundredth lower, 2 decimal places.

    Please note

    you only need to consider the actual number of months the company had employees. So for a company created during the year, the monthly staff from the creation of a company until 31 December must be added up and divided by the actual number of months. It is also the case if the company has not counted no employees during certain months of the year.

    Example of staff for a seasonal activity company

    A company had a seasonal activity on 6 months, of 1er May to October 31, 2021.

    It includes 11 FTEs in May and October, 15 FTEs in June and 23 in July, August and September.

    L'average annual staff is equal to: (11 + 15 + 23 + 23 + 23 + 11) / 6 = 106/6, or 17.66 FTE.

    The number is rounded to the nearest hundredth (2 decimal places).

    Tableau - Number of FTEs per month for a seasonal activity company

    January

    February

    March

    April

    May

    June

    July

    August

    Seven.

    Oct.

    Nov

    Dec.

    Total

    0

    0

    0

    0

    11

    15

    23

    23

    23

    11

    0

    0

    106

    There are special cases:

    • The Multi-Board VRP are excluded from the overall strength, but are included in the average strength.
    • Employees hired under the company Service Employment Title (Tese) and the Associative Employment Check (CEA) are excluded from the overall strength, but are included in the average strength.
    • Persons with disabilities employed by a centre for assistance through work (CAT) are members of the staff of the managing association of the CAT.
    • Workers temporary workers are counted both in the number of employees in the temporary company of work and in that of the user company.
      On the other hand, they are not counted in the temporary company of work in the following 2 cases:
      • They replace an absent employee

      • They were bound by a temporary employment contract for a total of 3 months (at least 455 hours) during the last calendar year
    • Employees detached or made available on another company (labour loan) are counted in the company which concluded the contract of employment.

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