How to calculate the headcount of a company?
Verified 01 July 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
The calculation of the number of employees in a company is essential in order to know the employer's obligations and social contributions. Only persons who are linked to the company by an employment contract during the past year are included. Certain categories of employees are excluded from the statement. The staff of all establishments shall be added together.
Please note
L'Urssaf calculates the company's headcount based on the employer's data on its registered social declaration (DSN). These data can be consulted on the Urssaf account (online space) on both companies.
The number of employees in a company determines the following main elements:
- Amount of contributions and periodicity of payment (e.g. calculation of the general reduction in contributions)
- Reporting obligations (hiring, DOETH: titleContent)
- Social obligations to employees (for example, setting up of an Economic and Social Committee (ESC), arrangements for the DUERP, lunchroom, election of staff representatives, etc.)
- Determination of certain contributions (e.g. mobility payment, social package, contribution to the Fund , contribution to vocational training (MFF), etc.)
- Determination of certain exemptions (e.g. exemption from contributions in RRZs or FRR zones, flat-rate deduction for overtime payments, etc.)
Full-time equivalent (FTE) and legal working time
Full Time Equivalent (FTE)
One FTE is a unit of measure proportional the number ofhours worked over a year by a full-time 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 monthly strength.
Example :
1 part-time employee over 12 months = 0.5 FTE for the year
2 part-time employees over 12 months = 1 FTE (0.5 FTE x 2) for the year
1 full-time employee over 6 months = 0.5 FTE for the year
Monthly legal working time
The 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 total number of employees is used to determine the contributions payable by the company and the periodicity of those contributions.
The annual number of employees is determined at 1er January. In order to calculate the total number of employees, it is necessary to take into account the number of employees present in the company during the calendar months of the previous year. The calculation is made on the staff of all the establishments of the company combined.
These are employees with an employment contract with the company, even if they are temporarily absent (maternity, sickness, leave, training, etc.).
Each employee counts for one unit, whatever the duration and conditions of work.
Average monthly staff (MMS) and average annual staff (MAS)
The annual average strength (AES) and the monthly average strength (MMS) are used to determine the type of contribution than the company must or must not pay and social obligations to which it is subject.
They are calculated in FTE count (full-time equivalent).
This is aboutan average related to the year and month.
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 the number of employees is theobligation to hire disabled workers (OETH) (average annual staff).
In order to calculate the number of employees in a company (average, annual or global), the following categories of employees must be taken into account:
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: |
Workers at domicile | Employees who worked the whole month (151.67 hours) are counted as one unit each |
Employees in CSD: titleContent |
|
| |
Employees made available by an outside company and present for at least 1 year, employees of an employment contract temporary (interim) |
Please note : employees coming fromETT: titleContent are counted only in the company of origin (ETT) and not in the user host company, just like employees on salary portage or from a group of employers |
Employees at part-time in CSD: titleContent or DTA: titleContent they are present or absent for sickness or leave | 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) Part-time employees who replace an absent employee are not taken into account in the calculation of the average number of employees |
Please note
For more information, please consult the Urssaf page and the Official Bulletin of Social Security devoted to the calculation of the number of staff.
Some individuals are not counted as part of the workforce (global, annual or monthly).
The following categories are not taken into account :
- Temporary contract worker and temporary worker when they are hired to replace an absent employee
- Civic service volunteers
- Alternating employee: apprenticeship or professionalization contract. However, for the purposes of charging for accidents at work and occupational diseases, they are recorded.
- Employee 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.
- French expatriate employee, as their affiliation to the French social security scheme is not maintained
Persons who do not hold a contract of employment are also not included in the establishment plan. These include trainees, social agents, independent home sellers.
Please note
For more information, please consult the Urssaf page and the Official Bulletin of Social Security devoted to the calculation of the number of staff.
There are special cases, such as:
- Employees Multi-board VRP are excluded from the overall strength, but included in the average strength.
- Employees hired under the company Service Employment Title (Tese) and Associative Employment Check (CEA) are excluded from the overall strength, but are included in the average strength.
- Temporary agency workers, employees provided by an external company, employees carried counted as staff of the home company, and excluded from the host company.
To calculate theaverage annual staff (EMA), the first step is to calculate theaverage monthly staff (EMM) for each month of the past year.
Please note
Average monthly and annual staff are made available to registrants on the Urssaf online account.
Example of monthly average strength
Let's take the next number of FTEs for a company to 1 month given:
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
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 FTE: titleContent divided by 12 months, or 9.90 FTE.
The figure shall be rounded to one hundredth lower, 2 decimal places.
Warning
Only the number of months the company has actually hired and taken in employees is counted. So for a company created during the year, monthly staff numbers must be added up from the date of the company's establishment to 31 December and divided by actual number of months. This is also the case if the company has not hired no employees during certain months of the year.
Example of staff for a seasonal activity company
Consider a company that has had seasonal activity on 6 months in the past year, on the 1er May to October 31.
It included 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).
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 |
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Employees and types of contracts included or not included in a company's headcount
Employees on an initiative-emploi (CUI-CIE) contract not included in the workforce of a company
Determination and declaration of staff
Details of the statement by categories of employees
FAQ
Urssaf Caisse nationale (formerly Acoss)