A practical guide to FTE calculations

15 November 2012

Purpose

This short paper aims to explain how different full-time equivalent numbers (FTEs) are calculated,
the purpose, the intended audience and the ‘pros and cons’ of the various reporting methods. It is
written with the intent to make the FTE reporting process as straight forward as possible by
removing jargon and detailed arguments.

What is an FTE?
A full-time equivalent - a number, typically between zero and one and reported to one decimal
place that represents how much full-time work an employee performs. For example, an employee
who works 20 hours per week is said to be 0.5 FTE if we assume that 40 hours per week is a
typical full-time employee. It is important to distinguish between headcount and FTEs; headcount
counts actual numbers of people whereas FTEs are a measure of ‘workforce input’ or ‘work done’,
regardless of the number of employees.

Although simple, there are variations that need to be considered.

a) Is 40 hours per week 1.0 FTE?
b) Short term leave (e.g. sick leave, annual leave)
c) Long term leave (e.g. parental leave, sabbaticals)
d) The number of contracted hours
e) The hours physically worked
f) The counting of leave as it accrues since it needs to be financed

These variations can lead to different FTE measures that are all valid but difficult to compare.

Overall the variations can be broken into three simple questions.

1. How many hours is 1.0 FTE? In New Zealand most Multiple Employer Collective Agreements
(MECAs) use 40 hours per week to represent 1.0 FTE. This differs in other countries and
only causes a problem if comparisons are trying to be made.

Setting 1.0 FTE to 40 hours per week also means that annually 1.0 FTE represents 2086
hours (as there are 52 ⅟7 weeks in a year).

2. Shouldn’t FTE just represent the actual amount of work done? When looking at productivity
(the amount of output divided by the amount of input) then it is important to only include
the ‘input’ i.e. the actual amount of work done and not include non-productive time such as
annual leave hours or sick leave hours or months on parental leave.

3. What if you are looking at the number of hours you need to pay in order to staff an
organization? Then you need your FTE figure to represent the costs involved to run a service
(leave payments included or leave hours accrued) rather than just the amount of work
involved (worked hours).

There are subtle differences within each of these three broad variations that we’ll explore later.

A practical Guide to FTE reporting November 2012

 So what are the different FTEs I might see reported?

1. Contracted FTE
2. Employed FTE
3. Paid FTE
4. Worked FTE
5. Accrued FTE
6. Establishment FTE

We’ll look at each one to see how they are (or may) be reported and how the data is collected.

Contracted FTE
Contracted FTE uses the number of hours that an employee is contracted to work. It is a simple
and convenient calculation that is not subject to significant variation over time (i.e. it does not
vary with sick leave, annual leave, accrued leave, etc). It is often considered a proxy for
‘permanent’ employees although it is likely to include fixed term employees who are paid through
payroll systems rather than invoicing their services.

Contracted FTE covers all staff regardless of occupation.

Currently, District Health Board’s Shared Services’ (DHBSS) quarterly DHB employed workforce
reports are based on Contracted FTE.

Employed FTE
This is almost the same calculation as Contracted FTE above (i.e. permanent and fixed term staff,
regardless of any leave taken or accrued), however this method is only used by DHBs to report on
medical and nursing staff to the Ministry of Health twice a year. More specifically, staff included in
this reporting method are those whose Level 3 Common Chart of Accounts code (CCoA) starts
with either a ‘20’ or a ‘22’.

Note: this method has an FTE ‘cap’ of 1.0 FTE for each person. For example, a senior medical
officer (SMO) may be under contract to work 48 hours per week (i.e. 1.2 FTE), however with the
cap of 1.0 FTE they will only be reported as 1.0 FTE. The Employed FTE figure is a conservative
representation of FTE.

This data is submitted by the DHBs to the Ministry of Health twice a year based on data collected
at 30th September and 31st March each year. The change in dates (previously April and
November) aligns the data submissions with those made to DHBSS for their quarterly workforce
report.

Paid FTE
Paid FTE takes the previous period’s number of hours paid and converts it to an FTE figure. The
previous period may be the previous week but is reported by DHBSS and the Ministry of Health
over longer periods (quarterly and yearly) since this ‘irons out’ short term variations.

Paid FTE can be reported for all staff.

Paid FTE includes all paid leave such as annual leave, sick leave, bereavement leave, etc. It does
not include leave without pay (LWOP) such as long term leave and sabbaticals.

Paid FTE is an easily accessible metric from HR systems. The biggest difference between Paid FTE
and Contracted / Employed FTE is its application in determining the amount of work needed to
run an organization / service. For example, a junior medical officer may be contracted to work 40
A practical Guide to FTE reporting November 2012
 hours per week (1.0 FTE), but because of rostering, staffing shortages and service delivery
changes they may well have worked an average of 60 hours per week (1.5 FTE). The paid FTE
figure will reflect this extra work whereas the Contracted FTE figure would not.

DHBSS hopes to report on Paid FTE in preference to Contracted FTE in the near future as a fairer
representation of occupational staffing levels both locally and nationally.

Worked FTE
Worked FTE is subtly different to Paid FTE in that it measures the actual number of hours ‘worked’
rather than the number of hours paid. Paid FTE will include leave payments whereas Worked FTE
will only include those hours actually worked. Worked FTE is probably better at measuring
productivity since it reflects the actual amount of work done to produce an outcome, (e.g. the
total number of hours actually worked in a mental health ward in order to accommodate ‘x’
number of inpatient days).

Worked FTE covers all staff regardless of occupation.

The biggest difficulty with using Worked FTE is the ability to get accurate data; since this requires
regular timesheets for all staff which is impractical for many, (e.g. allowances paid to medical staff
for extra hours worked are excluded in this calculation when those allowances are not linked to
the actual hours worked).

Accrued FTE
The word ‘accrued’ is used as this measure includes the accrual of paid leave when entitlement
has been earned, i.e. annual leave, time off in lieu and statutory holidays. It cannot include
accrual of leave such as bereavement leave or sick leave as these are ‘situational’ leaves that
don’t accrue; they are taken as and when necessary.

Accrued FTE is actually very similar to Paid FTE except that it excludes paid leave that has already
been accrued (i.e. annual leave, time in lieu), but includes the proportional accrual of these leave
types. See the table at the end of this document.

Accrued FTE is primarily a financial reporting value and can be applied to all staff regardless of
occupation. It has been the main FTE reported value for DHBs since July 2006, reporting to the
Ministry of Health on a monthly basis and included in the Annual Plans.

There have been concerns raised that including some paid leave but excluding other paid leave
can give a distorted view of the workforce when looking at short term measurements (monthly).
However, when the reporting period is much greater (say a year) then these differences would be
‘ironed out’ i.e. over a year the number of annual leave hours taken would likely equal the
number of annual leave hours accrued. The Ministry of Health reports accrued figures as year-to-
date to ensure short term fluctuations are eliminated.

Establishment FTE
Establishment FTE is very much different from those listed above.
 It is only used to report on Management/Admin staff (first two CCoA characters = ‘28’)
 It uses the Employed FTE as a basis for its measurements
 All FTE values are capped at 1.0
 Overtime is excluded
 Vacancies are included (the only FTE measure to include unfilled positions)
 Contractors and subsidiaries are included

A practical Guide to FTE reporting November 2012

 The Establishment FTE was set up to monitor the level of staffing in Management / Administration
against the Minister’s caps set on 31st December 2008 and came into operation in January 2010.
On 9th March 2012 the Minister wrote to DHBs to reduce their Establishment FTE cap by 3%; this
new cap came into effect from 1 July 2012. Because Establishment FTE is limited to one
occupational grouping and includes vacancies it cannot be used with or compared to any other
FTE measurement.

The Establishment FTE is reported by DHBs to the Ministry of Health on a monthly basis.

Comparing the different FTEs

Often it is much easier to understand the different ways of reporting when they are compared in
a table format. The following table looks at how the different FTE calculations could be created
using a fictitious staff member. It is based on a table created by the Ministry of Health in its
December 2005 document “Measuring staff resources – counting FTEs”.

Assume an employee regularly works a contracted 47.5 hours per week. During this week they
take sick leave, annual leave, bereavement leave and leave without pay, but also find time to get
some overtime in. Certainly a week to remember!

Using the definitions detailed in this document, this is how the different FTE calculations could be
employed.

Different FTE calculations over a 47.5 hour week

Actual Contracted Employed Accrued Worked
Paid FTE
hours FTE FTE FTE FTE
Paid ordinary hours 9.5 9.5 9.5 8 9.5 9.5
Sick leave hours 9.5 9.5 9.5 8 9.5 0
Paid bereavement leave
9.5 9.5 9.5 8 9.5 0
hours
Annual leave hours taken 9.5 9.5 9.5 8 0 0
Leave without pay 9.5 9.5 0 8 0 0
Paid overtime hours 4 0 4 0 4 4
Accrued annual leave
3.5 0 0 0 3.5 0
hours
Total hours 47.5 42 40 36 13.5
FTE (Total/ 40) 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.3

Using the same table again but this time for a more typical 40 hour per week employee.

Different FTE calculations over a 40.0 hour week

Actual Contracted Employed Accrued Worked
Paid FTE
hours FTE FTE FTE FTE
Paid ordinary hours 8 8 8 8 8 8
Sick leave hours 8 8 8 8 8 0
Paid bereavement leave
8 8 8 8 8 0
hours
Annual leave hours taken 8 8 8 8 0 0
Leave without pay 8 8 0 8 0 0
Paid overtime hours 4 0 4 0 4 4
Accrued annual leave
3.5 0 0 0 3.5 0
hours
Total hours 40.0 36 40 31.5 12
FTE (Total/ 40) 1.0 0.9 1.0 0.8 0.3

A practical Guide to FTE reporting November 2012

 These tables are put together to show how the differences can be viewed between the different FTE
types (except Establishment FTE). The week shown above is a wholly fictitious and uncommon scenario
designed to highlight the differences. When looking at ‘typical’ weeks for a 40 hour per week
employee over a longer period (say a year) then a more uniform set of values would be expected – as
suggested in the following table:

Different FTE calculations over a typical year for a 40.0 hrs per week employee

Actual Contracted Employed Accrued Worked

Paid FTE
hours FTE FTE FTE FTE
Paid ordinary hours 1,822 1,822 1,822 1,822 1,822† 1,734*
Sick leave hours (8 days) 64 64 64 64 64 0
Paid bereavement leave
8 8 8 8 8 0
hours (1 day)
Annual leave hours taken
176 176 176 176 0 0
(22 days)
Leave without pay (2 day) 16 16 0 16 0 0
Paid overtime hours (13
104 0 104 0 104 104
days)
Accrued annual leave
176 0 0 0 176 0
hours
Total hours 2,086 2,174 2,086 2,174 1,838
FTE (Total/ 2086)** 1.00 1.04 1.00 1.04 0.88

† Statutory holidays have been accrued within this figure

* 11 days statutory holiday removed (some years are less depending on when ANZAC and Waitangi day fall)
** Reported to two decimal places for clarity

Reporting similarities:

Contracted FTE
Paid FTE Accrued FTE

Employed FTE

Worked FTE
Establishment FTE

A practical Guide to FTE reporting November 2012

 The following table aims to show the differences between the FTE definitions through a variety of factors.

Establishment
Contracted FTE Paid FTE Employed FTE Accrued FTE Worked FTE
FTE
Medical      
Nursing      
MoH
Occupational
Allied health      
Management &
groups
Admin
     
Support      
Medical      
Nursing      
DHBSS
Allied & scientific      
Occupational
groups
Midwifery      
Care & Support      
Corporate & Other      
Paid ordinary hours      
Sick leave hours      
Paid bereavement
leave hours
     
Annual leave hours
taken
     
Variables
Long service leave      
Leave without pay      
Paid overtime hours      
Accrued annual leave
hours
     
Vacancies      
Monthly    - MoH  - MoH
Data received Quarterly - DHBSS  - DHBSS    
from DHBs Bi-annually (March &
September)
  - MoH   
Can or Are MoH    - Bi-annually  - Monthly   - Monthly
reported by DHBSS  - Quarterly  - Quarterly  - Quarterly   
 Applies to all  Applies to all
staff staff including  Applies to all
 Unaffected by casuals  Applies to all staff including
 Similar to  Includes
leave patterns  A good measure staff casuals
‘Contracted FTE’, contractors and
 Can be used to of short term  A good measure  An excellent
Pros recreate employment
except: (see
of long term measure of
vacancy data
below)  Payroll and non-
‘Employed FTE’ costs employment workforce
payroll staff
 Can be applied  Equates to costs ‘input’
to any day of the ‘Accrued FTE’ in
General year the long term
discussion
 All FTEs are
 Unable to  Only applies to
capped to 1.0  Subject to
measure one occupational
 Only reported variations  Poor measure to
workforce group
Cons ‘input’
for Medical and between use for financial
 FTEs capped to
Nursing monthly modelling
 Cannot include 1.0
 Reported reporting cycles
casual labour
biannually

A practical Guide to FTE reporting November 2012