Formula
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Total scheduled hours | Contracted or rostered hours of all employees in the period, excluding overtime unless you are measuring hours actually worked. |
| Standard full-time hours | The company's normal hours for one full-time employee in the period, for example 8 hours x 6 days = 48 hours a week. |
Worked example
A diagnostic clinic chain in Chennai has 42 employees. Its standard full-time week is 48 hours: 8 hours a day for 6 days. 30 employees work full time, 8 lab assistants work 24 hours a week and 4 visiting technicians work 12 hours a week.
- Full-time hours = 30 x 48 = 1,440
- Part-time hours = 8 x 24 + 4 x 12 = 192 + 48 = 240
- Total scheduled hours = 1,440 + 240 = 1,680
- FTE = 1,680 / 48 = 35
When to use FTE instead of headcount
Use FTE whenever the question is about capacity or productivity: how many nurses are on the floor, what revenue each full-time equivalent produces, or how many more hours a department needs. Headcount is right for people questions such as attrition, diversity and engagement, where each person counts once. A branch with many part-timers looks large on headcount and small on FTE, and both views are correct for their own purpose.
Defining the standard week
FTE depends on the standard hours you divide by, so define them once and state them. Under the OSH Code, ordinary daily work is capped at eight hours, with intervals and weekly limits fixed by government notification, as the working hours rules explain. Your standard may be 8 hours on 6 days, or 8 working hours plus a break on 5 days. If employee groups have different standard weeks, calculate FTE for each group against its own standard.
- Scheduled FTE: from contracted or rostered hours, for planning.
- Worked FTE: from hours actually worked, for productivity.
- Paid FTE: includes paid leave, for cost analysis.
Pitfalls in FTE calculations
Counting overtime hours in scheduled FTE makes the workforce look bigger than it is and hides a staffing gap. Using a different standard week for each report makes trends meaningless. For a month, count part-timers' actual scheduled hours rather than assuming each works exactly half. Round FTE to one or two decimals and say so, because small differences matter in small teams.
How to improve it
- Record contracted hours for every part-time employee in the appointment letter and HR records.
- Plan staffing in FTE per shift, then convert to people when building the roster.
- Report revenue and output per FTE alongside per-head figures.
- Review the part-time mix by branch to see where capacity really sits.
- Recalculate FTE each month from rosters instead of once a year.
Tracking it in ZeniaHR
ZeniaHR's Shifts & Roster defines full-day and half-day hours for every shift in the shift catalogue, and Attendance Punches record effective and gross hours for each employee. Employment type is part of each employee's organization assignment. ZeniaHR has no FTE report, so download effective hours from the day log CSV, or work out rostered hours from the day grid, and divide by your standard full-time hours.
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Book a free demoSee pricingFrequently asked questions
How do you calculate FTE?
Add up the scheduled hours of all employees for the period and divide by the standard full-time hours for one employee in the same period. For example, 1,680 scheduled hours a week divided by a 48-hour standard week equals 35 FTE, even if 42 different people work those hours.
Is a part-time employee counted as 0.5 FTE?
Only if they work exactly half of your standard full-time hours. A person working 24 hours against a 48-hour standard week is 0.5 FTE, while someone working 12 hours is 0.25 FTE. Always calculate from actual scheduled hours instead of assuming every part-timer is half an FTE.
Should overtime be included in FTE?
Not in scheduled FTE, which describes the capacity you planned. Overtime is extra work beyond that plan. If you want to know how many full-time people the hours actually worked would equal, calculate a separate worked FTE that includes overtime, and label it clearly.