Staffing & Creative Resource Planning
This use case explains how to plan staffing and utilisation for media, agencies and creative studios in Model Reef.
You will:
Set up roles, teams and locations in branches and staff variables.
Build drivers for headcount, day rates, utilisation and overheads.
Link staffing to retainer and project workloads.
See the impact on P&L, capacity and profitability by studio and client.
When to use this pattern
Use this pattern when:
People cost is your main cost line and capacity constraint.
You need to align hiring plans with pipeline and retainer commitments.
You want to understand margin by studio, team or client.
You are testing alternative staffing models or location strategies.
It connects directly with:
Retainer and Project Pipeline Forecast
Production Budgeting and Delivery Models
Multi Client Profitability
Architecture overview
Step 1: Define roles and team structure
Decide on the granularity of roles, for example:
Partner or Executive Creative Director.
Creative Director and Design Lead.
Designers and Copywriters.
Developers and Producers or Project Managers.
Account Management and Strategy.
Production or Studio Operations.
In each studio or location branch, create Staff variables such as:
Staff - Designers - Studio Brand.
Staff - Developers - Studio Digital.
Staff - Producers - Studio Production.
Staff - Account Managers - All Studios.
These variables will hold headcount, cost and timing assumptions for each role group.
Step 2: Build headcount and cost drivers
For each Staff variable, use the timing and amount settings to specify:
Headcount per period.
Start and end dates for roles or planned hires.
Base salary per FTE.
On costs such as benefits, payroll taxes and other employment charges.
Pay frequency and cash delay settings.
You can either:
Input headcount directly per period, or
Use drivers in the Data Library such as Headcount Required per Role and link Staff variables to those drivers.
Ensure that the model reflects planned hires and departures, including freelancers or contractors where they are a regular part of delivery.
Step 3: Add utilisation and capacity metrics
In the Data Library, create drivers for each role group such as:
Working Days per FTE per period.
Holiday, training and non working time assumptions.
Target Billable Utilisation Percentage.
Realised Utilisation Percentage where you model performance.
Calculate capacity metrics such as:
Available Billable Days = Headcount × Working Days × Utilisation.
Implied Billable Value = Available Billable Days × Average Day Rate where you choose to compute this.
You can implement these as custom driver variables and then use charts and reports to view capacity and utilisation by role and studio.
Step 4: Connect staffing to workload from retainers and projects
From the Retainer and Project Pipeline Forecast, derive approximate workload measures such as:
Required Design Days.
Required Development Days.
Required Producer or Project Management Days.
These might be allocated per studio and per role based on:
Retainer fee breakdowns.
Standard effort mixes across disciplines.
Historical time tracking data where available.
Use these workload drivers to compare:
Required Days versus Available Billable Days by role.
Over or under utilisation by team and period.
Need for additional hires, contractors or reduced workload.
You can represent implied hires by adjusting headcount drivers in scenarios until capacity and demand are aligned at an acceptable utilisation level.
Step 5: Reflect non billable roles and overheads
Create Staff variables for roles that are not directly billable, such as:
Management and leadership.
Operations and finance.
HR and recruitment.
Business development and marketing.
These still generate Staff cost in P&L and affect EBITDA, but do not produce billable capacity. Include them in branch structures where they make sense, for example under Central Overheads or specific studios.
You can then calculate metrics like:
Total staff cost per billable day.
Ratio of non billable to billable headcount.
Step 6: Use scenarios for hiring, rate and utilisation strategies
Clone the base model into scenario models to explore:
Hiring earlier or later relative to pipeline growth.
Different utilisation targets or management expectations.
Changes in salary levels, location mix or contractor usage.
Day rate changes by role or studio.
Shifts between generalist and specialist team structures.
In each scenario, adjust:
Headcount and timing.
Salary and on cost levels.
Utilisation and day rate drivers.
Allocation of workload across studios and locations.
Compare scenarios using:
EBITDA and margin by studio and for the group.
Capacity and utilisation metrics.
Cashflow and headcount stability over time.
Client satisfaction or service risk approximated via utilisation and capacity indicators where you choose to represent these qualitatively.
Check your work
Headcount and staff costs reconcile reasonably with recent actuals.
Utilisation targets and achieved figures align with operational reality.
The relationship between pipeline and hiring plans is clear and defendable.
Scenario outcomes support concrete hiring or restructuring decisions.
Troubleshooting
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