Headcount flow: show hires, moves and leavers as a Sankey
An org chart is a photograph: the teams and reporting lines on the day it was drawn. It cannot show what happened during the year, such as who was hired, who moved team and who left. A Sankey diagram can, in one picture that an HR review or a board pack can read in seconds.
The structure and the movement
Keep both. The org chart is the reference for who reports to whom, and it is easiest to keep current when it is built from the same employee list HR already maintains. The headcount Sankey is the summary of change: it sits next to the org chart in a quarterly or annual review and explains why this year's chart looks different from last year's.
How the diagram is laid out
Use two stages: the start of the period on the left, the end on the right. On the left, one node per team plus a "New hires" node. On the right, one node per team plus a "Left" node. Every flow is a number of people: staying in a team, moving to another team, joining or leaving.
Node names have to be unique, because a flow names its target, so label the two columns' teams distinctly: "Sales, January" and "Sales, December". The Stage column then titles the two columns "January" and "December".
A worked example: 120 people, one year
A company starts the year with 120 people: 40 in Sales, 50 in Engineering, 30 in Operations. During the year it hires 25 (8 into Sales, 12 into Engineering, 5 into Operations), 18 people leave (7 from Sales, 6 from Engineering, 5 from Operations), and 4 people move from Operations to Sales.
As flows: Sales stays 33, Sales leaves 7; Engineering stays 44, leaves 6; Operations stays 21, moves 4 to Sales, leaves 5; New hires go 8 to Sales, 12 to Engineering, 5 to Operations. The December column comes out as Sales 45, Engineering 56, Operations 26: 127 people, which is 120 + 25 − 18, so the diagram balances.
Read at a glance: Operations shrank from 30 to 26, and not only through leavers; it lost almost as many people to Sales (4) as it hired (5). That is the kind of finding a table of numbers hides and a Sankey shows.
Variations
- Add a column for the middle of the year to show when the changes happened
- Split "Left" into voluntary and involuntary, or by reason, for a turnover review
- Put the hiring funnel in front of "New hires" (applicants, interviews, offers) to show what each hire cost in candidates
Frequently asked questions
What is a headcount Sankey diagram?
A Sankey diagram showing how people moved over a period: from each team at the start, plus new hires, to each team at the end, plus leavers. Band widths are numbers of people.
Should the numbers balance?
Yes. Starting headcount plus hires equals ending headcount plus leavers. If it doesn't, someone is missing, often a transfer recorded only on one side.
Try it on your own numbers
The editor is free and opens with a starter Sankey diagram. One row per node, and the diagram draws itself as you type. No signup required.
Create Your Sankey Diagram Free