Hiring Plan Template: Columns, Build Steps and a Filled-In Example

10 min read ยท 2026-10-25

A hiring plan template is a sheet with one row per role you plan to fill, showing why the role exists, who owns it, its priority, when the person should start, when the search must open and where it stands today. Paired with a summary by quarter, it turns a list of headcount requests into a plan that finance, recruiting and hiring managers can all follow.

This guide describes the layout column by column, explains how to build it in Excel or Google Sheets, and gives a filled-in example for a growing software company. It also covers the yearly process behind the sheet: gathering requests, getting approval, running hiring waves and reviewing the plan each quarter. It is written for HR business partners, talent acquisition leads, founders and department heads who own headcount.

The roadmap at a glance

Goal: Every role in the approved headcount plan is filled or consciously deferred by year end, with start dates tracked and the plan reviewed each quarter. Duration: 12 months

  1. Business goals and workforce review (Weeks 1-3)

    Link hiring to what the company must deliver next year.

    • Collect next year's company goals and each department's top priorities.
    • List current headcount by team, level and location, plus known leavers and internal moves.
    • Ask each department head which goals they cannot reach with the current team, and why.
    • Note skills gaps that training or contractors could cover instead of a hire.

    Milestone: A workforce summary per department with current headcount, known gaps and the goals each gap blocks.

  2. Build the draft plan (Weeks 3-6)

    Turn department requests into one sheet with clear reasons and priorities.

    • Create the requisition sheet with the columns described below and share it with department heads.
    • Have each department head enter roles with a business reason and a target start quarter.
    • Mark each role as new or backfill and set a priority from P1 to P3.
    • Add the expected lead time per role type so open dates are set backward from start dates.

    Milestone: A complete draft with every requested role, its reason, priority and target start date.

  3. Review and approval (Weeks 6-9)

    Get finance and leadership to agree on which roles go ahead and when.

    • Review the draft with finance against the approved budget and adjust start dates or priorities.
    • Hold a leadership session to approve, defer or cut roles, starting with P3.
    • Record the approval status and decision date on each row.
    • Lock the approved version as the baseline and save a copy.

    Milestone: Approved headcount plan signed off by the CEO or leadership team and finance, with a baseline version saved.

  4. Recruiting setup (Weeks 9-12)

    Prepare everything recruiters and hiring managers need before roles open.

    • Assign a recruiter to each role and agree the interview process with each hiring manager.
    • Write or update job descriptions and scorecards for P1 roles first.
    • Set up requisitions in your applicant tracking system with the same IDs as the sheet.
    • Plan sourcing channels per role type: referrals, job boards, agencies or outbound search.

    Milestone: All Q1 and Q2 roles have a recruiter, an approved job description, a scorecard and a requisition in the ATS.

  5. Hiring waves (Months 4-11)

    Open roles on schedule and fill them by their target start dates.

    • Open each role on its planned open date, not when the need becomes urgent.
    • Hold a weekly hiring sync between recruiting and hiring managers on pipeline and blockers.
    • Update status and pipeline columns weekly from the ATS.
    • Escalate roles that miss their open date or stall at one stage for more than two weeks.

    Milestone: Each quarter, the roles planned for that quarter are filled, in offer stage, or formally moved with a new date.

  6. Quarterly review and next-year draft (End of each quarter, final review in month 12)

    Keep the plan aligned with the business and prepare next year's version.

    • Compare filled roles and start dates against the baseline each quarter.
    • Re-prioritize open roles when goals or budget change, and record the reason.
    • Review new hire onboarding feedback and first-quarter performance with hiring managers.
    • Start next year's workforce review using what you learned on lead times and channels.

    Milestone: A year-end hiring report with plan versus actual by quarter, and next year's draft plan started.

The template layout, column by column

Build the plan as a workbook with three tabs. The first tab, Requisitions, holds one row per role. The second, Summary, rolls the rows up by quarter and department. The third, Lists, holds the dropdown values so everyone uses the same words.

On the Requisitions tab, keep the columns in the order below. Group them visually: identity columns on the left in a light gray header, planning columns in the middle in light blue, and tracking columns on the right in light green. Hiring managers fill the left and middle. Recruiters update the right side weekly.

  • Req ID: a short code such as ENG-07 that matches the requisition in your ATS.
  • Role title, team and level: the job title, the team it sits in and its level or band.
  • Hiring manager: the named person who decides on the hire.
  • Type: new role or backfill.
  • Business reason: one sentence linking the role to a goal, such as Support the second mobile app launch in Q3.
  • Priority: P1 must start on time, P2 can slip one quarter, P3 can be deferred.
  • Location and work model: office, city or remote.
  • Target start date and target quarter: when the person should be working.
  • Lead time in weeks and planned open date: the open date is the start date minus the lead time.
  • Approval status: approved, pending or deferred, with the decision date.
  • Recruiter, status and stage: not opened, open, interviewing, offer, filled or on hold.
  • Actual start date and notes: filled in when the person joins.

How to build it in Excel or Google Sheets

In Excel, type the headers in row 1 of the Requisitions tab, select the range and use Home, then Format as Table, which adds filters and keeps formulas consistent as rows are added. On the Lists tab, type the allowed values for Type, Priority, Approval status and Status. Back on Requisitions, select the Priority column and use Data, then Data Validation, with Allow set to List and the source pointing at your list. Repeat for the other dropdown columns.

For the planned open date, use a formula that subtracts the lead time from the start date, such as the start date cell minus lead time times seven. Use Home, then Conditional Formatting, to color rows where the open date has passed but the status is still not opened. Freeze the header row and the Req ID column with View, then Freeze Panes. On the Summary tab, use Insert, then PivotTable, with target quarter as columns, department as rows and a count of Req ID as values. Add status as a filter to see planned versus filled.

In Google Sheets the steps are close. Use Data, then Data validation, or Insert, then Dropdown, for the list columns. Use Format, then Conditional formatting, for the overdue rule. Use View, then Freeze, for the header row, and Insert, then Pivot table, for the summary. Use Data, then Protect sheets and ranges, so only recruiters can edit the tracking columns.

Example: a filled-in hiring plan for a growing software company

Picture a software company of about 80 people planning 14 hires for the year. The company goals are a second product line, a move into one new region and better customer retention. Here is how the summary reads by quarter.

Each quarter has a lead owner and a checkable milestone. The CFO and the CEO review the summary at the end of each quarter, and department heads update their rows before the meeting.

  • Q1, 4 roles: two senior backend engineers (P1, for the new product line), one product designer (P1), one customer success manager backfill (P1). Owner: VP Engineering with the talent lead. Milestone: all four started by end of Q1.
  • Q2, 4 roles: one engineering manager (P1), one QA engineer (P2), one sales lead for the new region (P1), one sales development rep (P2). Owner: talent lead. Milestone: regional sales lead in seat before the regional launch.
  • Q3, 4 roles: two customer success managers (P1, for retention goals), one data analyst (P2), one marketing manager for the new region (P2). Owner: COO. Milestone: customer success team at planned size before renewals season.
  • Q4, 2 roles: one solutions engineer (P2) and one HR generalist (P3, deferred if revenue is behind plan). Owner: CEO decision at the Q3 review.

Who owns what

A hiring plan fails when everyone thinks someone else updates it. Assign one owner for the sheet and clear owners for each part of the process.

Write these roles at the top of the Summary tab so nobody has to ask.

  • CEO or leadership team: approves the headcount plan and makes trade-offs when goals change.
  • Finance partner or CFO: checks the plan against budget and approves changes to it.
  • Department heads: submit roles with a business reason and set priorities in their area.
  • Hiring managers: write the scorecard, run interviews and make the hire decision.
  • Talent acquisition lead: owns the sheet, the weekly sync and the quarterly report.
  • Recruiters: keep status and pipeline current and flag stalled roles.
  • HR business partner: checks levels, internal candidates and onboarding plans.

Metrics to track

Keep the metrics few and pull them from the same sources each time, mainly your ATS and the sheet. Report them by department and by quarter.

Avoid judging recruiters on one number. Time to fill depends heavily on the role, the market and how fast hiring managers give feedback, so look at the whole picture.

  • Plan attainment: roles filled in their target quarter divided by roles planned for that quarter.
  • Time to fill: days from open date to accepted offer, by role family, from the ATS.
  • Start date slippage: days between target start date and actual start date.
  • Offer acceptance rate: offers accepted divided by offers made.
  • Source of hire: share of hires from referrals, job boards, agencies and outbound.
  • New hire retention: hires still in the company after their first year, from the HRIS.

How to present it to leadership

Use one slide. On the left, a quarter-by-quarter bar or table with planned hires per department and how many are filled. On the right, the three roles most at risk with the reason and the decision you need, such as approve an agency for the regional sales lead.

Keep individual candidate names, salary details and full pipelines out of the slide. Leadership wants to know if the company will have the people it needs for its goals, and what trade-offs to make if not. At each quarterly review, show plan versus actual and any roles you propose to move or cut.

How to adapt it

A startup with a handful of hires can keep one tab and skip the pivot, but should still record the business reason and start date for each role. Founders often hire reactively, and the business reason column is what stops that.

A large company with many departments should add columns for cost center, internal mobility and diversity of candidate slates, and should link each row to a requisition ID in the HRIS. In regulated or unionized settings, add a column for required approvals or consultations, and check the rules with your HR or legal team before you open roles.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Opening roles only when the need is urgent makes every hire late, so set open dates backward from start dates using realistic lead times.
  • Listing roles without a business reason makes cuts arbitrary, so require one sentence per role that links it to a company goal.
  • Treating every role as top priority stalls recruiting, so use P1 to P3 and limit how many P1 roles each department can hold.
  • Letting the sheet drift from the ATS creates two versions of the truth, so match Req IDs and update status weekly from the ATS.
  • Never revisiting the plan after approval keeps hiring for goals that changed, so review it every quarter with finance and leadership.
  • Ignoring hiring manager time slows every search, so agree interview slots and feedback deadlines before a role opens.

Frequently asked questions

What should a hiring plan template include?

It should include one row per role with a requisition ID, title, team, hiring manager, type, business reason, priority, target start date, planned open date, approval status, recruiter and current status. Add a summary by quarter and department so leadership can see the whole plan at once.

How do you create a hiring plan?

Start from next year's company goals and current headcount, then ask each department which goals need new people. Put every request in one sheet with a reason and a priority, review it with finance, and get leadership approval. Then open roles on planned dates and review progress every quarter.

How far in advance should you open a role?

Work backward from the date you need the person working. Add the time to find and interview candidates, the offer stage and the candidate's notice period. Track your actual time to fill by role family and use it to set lead times next year.

What is the difference between a hiring plan and a recruitment plan?

A hiring plan decides which roles you will fill, why and when. A recruitment plan explains how you will fill them: sourcing channels, interview process, employer brand and recruiter workload. Most teams build the hiring plan first, then a recruitment plan for each role family.

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