What Is FTE?

What is Full Time Equivalent?

Full Time Equivalent or FTE is used in call and contact centres to provide the equivalent headcount for one person working full time.

• So 1 FTE = Somebody who works Monday – Friday
• or 1 FTE = Two people who work half a day

In terms of the number of hours, then one FTE could be either 37.5 hours or 40 hours per week, depending on the number of hours per week that you work in your organisation.

If you only have full-time staff, your FTE is therefore the number of staff you require.

It has no bearing on number of calls, shrinkage etc.

In BPO, the meaning of FTE is merely the number of full-time staff required. This can be factored as full-time staff + part time staff.

2 x 50% hours = 1FTE