Counting Team Size and Headcount Sensibly

How big is the company? It is a natural question, and one of the first that people ask when comparing startups, deciding whether to apply for a job or judging whether a supplier can handle a project. It is also one of the hardest facts to state well. Eight people might mean eight full-time employees, or three founders and five freelancers, or a team of twelve of whom four work two days a week.

This article sets out how to give team size honestly and consistently, so that the number means something to the person reading it.

Why team size is slippery

Several things make the number unstable.

Definitions differ. Do founders count? Contractors? Interns? People on parental leave? Part-time staff? Different companies answer differently, and so do different databases.

It changes quickly. Startups hire and lose people frequently. A figure from six months ago may be badly wrong.

Structure varies. A company may outsource engineering to an agency, so that the visible team is small while the work done is large. Another may have many employees in support and few elsewhere.

Remote and distributed work blurs boundaries. People may be employed in different countries under different arrangements.

Incentives distort. Some companies round up to look established. Others round down to avoid scrutiny.

Wikipedia describes startups as ventures operating under significant uncertainty while developing a scalable model. Uncertainty usually shows up in headcount, which is why a team size without a date and a definition is of little use.

Decide what you are counting

The first step is to choose and state a definition. A reasonable default for a startup profile treats employees as people on the company's payroll, including founders who draw a salary and part-time employees; contractors as self-employed people who work regularly for the company; and founders as a separate group, since some do not draw a salary.

You might give the total of all three, or give each separately. The important thing is to be explicit: "Eight people: three founders, four employees, one regular contractor."

For comparisons across companies, a single clear measure is better than a vague one. A database might offer a field for headcount defined as employees including founders, with a separate field for contractors.

Consider full-time equivalents

A company with ten people, six of whom work three days a week, has less working capacity than a company with ten full-time staff. Full-time equivalent, or FTE, converts part-time hours into a measure of full-time work. It is more complex to calculate and explain, but it gives a better sense of capacity. If you give FTE, say so. If you give headcount, say that too.

Use ranges for fast-changing teams

An exact number such as "47" suggests precision that may not last a week. A range such as "40 to 50" is easier to keep accurate and is fairer to the reader. Common bands run from one person, through two to five, six to ten, eleven to twenty-five, twenty-six to fifty and fifty-one to a hundred, and on upward. Use bands that are meaningful for your sector.

Ranges also reduce the risk of changing the number every few weeks. The schema.org Organization type has a property for the number of employees, which can be given as a value or a range, so ranges can be expressed in structured data as well.

If you use exact numbers, always add a date.

Always date it

A team size is a snapshot. Record the date, in a consistent format. "Eight, as of March" is a fact. "Eight" is a rumour. In a database, show the date next to the figure and trigger a review when it passes a threshold, such as six months.

State the source

Where did the number come from? A company's own statement is the usual source for startup profiles. A public team page can be checked. A filing can help where available: for UK companies, GOV.UK explains that Companies House publishes information such as officers and filed documents, and some filings include employee numbers, though small companies often do not have to give them. A professional network count is only an estimate and may be inflated or outdated. A press report may have been based on any of these.

Label the source. A number from a team page checked last week is stronger than one from a news article two years ago.

Avoid misleading comparisons

When you compare companies by team size, make sure you are comparing like with like. A company with a large outsourced workforce looks small by headcount. A company with many part-timers looks bigger than its capacity. A company counting only the core team differs from one counting every contractor. A figure from last year cannot be compared with one from this month.

If your database offers a "size" filter, define it clearly, and explain its limits to users. Avoid ranking companies by headcount as if bigger meant better.

Think about people's privacy

Team size is a number, but behind it are people. Do not publish names or details of employees without their agreement. If a company is very small, a precise headcount may reveal who the staff are. Where a number could identify individuals, consider a wider range. Respect legal obligations on personal data, and give people a way to ask for their details to be removed.

Handle departures and closures

If a company has shrunk, say so plainly. A decline in headcount can reflect a change in strategy, a difficult period or a planned reduction. Do not hide it, and do not speculate about the cause. If a company has closed, record the status and date, and remove or mark the team size as historical.

Present it well

A good display of team size gives readers all they need in a glance: the figure or range in plain text, the definition in a few words such as "employees and founders", the date in a clear format and the source, such as "company-reported".

For example: "Team: 6 to 10 people (employees and founders), company-reported, March." Use the same format on every profile, so readers learn to read it.

A worked example

A database holds three profiles.

Company A states "twelve employees" on its team page, dated this month, and uses a freelance design agency regularly. The profile shows: "11 to 25 people (employees), company-reported, March. Also uses external contractors."

Company B has four founders and six contractors and no employees. The profile shows: "6 to 10 people (founders and contractors), company-reported, February."

Company C has fifteen staff, nine of whom work part-time, equivalent to about ten full-time roles. The profile shows: "11 to 25 people (employees, including part-time), company-reported, March, approx. 10 full-time equivalent."

A reader can see that A, B and C are not directly comparable and can understand why. If the database had shown just "12", "10" and "15", the picture would have been misleading.

A checklist

Choose and state a definition. Distinguish founders, employees and contractors. Consider full-time equivalents. Decide between a range and an exact number, and say why. Put a date on every figure and label the source. Compare like with like. Respect privacy. Set a review trigger.

The categories and search pages here help readers compare companies, and the submit page starts a company profile.

A worked example for a growing team

Suppose a company starts the year with five people: three founders, one employee and one contractor. By spring it has hired two more employees and added a second contractor. By summer one founder steps back to part-time and an intern joins for three months. If the company updates its profile only once a year, readers will see "five" in December and wonder why it does not match the team page. If it reports bands with dates, the profile reads "6 to 10 people, March", then "6 to 10 people, September", which stays true across all of those changes and is far easier to maintain. The point is to choose a reporting style that survives the pace of change in your own company, and to review it whenever the band no longer fits.

What to say on a team page

If you publish a team page on your own site, the same rules apply. List the people who are part of the team under a clear heading, say whether contractors are included and add a short line explaining how often the page is updated. Avoid showing a count that conflicts with the number on your profiles. When you hire or someone leaves, update the page and any listing together so that the facts stay aligned across the places readers might look.

Frequently asked questions

Should I include advisers? Not usually. List them separately if you want to mention them.

What about people who have been offered a job but not started? Count them when they start.

How often should I update? At least every six months, and when the size changes by a band.