# Monthly Workday headcount and attrition brief for leadership

> On the first business day of each month, leadership gets a written read on how headcount moved by department, who joined, and who left.

- Workflow type: agent
- Services: Workday, Google Sheets, Slack
- Categories: HR & People, Operations
- Published: 2026-08-10

## What it does

- Pulls current headcount from Workday broken out by department, reporting organization, and location, plus everyone who joined or left over the past month.
- Adds this month's numbers as a new row in your tracking spreadsheet and reads earlier months back, so the brief describes a trend rather than a single snapshot.
- Posts a short written summary to Slack naming which departments grew, which shrank, and what the month over month attrition rate actually was.
- Puts any department whose headcount moved more than ten percent at the top of the message, so the outliers get read first.

## What you'll need

- A Workday account with permission to read worker and organization data
- A Google account and a spreadsheet to use as your headcount tracker
- A Slack workspace and the channel where leadership should receive the brief
- Optional: a headcount report already set up in Workday and turned on as a web service, which the workflow will use if you have one

## Prompt

On the first business day of each month at 7am, produce a headcount and attrition brief from Workday and share it with leadership in Slack. Run on the first business day rather than the first calendar day, so the brief lands when people are at work.

Pull the numbers with Workday's WQL - Run Query. I want current total headcount broken out three ways: by department, by supervisory organization, and by location. I also want everyone hired and everyone who exited over the trailing month, meaning the calendar month that just ended. Count employees and contingent workers separately and label them clearly in everything you produce. A blended number is the single most common cause of arguments about whether the headcount is right, so never collapse the two into one total without also showing the split.

If we already have a headcount report in Workday enabled as a web service, use Report-as-a-Service - Run Custom Report instead and take the numbers from there, so the brief agrees with what HR already publishes internally. Prefer WQL or Report-as-a-Service over paging through the worker list endpoints: Workday's own guidance is that large extracts should go through the query and reporting services rather than looping resource endpoints. If you need to resolve supervisory organization names or hierarchy, Common - List Supervisory Organizations can fill those in.

Where a move is an internal transfer between supervisory organizations rather than a genuine hire or exit, treat it as a transfer. Departmental changes should net out correctly at the company level, and a team that grew because of a reorganization must not be reported as if it went on a hiring spree.

Before writing anything, read the tracking spreadsheet with Google Sheets Get Values so the brief can describe a trend rather than a single snapshot. Then append this month's numbers as one new row with Append Values: the month, total headcount, the employee and contractor split, hires, exits, the attrition rate, and the per department totals. Never overwrite earlier rows. The accumulated history is the whole point of the sheet.

Then write a short narrative summary and post it to the leadership channel with Slack Send a Message. Lead with any department whose headcount moved more than ten percent in either direction, so the outliers are read first. After that, cover which departments grew and which shrank, the month over month attrition rate, and the hire and exit counts behind it. Reference the prior months you read from the sheet so the reader sees direction of travel rather than an isolated figure.

Keep the message short enough to read on a phone: a few sentences of narrative plus a compact list. Write plainly for executives, cite real numbers instead of vague phrases like significant change, and if something in the data looks like a reporting artifact rather than a real workforce movement, say so plainly instead of presenting it as growth or loss.

## How to customize

- Change the timing: run it weekly or quarterly instead of the first business day of each month.
- Change the outlier threshold: ten percent is the default, but you can flag anything that moves more than five or fifteen percent.
- Change the breakdowns: keep department, reporting organization, and location, or narrow it to only the cuts your leaders actually ask about.
- Change the audience: post to a leadership channel, a wider company channel, or send it as a direct message.

## FAQ

### Do I need to build a headcount report in Workday first?

No. The workflow queries Workday directly for headcount, hires, and exits, so it works without any reporting setup. If you already have a headcount report enabled as a web service, it will use that instead so your numbers match what your HR team already publishes.

### Does this count contractors in the headcount number?

It reports employees and contractors separately and labels both clearly. Blending the two is the most common reason headcount numbers get disputed between finance and HR, so the brief keeps the distinction visible rather than hiding it in a single total.

### What happens if the first of the month falls on a weekend or a holiday?

It runs on the first business day, not the first calendar day, so the brief lands when people are actually at work and ready to read it.

### Will running this every month overwrite my spreadsheet history?

No. Each month is added as a new row underneath the previous ones, and earlier rows are only read, never changed. That history is what lets the brief talk about direction of travel instead of just this month's number.

### Can it explain why a department changed, not just that it changed?

It calls out the size and direction of every meaningful move and separates internal transfers from real hires and exits, so a team that grew because of a reorganization is not presented as if it went on a hiring spree.

Use this prompt in General Input: https://www.generalinput.com/prompts/monthly-workday-headcount-and-attrition-brief-for-leadership