SSM-Audit Q&A Series – HR & Workforce (Question 19)

Headcount is on plan, yet delivery velocity fell and burnout signs rose

Question
Our headcount and attrition are on plan, and engagement scores barely moved. But sprint velocity is trending down, overtime keeps creeping up, and sick leave clusters after big pushes. We’re hiring to target and HR reports look stable, yet managers say the teams feel stretched. How can that be true?

Answer ✅
People totals can look fine while the cadence of work turns unstable. If deadlines bunch, onboarding runs slower, or contractors carry peak loads, you can “hit staffing” while output degrades. SSM-Audit adds a stability band beside the workforce and delivery KPIs you already track, revealing whether execution is calm and repeatable or spiky and fragile—before it shows up as burnout, bugs, and missed plans.

What the bands would have shown 📊
• Workload stability sliding from A+ to A0 / A- (tasks bunch around releases)
• Overtime share degrading to A- (more after-hours to hit dates)
• Onboarding throughput time worsening to A- / A– (new hires productive later)
• Sick-leave incidence tilting A0 → A- the week after major pushes
• Contractor dependency ratio rising (A+ -> A0), masking core team strain
• Team velocity stability weakening, even if average velocity looks OK

What to do now 🛠️

  1. Level the work: cap scope changes inside sprints; split big releases into smaller trains.
  2. Protect capacity: set an overtime guardrail; when the band drops below A0, trim scope instead of adding hours.
  3. Accelerate onboarding: pair new hires; reserve veteran time; publish an onboarding band by squad.
  4. Rotate peaks: stagger high-intensity weeks across teams; limit consecutive peak sprints.
  5. Stabilize with fewer contractors: shift critical recurring work to core teams where bands slipped.
  6. Review a weekly panel: workload, overtime, onboarding, sick leave, velocity stability—fix the weakest first.

How SSM-Audit helps (practicalities) 🌟

  • No additional infrastructure: runs beside your HRIS, time-tracking, and sprint/issue exports.
  • Numbers unchanged: headcount, attrition, and velocity stay the same; stability is a read-only overlay.
  • Easy to use: spreadsheet/BI friendly; one lightweight weekly review with managers.
  • Universal language: A++ / A+ / A0 / A- / A– aligns HR, engineering, and product quickly.

CLI 💻 — try our mini Calculator to identify the drift
(Mini CLI Download Page)
Feed your CSVs and see bands and drift at a glance (numbers unchanged).

# Workload stability (tasks completed distribution per week)
ssm_audit_mini_calc hr.csv --kpi "Workload Stability" \
  --out bands_workload.csv --plot_kpi "Workload Stability" --build_id hr

# Overtime share (OT hours / total hours)
ssm_audit_mini_calc hr.csv --kpi "Overtime Share" \
  --out bands_overtime.csv --plot_kpi "Overtime Share" --build_id hr

# Onboarding throughput time (days to baseline productivity)
ssm_audit_mini_calc hr.csv --kpi "Onboarding Throughput Time" \
  --out bands_onboarding.csv --plot_kpi "Onboarding Throughput Time" --build_id hr

# Sick-leave incidence (weekly per 100 FTE)
ssm_audit_mini_calc hr.csv --kpi "Sick-Leave Incidence" \
  --out bands_sickleave.csv --plot_kpi "Sick-Leave Incidence" --build_id hr

# Contractor dependency ratio
ssm_audit_mini_calc hr.csv --kpi "Contractor Dependency Ratio" \
  --out bands_contractors.csv --plot_kpi "Contractor Dependency Ratio" --build_id hr

# Team velocity stability (variance around trend)
ssm_audit_mini_calc hr.csv --kpi "Velocity Stability" \
  --out bands_velocity.csv --plot_kpi "Velocity Stability" --build_id hr

Outputs you will get:

  • CSVs with stability bands for each timestamp (e.g., bands_workload.csv).
  • Drift charts per KPI (--plot_kpi) showing exactly where cadence breaks.
  • Optional alerts if you enable thresholds in your setup.

Technical notes

Representation: x = (m, a) with a in (-1, +1)
Collapse parity: phi((m,a)) = m
Order-invariant pooling:
  U = sum(w_i * atanh(a_i))
  W = sum(w_i)
  a_out = tanh( U / max(W, eps_w) )

Typical bands (example):
  A++: a >= 0.75
  A+:  0.50 - 0.75
  A0:  0.25 - 0.50
  A-:  0.10 - 0.25
  A--: a < 0.10

Navigation
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Page disclaimer
Illustrative scenario for research and education. Observation-only; do not use for critical decisions without independent validation.