The Hidden Cost of Untracked Vacancies

Every organization has open positions at any given time. People resign, retire, transfer, or move to new roles. The positions they leave behind carry budgets, job classifications, and FTE allocations that do not disappear just because the employee did.

Yet many organizations lose visibility into their vacancies. Without a system to track open positions, leadership may not know how many roles are unfilled, how long they have been open, or how much unspent salary budget is sitting on the table. This creates problems for workforce planning, budget forecasting, and hiring prioritization.

Why Vacancies Are Easy to Lose Track Of

In organizations that manage staffing through headcount reports or spreadsheets, a vacancy is just an absence. There is no employee to count, no name in the roster, and no automatic flag that a funded position is sitting empty.

Common ways vacancies slip through the cracks:

• Headcount reports only show filled roles. If you rely on a list of current employees to understand your staffing, vacant positions are invisible by definition.
• Budget reports show cost savings, not gaps. An unfilled position looks like an underspend in a financial report. Without context, it may appear that the department is running efficiently when in reality it is understaffed.
• Institutional knowledge walks out the door. When the person who knew a position existed leaves or changes roles, the vacancy can be forgotten entirely, especially if it was not documented in a central system.
• Reorganizations create confusion. Departments that merge, split, or restructure often lose track of which positions carried over and which were eliminated.

Funded vs. Unfunded Vacancies

Not all vacant positions are the same. A critical distinction in position management is whether a vacancy is funded or unfunded.

A funded vacancy has budget allocated to it. The organization has planned and approved the cost of filling that role. These positions represent hiring capacity that is ready to be used.

An unfunded vacancy exists in the organizational structure but does not have budget attached. It may be a position that was frozen during a cost reduction, or one that was approved in principle but not yet funded. These positions still matter for long-term planning, but they are not available for immediate hiring.

Tracking this distinction helps leadership answer questions like: How many positions can we fill right now? What would it cost to fund the remaining vacancies? Where are our biggest staffing gaps relative to our approved plan?

The Impact on Budget Forecasting

Vacant positions have a direct impact on labor cost projections. If your budget assumes 50.0 FTE but only 45.0 are filled, the 5.0 FTE gap represents both a cost savings today and a future expense when those positions are filled.

Organizations that do not track vacancies systematically often face surprises at budget time. A department may request funding for new positions when it already has approved, funded vacancies that were never filled. Or Finance may project labor costs based on current headcount without accounting for the positions that are about to be filled.

Accurate vacancy data prevents these misalignments and gives Finance and HR a shared understanding of where staffing stands relative to the plan.

How FTE Tree Handles Vacant Positions

FTE Tree is built on a position control model, which means every position is tracked whether or not someone is assigned to it. When an employee leaves, the position remains in the system with its FTE value, job code, wage rate, and department assignment intact.

This gives your organization several advantages:

• Vacancy visibility. Open positions are clearly identified across all departments. Leadership can see at a glance how many positions are vacant and where they are.
• Budget context. Each vacant position carries its associated cost, so Finance can calculate the impact of filling or eliminating any open role.
• Approval workflows. Refilling a vacant position can require formal approval, ensuring that hiring decisions are intentional and documented.
• Historical tracking. FTE Tree logs when a position became vacant, any changes made to it while open, and when it was ultimately filled or closed. This audit trail supports compliance and reporting.
• Department-level planning. Managers can view their department's full staffing plan, including vacancies, and submit requests to modify or fill open positions through the built-in approval process.

Taking Control of Your Vacancies

If your organization does not have a clear answer to the question of how many funded positions are currently unfilled, vacancy management is a good place to start improving your workforce planning process. Moving from headcount-based tracking to position-based tracking makes vacancies visible, measurable, and actionable.

Sign up for FTE Tree to see how position control can bring clarity to your organization's open roles and staffing plans.