Manpower Planning for Department Heads and Reviewers in greytHR

Updated in July - 2026 | Subscribe to watch greytHR how-to video

When an organization initiates its annual headcount planning in greytHR, department heads and reviewers participate in the exercise directly from the ESS portal. Submitters propose the hiring requirements for their departments, and assessors review and approve the submitted plans — all within a single governed workflow, with no Excel sheets or email threads.

If you are added as a submitter or an assessor in a planning cycle, you receive an email notification. Clicking the link in the email takes you directly to the plan page. You can also access it anytime from the ESS portal under the Manpower Planning module, which displays two options — Plans and Reviews.

Submit your manpower plan

The Plans page lists your manpower plans along with their current status — Pending Submission, Pending Approval, or Approved — so you can track your plan at any stage.

To submit a manpower plan:

1. From the greytHR ESS portal go to Manpower Planning > Plans. You can also open the plan directly from the link in the email notification.

2. Open the active planning cycle available for submission.

3. Add your hiring requirements:

   • Select the Department, Designation, and Grade. These values are fetched directly from the greytHR Employee Masters and Employee Position Categories, ensuring consistency across the organization. 

   • Enter the Planned Headcount — the number of employees to be hired for the role.

   • Select the Hiring Quarter in which you expect to hire. For example, one employee in Q1 and two in Q3.

   • Enter the Per Head Cost — the estimated annual cost per employee.

   • Add Notes to justify the request or provide business context.

4. Click Add. Repeat to add as many positions as required.
   Note: Ensure all the mandatory fields are filled. An error message appears against the fields that are left blank or filled incorrectly.

5. Manage your requests before submitting, as required:

   • Expand a summary card to view the complete details of a request.

   • Use the table filters, or click a column header to sort the requests.

   • Add comments to a request to provide additional context for the reviewers.

   • To remove a position, delete the required row and confirm the action.

   • To discard the plan before submitting, click Cancel.

6. Once all the requirements are added, click Submit for Approval and confirm the action.

Your plan moves to the Pending Approval status and is automatically routed to your reviewer. Once all the review levels are complete, the status changes to Approved. Ensure you submit the plan within the submission deadline defined for the cycle.

Note: Whether you can view the comments added by the reviewers depends on the permissions configured by your HR team for the planning cycle.

Review and approve manpower plans

If you are an assessor — a manager, manager's manager, or the final assessor — the plans submitted for your review appear under the Reviews section.

1. Log in to the greytHR ESS portal and navigate to Manpower Planning> Reviews. The plans pending your review are displayed. If no plans are pending, the page appears empty.

2. Open the required plan. The manpower requests submitted for the department are displayed, including the department, designation, headcount, hiring quarter, and per head cost.

3. Use the table filters to view specific requests, or click a column header to sort the requests as required.

4. Based on your permissions, you can:

   1. Edit a request to modify details such as the headcount. A success message appears once the changes are saved.

   2. Add a new position row to the plan.

   3. Add comments to a request or view the comments added by others.

5. Click Approve to approve individual requests, or click Approve All to approve all the requests of the plan in one go. Confirm the action in the confirmation box that appears.

Once approved, the plan moves to the next level of review, if configured. After the final assessor approves, the plan is marked as Approved and the submitter can view the final status on the Plans page.

Note: The actions available to you depend on the permissions configured by your HR team for the planning cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I track the status of my submitted plan?

From the greytHR ESS portal go to  Manpower > Plans. 

Each plan displays its current status — Pending Submission, Pending Approval, or Approved — as it moves through the workflow.

Can I edit or cancel my plan after adding the requirements?

Before submitting, you can edit the requests, delete position rows, or click Cancel to discard the plan. Once the plan is submitted for approval, it moves to your reviewer and can no longer be edited by you.

Why can't I see the reviewer's comments on my plan?

The ability to view comments depends on the permissions configured by your HR team for the planning cycle. If the view comment permission is not enabled for submitters, the reviewers' comments are not visible to you.

What can I do as an assessor while reviewing a plan?

Based on your permissions, you can edit the requested details, add new positions, add or view comments, and approve requests individually or all at once using Approve All.

I am an assessor, but no plans appear under Reviews. Why?

Plans appear under Reviews only when a submitter has submitted a plan that is pending at your review level. If the submission window is still open or the plan is pending at an earlier level, the page remains empty.

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