3 hidden tactics to scale payroll smarter

Play video6:42

Spendsetters Ep 7: Adam Swiecicki, CFO at Rippling

Most companies burn cash on bloated headcount. Avoid it with Adam's 3-pronged framework.

After scaling two multi-billion dollar companies, CFO Adam Swiecicki revealed his three-pronged approach to dynamic headcount planning that removes bloat, saves money, and enables faster growth. Here's how Rippling's CFO thinks about building lean, agile teams.

Dollar-based budgeting

Stop giving headcount allocations to managers and start giving them dollar-based budgets into which they have to fit headcount. Don't say, "You get 10 SDRs and 2 AMs." Instead, say, "You get $2M. Build your team as you see fit."

This pushes decision-making down to leaders closest to the action who can flex team composition based on what they're seeing in the market. Just make sure that you implement the right guardrails mentioned in the video to maintain organisational design control.

Zero-based budgeting

Most of your headcount costs come from decisions made years ago for objectives that may no longer be relevant. Zero-based budgeting forces teams to justify every role annually, not just new ones.

Adam shares the specific questions leaders should ask before requesting additional headcount — and why adding people to a bloated team just makes the problem more expensive without fixing it.

Headcount velocity buckets

Different roles impact your business at different speeds, so they need different planning cadences. Adam breaks down which functions need monthly reviews versus quarterly deep-dives and reveals the specific metrics he tracks for each bucket to optimise headcount decisions throughout the year. This creates what he calls "a well-orchestrated dance" where planning timing matches business impact timing.