Let $N$ be the total number of employees. How can you write an equation that says: "65 is 20% of $N$"?

Change 20% into a decimal or fraction, substitute it into your equation, and then think: what operation undoes multiplication so you can solve for $N$?

Once you find $N$, take 20% of it and see if you get 65. If you do, your answer makes sense.

In a Desmos expression line, type 65/0.2 (or 65/(20/100)) and look at the numerical result. That value is the total number of employees whose 20% equals 65.

The problem says that 65 employees is 20% of all employees.

So 65 is the part, 20% is the percentage, and the total number of employees is the whole.

This matches the pattern:

Let $N$ be the total number of employees. Then:

To work with the percent in an equation, change 20% to a decimal or fraction.

• As a decimal: $20\% = 0.20$
• As a fraction: $20\% = \frac{20}{100} = \frac{1}{5}$

Using the decimal form, the equation becomes:

We need to isolate $N$ in the equation $65 = 0.20N$.

Divide both sides by $0.20$:

(If you used the fraction form, you would solve $65 = \frac{1}{5}N$, so $N = 65 \times 5$.)

Now calculate $\dfrac{65}{0.20}$.

Dividing by $0.20$ is the same as multiplying by 5:

So, the company has 325 employees in total.