I want to count how many times initials of employees (e..g AD, AS, RR, AN,
VB, DO) appear in a specific column. I am using COUNT IF function for that.

The problem is as soon as I put initials fof 2 employees in one cell, the
formula does not recognise either of them.

To give you a gist, I want to see how many people work out of office , so I
have a calendar style worksheet( month=col, date=row). If I input AD on 13
day of jan, , I get 1 for AD, in the row where I am collecting total for AD .
But if I put both AD, AS on 13 jan, then neither AD nor AS gets recognised.

Please advise a suitable formula or an alternative method.
Thanks