In a certain company, 74 employees were hired in the last 5 years. if
this represents 43% of the current number of employees, then how
many current employees does the company have?

- list the steps & you!

You have to be able to take the written words and turn them into a workable equation.  74 employees is 43% of the current number, which you don't know.  The word "is" means = , the 43% is written as .43, the word "of" means to multiply and the current number of employees, what you're looking for, is your unknown x.  So translating those words into an equation looks like this:
74 = .43x.  And dividing both sides by .43 you get that the current number of employees is 172.09, or just 172