The Human Resource dashboard and human resources report is an integral part of managing HR. Both tools are important for making informed decisions in HR. Why? Because it is hard to do so when HR business partners and other stakeholders lack insight into their own organization. Never fear, HR reporting can solve this! How? Well, that’s what this article is all about. We will outline the value of the HR dashboard.
Functions of an HR report
Reporting on the workforce is one of HR’s essential tasks. When done right, it offers three key benefits for both HR and management:
- HR Monitoring. Regular reporting enables HR to keep a finger on the pulse of the organizations by tracking key workforce metrics. New trends and opportunities can be spotted early on and emerging problems can be addressed before they significantly impact the business.
- Management information. A human resources report can also help managers in doing their job better. An HR report can inform managers about relevant developments in their teams and department. When, for example, the marketing department struggles with high turnover and a high time-to-hire, managers will be more likely to put emphasis on retaining employees and will be aware of risks like longer replacement times when someone is about to leave.
- Track problem areas. HR reporting also offers a great way to track key problem areas in a transparent way. Transparency in turnover rates per manager will encourage them to pay closer attention to retaining employees because their own reputation is on the line! By tracking problem areas, HR can leverage its position to drive improvements.
Metrics in an HR report
There are several important metrics that need to be included in a human resources report. Note that most of them are high-level metrics as they provide an organizational overview. We’ve published multiple lists of HR Metrics, including recruitment metrics and performance metrics on this platform. These can be used for specialized dashboards. The most common HR metrics that are being reported on, include:
Seniority
- Gender: A common distinction for drilling into diversity data (see the example HR dashboard below)
- Age: Age is becoming increasingly important in today’s multigenerational workforce. Age is important for strategic workplace planning and succession planning. It is also often a key focus point for organizations that want to innovate and reorganize.
- Education level: Educational level should only be included when available and when relevant for the overarching goals of the organization. Otherwise, it runs the risk of being a ‘vanity metric’ in the HR report.
- Function type: A metric like function type or function clusters might help to distinguish different groups within the company. An example could be top management, middle management, production personnel, and support staff.
- FTE: A Full-Time Equivalent is the hours worked by one employee on a full-time basis. The number of FTE is often lower than the number of total employees. This holds especially true if there are a lot of part-time workers present in the organization.
- FTE provides an accurate measure of the total workload in the organization. In addition, people who work less than 1 FTE can be considered part-time workers.
- Employees Active: This metrics represents the number of employees working at the organization.
- Turnover: This metric represents the number and/or percentage of employees who left in the previous period. Read here how to calculate employee turnover.
- New hires: This metric represents the number and/or percentage of new employees who joined the organization within the last year.
- Absence/Absenteeism rate: This metric represents the percentage of time that employees were absent in the previous period on average. Another representation of this number is the total days of absence per employee.
- Cost of absence: This metric is not a standard metric but it can make the previously mentioned absence rate more tangible by attaching it to a financial number.
- Cost of labor: Labor cost is the total amount of money that an organization pays to its workforce. This number includes employee benefits and payroll taxes. The cost of labor can be split up into direct or indirect costs. Direct costs are the labor costs associated with people who contribute to the primary process (an assembly line worker). Indirect costs cannot be traced to a specific level of production (a security person guarding the factory).
- Training cost: Training cost represents the total amount that a company spends on training new hires and the existing workforce.
- Recruitment cost: The total cost of recruitment efforts. Typically, it includes the costs of external agencies, job advertisements, and, sometimes, lost productivity. There is much more to the cost of recruitment. Examples include the cost of management time in selection and training, and attrition how long an employee stays in post.
- Time to fill: We’ve already touched upon time to fill. It’s the number of days between a position opening up and a candidate accepting that position. This metric will vary significantly between job types: software developers, big data analysts, and highly qualified salespeople are much harder to find than entry-level marketers for example.
Types:
Time to hire
The average length of time that it takes for you to hire a new employee, from the time of the job posting to their acceptance of an employment offer. You can calculate this by adding up the time for each individual hire and dividing it by the number of new hires in a given period.
Cost per hire
How much does it cost for you to hire a new employee? This includes things like the recruiter’s time, the possible cost of listing a job on a third-party site, time spent interviewing, etc.
Employee turnover
Every business wants to have low employee turnover rates. If you are frequently losing employees and having to hire new ones, there might be an issue with your hiring or staffing process. Pay close attention to this number.
Revenue per employee
It is very easy to determine your revenue per employee. Just divide that company’s total revenue for the year by the number of employees that you have. You can also use this metric for individual departments.
Billable hours per employee
This metric may not be applicable to every business, but it is usually relevant for businesses that offer a professional service like marketing agencies or legal firms. Not every employee will log hours that are directly billable to a client, so employees should track their time to allow you to gauge this on an individual basis. Essentially, the more billable hours per employee you have, the more revenue the company is making.
Absenteeism
Absenteeism is the amount of time that your employees are absent from work for any reason (vacation, sick days, other). Metrics for absenteeism are given as a percentage of the total amount of available working days.
Cost of HR per employee
Hiring, training and managing your workforce costs money. If you look at your HR expenditures for the previous month or year and then factor in the number of employees on your payroll, you can determine how much each employee costs on average for HR. This will allow you to make adjustments and lower costs.
Employee engagement
Employee engagement is one of the most difficult metrics to obtain because it cannot be found using your financial records. You can issue company-wide surveys to your employees and ask questions rated one to five about their experience working in the company. The results can be averaged to rate your level of employee engagement.
Cost of training per employee
In most situations, the success of a new employee has to do with the quality of their training. Still, that training has a cost. You need to pay people to spend time training new employees, you may need to supply them with equipment and materials, and they may need some time before they are ready to work without assistance. Look at your training expenditures and the number of employees you’ve trained to find out how much each new trainee is costing you.
Diversity/EEOC numbers
The diversity of your workforce is more than an arbitrary number. It could be the key to your success. Diversity includes race, ethnicity, job type and salary.
Staffing Metrics
HR Metrics in Recruitment
- Headcount: the total number of employees in the organization, or within the department you are tracking.
- Demographics: the characteristics of the workforce, including age, gender, education level, and length of service in the company.
- Time to Hire: the average number of days between when a job is posted, and when the candidate accepts the offer.
- Acceptance Rate: the number of offer letters extended by the organization, divided by the number of candidates who accept an offer.
- Cost per Hire: the average cost of hiring a new employee. This can be generated by calculating the sum of both internal and external hiring costs, then dividing that value by the total number of employees hired in a given period.
- Time to Productivity: the time it takes for new hires to become acclimated in the organization and start working at full productivity.
- New-Hire Turnover: the number of new hires who leave the organization within a set period of time (e.g. within their first year of employment).
HR Metrics in Engagement and Retention
- Employee Satisfaction: the number of employees who would recommend the organization as a good place to work, versus the number of employees who wouldn’t.
- Total Turnover Rate: the number of employees who leave the company within a given period of time, divided by the average number of total employees. This is usually indicated in a percentage value, so this decimal is then multiplied by 100.
- Voluntary Turnover Rate: the turnover rate including only the employees who voluntarily leave the organization.
- Talent Turnover Rate: the turnover rate among the organization’s highest-performing and highest-potential employees.
- Retention Rate: the opposite of a turnover rate, in that the number of employees who remained in the organization over a given period is divided by the total number of employees.
- Retention Rate per Manager: the retention rate broken down by individual teams and managers.
HR Metrics in Time Tracking
- Absence Rate: the average number of days employees are absent in a given period of time, not including approved PTO
- Absence Rate per Manager: the absence rate broken down by individual teams and managers.
- Overtime Hours: the number of overtime hours worked by employees in a given period of time. This can be calculated either as an average number, broken down by individual employees.
HR Metrics in Employee Value & Performance
- Performance & Potential: a nine-box performance matrix where employees are categorized according to their performance and potential levels
- Employee Performance: metrics as received through self-assessments, peer reviews, manager assessments, or a combination of all three.
- Goal Tracking: usually done so through a performance management software that include goal tracking, this metric monitors the goals employees have set, how they connect to larger organizational goals, the progress the employees have made on those goals.
- Company Performance: a comparison of how well employees are performing, versus how engaged and valued they feel within the organization.
- Revenue per Employee: the total amount of revenue generated in a given period of time, divided by the total number of employees.
HR Metrics in Training and Development
- Training Expenses per Employee: the total cost of the organization’s training courses and programs, divided by the total number of employees.
- Training Completion Rate: the number of employees who complete a given training course/program, divided by the total number of employees. This value is then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage.
- Time to Completion: the amount of time it takes for an employee to complete a given training course or program.
- Training Effectiveness: this can be measured in several different ways, including running tests or assessments that generate a pass/fail rate for training programs.
HR Metrics in HR Service & Software
- Ratio of HR Professionals to Employees: the number of employees in the organization per HR professional on the HR team.
- Cost of HR per Employee: the total amount the organization spends on HR functions and services, divided by the total number of employees in the organization.
- HR Software Employee Participation Rate: the number of employees who actively use the organization’s HR software, divided by the total number of employees in the organization.