HR teams today have numerous key performance indicators (KPIs) they can track and measure to improve their recruitment, hiring, and retention efforts. With so many data analytics solutions available, it can be overwhelming for HR teams to know which metrics to prioritize.
Knowing your organization’s most important KPI in HR can not only help your team develop a smart recruitment and retention strategy but can also support employee well-being and performance. Use this guide to HR metrics to get inspiration for the top KPIs your organization should be tracking.
Top 5 Types of HR Metrics to Track
HR departments have dozens of trackable metrics that can indicate how well the department or organization is performing. It’s important for HR teams to narrow down the available metrics into valuable KPIs. The data distilled from these HR KPIs can help inform a company’s HR strategy.
Explore the below list of HR metrics to see which KPIs your HR team can target.
1. Reputation and Promotion Metrics
An organization’s reputation within the relevant talent pool is essential to recruitment and retention efforts. KPIs that reveal how well an organization is perceived and promoted are important HR metrics for recruitment.
Two of the best HR KPIs for measuring promotion and reputation are:
- Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) — The ratio between the percentage of employees who spread positive feedback about the organization compared to those who spread negative feedback.
- External ratings — How well your organization is rated on independent employer rating platforms, like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Career Bliss.
2. Employee Retention Metrics
HR teams need to both attract and retain excellent talent. By measuring employee retention metrics, HR departments can better understand how well their organization keeps good talent.
Top HR metrics for employee retention are:
- Employee retention rate — The percentage of your workforce that stays with your organization over a set period.
- Employee turnover rate — The percentage of employees who leave the organization within a certain timeframe.
- Voluntary vs. involuntary attrition — The difference in the number of employees who resign vs. those who are terminated or left due to uncontrollable factors.
You can also categorize employees who stay or leave by their teams, departments, or skill level to gain deeper insight into your organization’s possible strengths and weaknesses in recruiting.
3. Productivity and Development Metrics
HR departments need to gain an accurate sense of how well employees are performing and progressing in their careers. The following productivity and career development metrics are essential to building a thriving team:
- Employee productivity — How efficient or successful employees are in their roles or at achieving specific goals, depending on how the organization defines and measures productivity.
- Employee learning and development rates — The total number of new skills acquired or training programs completed over a fixed period.
- Career promotion rates — The average number of promotions per employee, department, or team.
HR departments can cooperate with department managers to measure the impact of career development and skills training on their team’s productivity and success rates.
4. Engagement Metrics
While productivity and retention metrics can paint a good picture of HR success, they don’t always provide a complete view of employee satisfaction.
A certain percentage of employees will always be driven to perform well despite being dissatisfied in their roles. That’s why HR departments also need to measure satisfaction and engagement levels on an individual employee level by using the following KPIs:
- Employee engagement — How well an employee feels that they align with and are motivated by the organization’s mission, vision, values, and overall conduct.
- Employee satisfaction — An employee’s personal positive or negative assessment of their contribution to their job role and the organization as a whole, also known as employee morale.
- Employee recognition rates — How frequently an employee is recognized for their efforts and the type of recognition they receive.
Employee engagement comes from a variety of possible sources. Some employees are motivated intrinsically by recognition, and their engagement levels may be determined by how well their efforts are rewarded. Learn more about how to measure employee engagement.
5. Employee Well-Being Metrics
In theory, healthy employees are productive ones. Thanks to employee well-being analytics tools, organizations can now measure a quantifiable relationship between employee health and success outcomes.
Some of the top employee well-being KPIs to keep track of include:
- Employee absenteeism — The rate at which employees are absent from work due to an unforeseen or unscheduled reason, such as sickness or stress.
- Burnout rates — How many employees experience burnout, how frequently, and the causes attributed to burnout, such as low morale or being overworked.
- Benefits and wellness program participation — The number of employees who enroll and fully participate in the organization’s benefits and wellness programs.
Over time, HR departments that track benefits participation rates may see a correlation between employee well-being and reduced absenteeism or higher performance metrics.
FAQs About HR Metrics
In addition to knowing which HR metrics to track, teams must also understand how to measure HR metrics and how to use data to improve KPIs.
Review the below FAQs about HR metrics.
How Do You Measure HR Metrics?
HR teams can obtain data from a variety of sources. Survey results can provide HR teams with both qualitative and quantitative data, particularly on individual employee feedback and attitudes.
With so many HR programs available today, teams can also collect data from analytics tools, such as hiring software or wellness platforms.
How Can You Improve KPIs in HR?
Improving KPIs in HR starts with sufficiently defining the type of talent the organization needs to fill specific roles. HR teams must also work with other department managers to train, develop, and grow employees so they continue to meet performance expectations and remain satisfied with their contribution to the organization.
HR teams that hire and retain the right people will find that they’re able to meet their KPI objectives.
What Is the Most Important HR Metric?
The most important HR metric in any organization is the one that defines and measures how well the HR team supports and contributes to the organization’s goals. Generally, this means that an HR team’s success hinges on how well it can recruit high-performing talent and retain that talent long-term.
However, since each organization has unique goals, the most important HR metric will be the one that contributes most directly to an organization’s success.
Reach Your HR KPI Goals With Employee Wellness Programs
With the right HR metrics and analytics tools, organizations can better define and achieve their hiring and retention key performance indicators. To better define and analyze powerful employee well-being metrics, organizations can leverage workplace wellness platforms.
Wellics is an employee wellness platform that helps employees optimize their personal health and well-being. Its comprehensive data analytics systems help organizations set and achieve their goals by boosting employee wellness. To learn more about how to make Wellics work for you, book your demo today.
Originally published October 19, 2022 - 6:41 AM, updated September 3, 2024
Sources
- https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/1017/pages/9-tips-for-using-hr-metrics-strategically.aspx
- https://dictionary.apa.org/involuntary-turnover
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8319625/
- https://www.hec.edu/en/news-room/impact-employee-health-and-wellbeing-company-performance
