What Are Human Resource Metrics?
Human Resource metrics, also known as HR metrics are certain measurements that are employed to assess and determine the value and effectiveness of human resource initiatives.
HR metrics are used to measure efficiency and indicate areas where improvements or adjustments should be made they are also vital in the decision making process of any establishment or organization. They are measurement standards by which human resources performance is assessed and the areas measured include training, human capital returns, labor cost, employee expenses, turnover, etc.
There is an endless list of HR metrics that can be used, but these measurements will be selected based on individual organizations strategy, goals and available data.
The basic HR metrics include:
• Costs per Hire: this tells a company how much it really costs to hire a new worker. It is calculated by….
• Revenue per Employee: it reveals how much each employee earns for a company
• Absence Rate: This gives the number of days a worker misses. It can also indicate employee satisfaction.
• Benefit Cost: this gives an overview of the costs of benefits package per employee.
• Satisfaction: this is more abstract and a little bit difficult to gauge. It defines how satisfied the workers in a company/organization are. Surveys are used to gather the information needed to asse4ss employee satisfaction.
• Turnover: this is a straightforward metric. It shows the number of employees that leave the organization within a given time.
• Tenure: this helps to show the average amount of time that employees have spent working for an organization
• Turnover Costs: this is one metric that springs surprises on many employers. It shows how much it costs an organization when it loses an employee based on vacancy costs, separation costs, new hiring costs, new training costs, etc.
• Workers Compensation: this is a pair of HR metrics that focuses on the number of incidences of workers compensation or the exact costs of workers compensation within a given time period.
• Time to Fill: this metrics highlights the efficiency or inefficiency of the HR department in measuring the time it takes them to fill a vacancy in an organization.
There are also HR metrics for specific purposes, for example:
• Recruitment Metrics: these include metrics based on vacancies, agency costs and search fee. Some organizations can also track the hiring manager’s satisfaction and the applicant’s satisfaction.
• Retention Metrics: these measurements are usually within a given time frame and they include retention rates, monthly/annual turnover rates and turnover costs. Organizations can also generate data from exit interviews
• Benefits/Compensation Metrics: this is related to money costs and so organization executives are always interested because they want maximum returns on employee investment. The metrics include compensation costs, benefit costs per employee, overtime, healthcare costs, etc.
• Culture and Diversity Metrics: The metrics here test the strength of an organization’s values by tracking diversity, race and gender efficiency and satisfaction. It tracks various diversity in the workforce, hiring, promotions, management and worker population mix.
• Productivity Metrics: it starts with a basic head count and includes metrics like employee productivity, labor costs and revenues per employee, etc, to assess the staffing and performance of an organization.
• Health/Safety/Sustainability Metrics: these are concerns in many organizations and include measurements for accident/ incident rates and cost per employee, safety violations, safety training expenses and recycling resourcefulness.
The list of HR metrics is endless. New metrics can also be generated based on an organization’s needs to gauge the effectiveness of its HR function and to track, measure and meet the unique needs of the organization.
Many HR managers take advantage of the easy-to-use metrics dashboard reports in Excel to create effective one-page HR metrics reports. Learn more about excel dashboards here