As a Human Resources professional, when you are asked to demonstrate the effectiveness of your HR initiatives, how do you respond? Are you able to quantify your efforts and prove that the work you’re doing contributes to the organization’s success? Is the HR department viewed as a department who costs money vs. saves money?
If you struggle answering any of the above questions, you may not have the necessary HR metrics in place to substantiate the true value of HR and may not be viewed as a valuable business partner. We all know that most of the company’s outgoing expenses lie in salaries and benefits. Because of this, it’s very important for HR to demonstrate solid metrics that help show the HR outcomes that offset these costs and support the organizational value of money and time spent.
HR metrics and measurements can be powerful in showing areas where there are strengths as well as opportunities to improve and better meet the needs of your organization. HR metrics measure the value of the time and money spent on HR activities in the organization. They can also help provide meaningful data to help you make good decisions for your business and department.
There are many HR metrics to choose from, all of which can provide insight into how the HR function is performing. Every organization is different so not every business will have the same metrics. It depends on your organization’s strategy, goals, objectives and overall vision. And, it is not good enough to just show the data - you must also analyze, benchmark, and apply the data to make improvements in defined developmental areas and solve problems that are costing your organization money and other resources.
Below are some common HR Metrics and basic formulas to measure results:
HR Metric - Formula
Absenteeism rate - Total days of absence in a month ÷ (average number of employees during a month)
Benefits as a percent of salary - annual benefits cost ÷ annual salary
Cost per hire - recruitment costs ÷ (number of new hires)
Time to hire - Average number of days between position vacancy and offer accepted
Tenure - Average number of years of service at the organization across all employees
Employee Turnover (annual) - Number of employees exiting the job during 12-month period ÷ average number of employees during the same period
Early Turnover - Number of employees leaving before 6 months
Turnover costs - 1.5 times the average employee annual salary
Employee engagement - Conduct employee survey
Diversity/EEOC metrics - If you have over 100 employees you will need to report your diversity numbers to the EEOC.
At The Bradley Partnerships, we can help you develop HR metrics to effectively measure the HR initiatives in your organization and create a HR dashboard as a visual to present to the executives in your organization. Please visit our website www.bradleypartnerships.com or contact us at info@bradleypartnerships.com.