11 Essential metrics for Human Resources Management

HR plays a key role in organizational growth and is responsible for employee engagement, fulfilling workforce requirements, managing employee lifecycles, strengthening culture, and much more. But HR practices have gone through revolutionary changes during the outbreak. Old ideas have been challenged by evidence-based HR practices. HR strategies have to adapt to the changing situations quickly, battling trends like great reshuffling and scarcity of talent. Therefore, some key metrics need to be watched carefully as they can help to identify these kinds of trends in HR beforehand. Additionally, these can aid in the development of efficient countermeasures or help accommodate these changes.

Many HR, workforce, and employee lifecycle management solutions are integrating useful HR metrics into their real-time analytics and reporting options. According to a study, 82 % of the workforce is planning to change their job this year in India. So, HR management software in India is also available with comprehensive reporting capabilities, analytics, and alerts utilizing key HR metrics, and can help to optimize HR practices fatih escort considerably.

Here are some key metrics that need to be observed for effective HR practices:

Headcount

Headcount refers to the size of the workforce that an organization possesses. Though it sounds simple, HR, payroll, finance, or even the location, site, or divisional heads may differ when it comes to headcount. For instance, should the employees on sabbatical or long sick leave be included in the headcount, or what about the contingent workers, contract employees, and temporary staff?

They may have a different understanding of what constitutes the headcount, and if the headcount is wrong, other matrices can be correctly measured by the organizations. Moreover, if different departments and divisions are following different baselines for headcount, integrating metrics and reports will be difficult. It will lead to errors in outcomes and inaccurate forecasting. So, the HR software applications must have the features to include contingent staff. This will help them correctly predict the labor requirements and schedule the staff. Also, HR solutions can give a better understanding of the recruiting requirements and cost.

Employee Turnover

Another important metric that needs to be closely monitored by the HR team and management is employee attrition. Less than 10 % employee churn is considered normal, but more than that, or a sudden surge in employee turnover, needs to be investigated and countered immediately. For example, “great resignation” is a recent phenomenon during the outbreak where many employees left their jobs. The reason revealed a polar shift in the priorities of the employees. Later, it brought a great change in HR practices. Sometimes there are many employees leaving a particular role or parts of the business, such as the marketing or sales team, middle managers, or freshers. It means there may be some issues in the culture or the operation that needs to be addressed fast.

Past attrition data can also help to identify significant insights or trends pointing towards areas that need improvement. This data can help to understand who will leave the organization and why they leave. Therefore, organizations can act to prevent that or plan timely recruitment drives.

Flight Risk

Companies typically strive to retain their employees and identify those who are at higher risk of leaving the organization. Specific roles and employees are vital for an organization. So, management pays more attention to such employees and tries to measure the flight risk for these employees. The purpose is to identify how likely it is that they will leave the company. A performance management review and close interaction with their line manager or supervisor can help it significantly.

Try to understand if the employees are unhappy or disengaged. Are they often absent from work, or have they stopped putting in the extra effort? When do they get the last pay hike, or are their wages competitive enough against similar roles in the industry? Do they want to climb the ladder and express their willingness to take on more responsibilities? Are their goals in line with the organization’s goals? Do they feel valued? Remember, the priorities of the employees have changed. Now they prefer well-being and flexibility over higher compensation. So, empowered with the right HR management systems and performance management modules, management can collect correct data. Next, they can identify who is at risk and how to mitigate the risk using the information.

Changes in employee wages

Good wages and compensation are powerful motivators for both employee performance and retention. Employees are now only willing to stay with organizations where their careers will flourish, and salaries increase continuously. So, measuring the salary change can reveal employees who need a pay hike and also prevent the possible churn because of it. Better prediction of expenses for employee wages is also possible by monitoring this metric, and these data can help improve salary structures and compensation packages.

Vacancies

Often, it becomes difficult for the HR or recruiting team to get a handle on the current and future hiring needs. This hinders recruitment planning and leads to wastage of time and money. If the hiring team is in the loop and aware of the upcoming vacancies, they can streamline the hiring process better. HR professionals can obtain better rates from agencies or organize a recruiting event. Arrange the required technologies and other elements beforehand. A preselection survey through HR management software, ATS, or the recruiting solution is a great way to streamline the candidate selection process.

Time to Hire and Cost per Hire

Time to hire and cost per hire is very important metrics for recruitment and HR management. These two determine how successful your recruitment drive is and greatly impact organizational performance. So, it is essential to know the cost of filling each vacancy, and how long it takes to fill it. Also, try to figure out which routes recruiters take, and which channels are most successful. Finding the hidden expenses like time spent on screening resumes, interviewing, communicating with candidates, and more can also be very useful. It is not only hiring, but HR managers should keep a watch on how long it takes to onboard and train an employee, or how to speed up the process. Also, how these employees are performing will help HR managers review and understand how effective their candidate sourcing and hiring are. It will also indicate the improvement departments.

Absences

Employee absenteeism and tracking employee leave can reveal hidden behavioral patterns of the employees. Unplanned absenteeism costs organizations excessively. It can also mess up the workforce scheduling, affect the labor supply, and hit the productivity of the organization. Past leave data from leave management systems can help determine who may be reluctant to commute to the office and employees who are genuinely sick or in need of leave. These systems or HR management software with leave management tools offer to apply and approve leave with reports, incorporating the major metrics.

Employee Net Promoter Score

Employee Net promoter scores describe how satisfied employees are with their jobs and the company. Thus, regular pulse surveys are a great way to determine the eNPS and understand what is affecting employee experience. It asks employees how satisfied they are with their work and how likely they will recommend the company to their friends, family, and peers. If the outcomes are positive, it is safe to assume that employees are happy and content with their current roles. But if the scores are not positive, there is a need for further investigation. Conducting mood and sentiment surveys through HR management systems and combining these two can help HR and management leaders tap into critical employee insights. This business intelligence and insights will finally lead to more informed strategic HR and management decisions for employees.

Employee Performance

Establishing specific development and performance goals and chasing them through employee performance management help organizations grow, employees improve, and drive businesses in the right direction. Having a comprehensive picture of goals and working toward them puts one in a better position to assist others. If development planning is part of your organization’s performance assessments, HR must be aware of the recommendation, as well as be able to simply report on delivery and outcomes.

Compliance

A wide range of workplace concerns comes to HR’s attention. There will be essential data and numbers that HRs will need to know depending on the industry and business. One such example is health and safety. HR or management must know how many of their employees need mandatory training or crucial training. Can HRs readily track occurrences involving health and safety and find negative patterns? Who oversees risk assessment, and when was it last performed? These answers are critical for any business organization.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion

Robust diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives are critical HR decisions concerning employee growth and retention. HR can ensure proper representation of employees from various teams and backgrounds. Also, they must make sure all staff receive both fair pay and career opportunities by tracking and reviewing HR indicators like gender pay gaps, diversity ratios, and salary averages.

Organizations must demonstrate their commitment to establishing inclusive environments that celebrate diversity and provide opportunities for people from underrepresented backgrounds with real actions. The collected data through HR solutions in different regions, countries, and locations should be utilized to identify areas that need improvements or drive future initiatives in the right direction.

Wrap Up

 

Key metrics through actionable insights and rich reporting from HR management software will help transform the organizational processes making them resilient to changes help preparing them better for the future.